ANTSTORE World of Ants

[addictive6]

Hello to all.
I just bought Myrmica rubra colony 25-50ants from Antstore Berlin before 1 week. They have moved from the test tube to theyr nest in shop/starter-sets-for-ants-antfarm/starter-kits---farm-basin/ANTSTORE-Starter-Set-farm-basin-20x10.html but i have some issues I've notised that from the newborn ants there are atleast 4-5 males? As far as i know this is not very good. I'm keeping 70% humidity about 23 degrees and feeding them with small mosquitoes and flies.

[TheSecretSquirrel]

are they winged males? Or have you mistaken workers?

[addictive6]

Winget ones, black with smaller heads than the workers and the queen.

[TheSecretSquirrel]

Pretty sure that's a bad sign as the male's come from unfertilized eggs. If your queen is still raising workers, I guess the males will just sit around and eat food :/

[Sojave]

They could be mixed up through the transport.
These eggs are sometimes used as food on purpose. How big is the colony?

I have forgotten which species it was, but the males and queens behave like worker. Was Myrmica rubra on of them? As long as you have got some worker from eggs, which were layed after the arrival at your place, its not dramatic.

Its not a good thing, but not a desaster either.

[addictive6]

I'ts hard to count them becouse they are in their nest, but approximately 40 to 60 workers.
But the thing is that for example from the last 10 pupae, 3 were males the others were normal workers. So I guess that meybe its from the transport and I hope that they will stop making them just becouse right now I dont know how many new males they have made maybe 10 maybe 0 I'm not sure I'm just seeing some times the 3 winget ones when they are eating.

[Catman1976]

The queen was maybe taken from a large established colony. I took 4 queens with some workers from a huge colony and some of the eggs have developed into male flying ants, i am not worried in the slightest, quite cool seeing a few of these in the colony. They wont make that much of a drain on the colony, they might show the workers some sexual interests in the future, but from what i understand the colony will get rid sooner or later or the kings will die.

[addictive6]

Hello I just want to say that now my colony is going very good and there are many eggs and larvas and the ants are very active after i bought heater. So at day time its about 25-26 degreese and night i turn it off and it drops about 22. So here are some pictures.

[SigHunter]

do you cover the whole formicarium to make the nest darker or are they permanently exposed to light like in the pictures?

[Sojave]

I dont think, that this combinationnest is darkened from both sides. Maybe the outsideplate, but not the insideplate. The sand next to it, doesnt show signs from something stuck there. Ah, cant discribe it in english. I think you know what i mean from my german posts

[addictive6]

Just have red foil at the back side but even when if I remove it they still look comfortable the only time when they panic is when I water their sand.
So yes they are exposed to light but they doesnt look like they mind it. But for winter I will put them in a box and right in the basement it will be like 10-12 degrees in there or meybe even in the fringe.

[SigHunter]

i usually try to darken the whole nest (both sides) because otherwise mine don't dig next to the glass and they'll leave the glas covered with sand