ANTSTORE World of Ants

[Kiam]

Say like you have a lasius niger colony with 100 workers and your queen dies

I was curious if you could or might be able to do this

Put the dead queen in a test tube with another queen to make the other queen get its scent

Because I have heard that some species that kill queens from other colonies get accepted by getting the old queens scent...

[Pugberto]

Try it and see if it works, I'm not sure of this theory though.

[M.Marshall]

Hi ,
I doubt this would work , but if it ever happens to you ... which I hope not , you could try it.

Marshall

[JimmyVe]

Difficult to say, probably not but it could work for some species (Lasius niger i doubt, they are very aggressive, specially to other ants )

But if it happens it could be worth a shot, otherwise your hole colony is going to die.

[sithmaster676]

the only way i could see this happening is if u literally smeared the dead remains all over the other queen, you could also try placing a fine metal mess between a queen and a colony so that the workers can slowly adapt to the new queen this might not work but i have heard cases where it has
Sithmaster676

[Kiam]

heh I think ill try xD if i lose my queens in a colony

[miszt]

the scent is not just on the exoskeleton of the ant, it is produced by glands, and simply rubbing the dead queen or sitting them together is not going to transfer the complex chemical signals from one to the other, from what i've read, its all about getting the workers used to the new scent, and eventually accepting it, one idea, pherhaps, would be to keep the queen close to the workers, but seperated by a thin wall of matirial that will allow the scent to be picked up, and eventualy got used to

[JimmyVe]

Still, there is only a small change they accept a new queen, but like i said, if you queens dies in a colony of about 100 workers it is worth a try. And if it works for you it nice, but that doesn't mean it would work for everybody.

[sithmaster676]

it depends on the colony a colony like formica fusca is easily winnable because there is a species commonly known as slave raiders which kills Formica fusca queen and takes over there colony by rolling in the juices of the dead queen.
sithmaster676

[miszt]

Formica fusca steal brood from other colonys by infiltrating nests, they dont kill any of the other ants, where did you read about them rolling in the juices of the dead queen? (i've never heard of an Ant rolling even lol) that would be pointless, in a way Slave Raiders are parastic, and to kill the queen would be unbenifical to their colony

[sithmaster676]

no when a slave raider queens is mated a leaves the nest she trys to find the nearest formica fusca colony this is when she kills the queen and maybe not rolls lol but smears the internal juices on herself i have seen this happen and it works the workers then adapt to her new smell believing its there old queen and now she has a large a,mount of workers to care for her brood.
Sithmaster676

[JimmyVe]

Formica Fusca steal brood from other colonys by infiltrating nests

Not Formica fusca but Formica sanguinea steal brood from other colonies. sanguinea steals from species like fusca.

[sithmaster676]

yeah because formica fusca are a really timid species even though lasius niger workers dwarf them in comparison.
Sithmaster676

[miszt]

sorry, my mistake

[JimmyVe]

@ sith: you mean Lasius niger keep Formica fusca workers as slaves ? Never heard of that one. Don't think they to that.

@ miszt: no problem.