ANTSTORE World of Ants

[Bob]

I'm happy to let you guys know that I carefully removed the queen ant out of the gel formicarium. I took all the gel out of the formicarium, cleaned it and put a sponge dipped in sugar, then I put the queen back in the empty formicarium for the night so I could get test tubes the next day. As soon as she gorged on the sugar watered sponge she started laying eggs. The same evening I also found another fire ant queen who was the same size as the first but fatter and stouter. I also fed her the same solution and she also started laying eggs. The next morning I put both of them in indvidual test tubes and am happy to inform everyone that both queens have begun nesting (laying eggs and caring for their brood). I really hope they make it through this arduous process where they barely eat yet still feed their larvae. I am most worried about the first queen I found as she does not appear to have as much body fat as the second but I am watching them and will be putting in a bit of cotton dipped in more of the sugar/honey water solution in a few days though I'll susped it instead of dropping it in.

I wanted to ask, how long before their eggs can be expected to turn into worker ants? Anyone have an idea? Also is it advosible to check on the test tubes during this time or does it disturb the ants and cause them to abandon their nesting process?

Thanks to all of you for your opinions. My first and foremost aim has always been to rescue queen ants and I think I'm going to continue with my mission for the rest of my life.

[Kiam]

I believe fire ant eggs take one month I saw on a program

[Bob]

Thanks for the information Kiam. I have en emergency. The checked closer and found that the first queen (the one which was in the gel formicarium) still doesn't have any eggs. She did lay two eggs in the process of transportation but I tried to collect them with a small piece of tissue and dropped that into the test tube. I dont know if she found them again as she still does not have a brood pile. Can anyone mail me fire ant brood(no ants) or brood of a similar species which the queen can adopt. Poor thing is weakened and at this stage that is the only option left of saving her life. Anyone have a littl ebrood they can spare?

Also is it ok to put a few tiny sugar grains/crystals into her test tube. will she devour them?

[MilitANT]

Bob: Fire Ants are vicious but prolific ants. It should be easy to dig them up and capture brood from an established nest. This is the easiest option for you, especially if there are fire ant nests in your neighborhood. Imagine if someone mails you brood and they hatch on the way there!

I believe you should feed the Queen a syrup/egg yolk mixture and after four hours remove the food and place her in her test tube. Then do not disturb her. She will lay when she is good and ready. A lot of Queens refuse to lay and then die. There's no way to tell who is fit to raise a colony. And it takes about a month for the first workers to appear.

[Bob]

We had a fire ant hill a few years ago since then most of the ants in the area have been killed by pest control agencies. I will keep looking. What if, by some quirk of nature she isn't a fire ant. Will she accept the brood and will the brood (upon hatching except her? If she is a fire ant (which I'm 99 percent sure she is) will she accept brood from another small ant species? Btw if you find fire ant brood please do let me know. I'm worried about this queen ant. she's had a raw deal from the start...with her leg being amputated and everything.

[MilitANT]

Bob: Your Queen will not accept the brood of another species. If she is a imported fire ant Queen she might (strong emphasis on MIGHT lol) accept the brood of a native fire ant colony. There are no fire ants where I live. If there were, I would send you some brood so you could have some peace of mind. I know how stressful it is. But Bob if you have a Queen there must be at least two other colonies nearby. Try to find them. One hot days they bring their brood and their Queen closer to the surface. I know several people who captured Fire Ant Queens with little trouble.

Your best bet though is to feed her a bit of food and place her in the test tub. All you can do then is pray for the best.

[Bob]

The problem with standard test tubes is that I wish they were a little longer. I didn't fill the test tubes half way with water (because I've known people that have had drowning experiences with that). I put in a little water and stopped it up with a sponge (which soaked up a lot of the water). Now I'm afraid the test tube water will dry up before the first workers arrive. Though more water would only increase the chances of the sheer weight of it popping open the sponge or escaping through it and drowning the hapless new queen and her brood.

