ANTSTORE World of Ants

[Trip33]

Hi, I had 2 questions i would appreciate answered. I had received a "gel colony" for christmas and i was wondering if that was any good for my new lasius niger queen that i collected in teh summer of 2008.

And the second question is, When i first collected my lasius niger queens i had 2. i put them 2gether for a bit until i was told to seperate them. however, i left all the eggs with one queen and the 2nd one didnt seem to lay anymore. then tragically the first queen with all the eggs somehow didnt make it and now i was wondering if i were to put the 2nd queen with no eggs with the eggs will she be able to take care of them? and how long before eggs become adults?

[Ant mad]

i think alot of people on here will say don't use gel farms.
but as for adding them eggs back with the 2nd queen should be fine, so i would if you can.
and i think it is about 8weeks if conditions are right.
hope this helps

[Trip33]

anything helps. thanks buddy!

=>edit Mod
Post from 1:24 am
oh and why are poeple against using the gel farms?

[tail__]

Because they aren't suitable for keeping ants alive.

[Trip33]

how so?

[SteveUK28]

Well to start with they are not big enough. Then the Jelly is just not enough for them to live off.. and then lastly it would be like you trying to walk in a very large pot of hair gel!! They are just not good! End of.. so either A. Throw it away, B. Take it back. C. give it a dam good wash out.. and use it as PART of a real ant farm.

Now i have covered how really bad Gel Farms are.. Welcome to the forum, and the wonderfull world of ant keeping. If you have not done so already move the alive queen in with the eggs. Make sure she has water, and offer her some food. If they are all in hibernation.. which im assuming they should be.. then your not gonna see any workers now till spring.

But saying that.. u said u caught them in the summer... Now if you have no workers now.. then im thinking there is a very good chance them queens are not fertilized.. cos by now.. you should have a fair few workers.. i believe the colony i caught in the summer has around 20-30 workers now.

Anyways...

Best wishes and all the Best!!!

[Trip33]

wow really.... so non fertalized queens can lay eggs? thats a bummer...
and can you explain how the ant hibernates because this queen is still moving around.
lastly i just realised that antstore doesnt ship colonies outside of uk. im from canada so would there be any chance of me getting my hands on a messar barbarus colony?

[JimmyVe]

Hello Trip33 and .

I think Steve covered most i wanted to say (thanks bud )

Normally middle European ants (and for you native ants) keep a hibernation period, its a period queens don't lay eggs and ants stay inside of there nest for a few months.

It seems like you are new at keeping ants so i would suggest to make it work with these ants first before you think of getting a new one. The species you are referring to are a bit harder to keep.

Good luck.

[Trip33]

okay so if the queen doesnt lay any eggs does taht mean she will not take care of the batch that she has right now? and should i put her into a cooler area since she "should" be hibernating? shes currently in room temperature. and the eggs that the queen has had were from a few months back... should these eggs take this long to hatch or is there something wrong with them???
and i was just curious about the messor barbarus just wondering if it was possible for someone in canada to get a colony
and lastly im not that new to this forum either lol jimmy you gave me advice on my lasius queen few months back
BUT MUCH THANKS AND LOVE FOR THE HELP!!!

[JimmyVe]

Ah okay, i hope it was good advice.

Well this is hard to tell, could be she would take care of the eggs but if she is not fertilized she can not produce new workers and your colony will die of soon. She should be in hibernation but i don't think it is a good idea now (don't get my wrong, normally she needs hibernation). Put her in with the eggs, keep her at room temperature and feed her a bit. She what she does and hopefully everything works out.

[Trip33]

ahhhhhhhhhhhh i have to wait another year for the nuptial flight

so can anyone answer my question about the barbarus colony

[SteveUK28]

basicaly NO.. it is illegal to ship ants to the US.

[tail__]

I'm sure you can find a lot of interesting native species. E.g. carpenter ants (Camponotus) are much more common in Canada than in Europe, and they are great to keep, being so big and semi-intelligent. I would always advise to keep native species first, even where importing exotics is legal. It is amazing how interesting can be a colony of the common species which you always saw everywhere. I keep Lasius niger, the most commom "pavement ant" in northern Europe, for about 18 months, and they are always able to invent something new to bring my attention.