ANTSTORE World of Ants

[Lareon]

my Camponotus queen died on sunday and i'm not too sure why really.

she had a very large amount of brood, about 15 workers from the 4 i started with,about 15 pupae and tons of eggs, ate regular food, they were consuming a meal worm every day pretty much and a few mosquitoes here and there, no mold in the chamber at all. water available and honey water mix.
they have a very gentle 7 watt heat mat on the side of the tank.

habitat was a glass tank with sand loam, and some wood/ stones on top for them

food was always sterilized before hand to avoid mites

i'm not too sure what I've done wrong but also not too sure what to do with the ants that are now left in the tank. i wont release them obviously, do i leave them to die?

also i'm interested in trying again but obviously don't want another queen to die if the fault was with me.

do you guys have any idea of anything i could have missed?

she's the only one to die, no other ants have died since i got them.

could i introduce a new queen to continue where she left off?

[AntsNational]

.... How did you 'sterilize' the food? My condolences... IF you find a queen of the same species you can always try to offer her the UNHATCHED brood (eggs, larvae, pupae, even possibly callows) but for workers I don't think this is a great idea.


Cheers,
Vasi

[Lareon]

I Boiled the meal worms and then they were kept in the freezer in a tub. then when i fed them took one out and let it defrost.

[AntsNational]

How moist is the nest?

[Lareon]

the nest would be dripped with water every week until water seeped down, there would be 2 grades, where the heat mat was it was very dry (a visible square) to the side of that would be moist. condensation would form on the top of the glass lid. the moistness of the nest was one of the only things i haven't been too sure on the best solution so i tried to make a choice. one area dry, one area moist.

the queen seemed to prefer to live in the dry area where the heat mat was, but she had access to the other side which was moist.

for future reference what is the best moistness to keep this type of ant?

on a side note i have a new queen in a test tube, she accepted all of the old queens brood and pupae. i didn't try to introduce the adults they are living in a separate tank now.