What do you think of the idea of linking both test tubes once enough workers have hatched in both. Do you think they will start killing each other? I know they will be two different colonies at that stage so it's highly possible. By the way, where can we get material to link test tubes her ein the U.S?

[JimmyVe]

about putting the 2 queens together. Depends from species to species. I have no experience with Fire ants so i'm not sure about that species. Most species i know i works until there are workers, if the workers come out the queens will fight until one of them is dead (if you are lucky the other one in not damaged bad and she will survive) but some species have more than one queen in a colony so for this species it would not be a problem. (i think Fire ants only have 1 queens in a colony)

If one tube dry's out, connect it to another tube that is still filed with water.

[Bob]

Thanks for the advice Jimmy. I plan to connect the tube to a larger testtube(for the second queen) once there are workers.

By the way this website ( Hyperlinks sind nur für registrierte Nutzer sichtbar ) says fire ant colonies have more than one queen and that some have up to 100. Going by this website, if one queen produces workers and the other one doesn't, do you think it would be ok to put the first queen in with the second queen and her colony? Or do you think they would still treat the first (legless) queen as a foriegner and attack her?

[MilitANT]

Thanks for the advice Jimmy. I plan to connect the tube to a larger testtube(for the second queen) once there are workers.

By the way this website ( Hyperlinks sind nur für registrierte Nutzer sichtbar ) says fire ant colonies have more than one queen and that some have up to 100. Going by this website, if one queen produces workers and the other one doesn't, do you think it would be ok to put the first queen in with the second queen and her colony? Or do you think they would still treat the first (legless) queen as a foriegner and attack her?

Fire Ants some times have more than one Queen per colony. It's starting to be very common to see several Queens (more than two) in a nest. It's best to start the colony by having two or more mated Queens begin a nest together rather than risk introducing a new Queen to an already established nest.

A test tube with just a bit of water is perfectly fine. Concentrate on getting the Queen to survive till her first workers arrive.

[Bob]

Well i have two queens(in two test tubes)...one with eggs...one without. I dont want to merge them yet but my question being, will it be ok to merge them once the second one's eggs turn to workers? (Which I anticipate will be in about a month).

Thanks again for your thoughts and advice. A second opinion always helps.

[mpir]

@Bob

Eggs don´t turn into workers. I think you know this. Eggs first turn to larvae and then larva turns either to pupae or cocoon - and from this stage it turns into worker.

If you´d like to merge queen without brood with some workers I don´t think it would work. Queen and worker ant would fight and one would end up dead - most likely the worker. If you want to do what you plan to do then you must merge queen with some last stage brood. Give the queen a cocoon or two and when they hatch she will accept the new workers and workers will accept her. But I wonder if it would make sence do to this as the queen is not laying any eggs.

[Bob]

Eggs don´t turn into workers. Wink I think you know this. Eggs first turn to larvae and then larva turns either to pupae or cocoon - and from this stage it turns into worker

mpir trust me by saying eggs turning into workers I meant the entire process.

Anyways I will see if I can give her a pupae or two. It's not that she doesn't lay eggs. She does but she only layed two (in the previous setting before I moved her into the test tube). Its that she's not layed after that which Im hoping she will and of course there is a possibility she might not because she doesn't eat regularly (though I have tried feeding her on occasion, now's the time to leave her alone for a bit). Thanks for the thoughts and advice

[MilitANT]

I had one Tetramorium Queen in a test tube. She would not lay eggs for several days. I caught a second Tetramorium Queen later and put her in with the first Queen. They both have a huge mound of eggs together. I think the presence of the second Queen caused the first to lay eggs. The same might work for you!

[Bob]

From what you write, it almost seems like the process of going into an egg laying cycle is chemical so that even if a fertile queen isn't laying, her coming into contact with another fertile queen that IS laying causes her to also go into an egg laying cycle. Highly interesting. I could put her into the other test tube with the queen that has layed eggs however I'm afraid as to how the broodless queen will be received by the other egg laying queen. The poor thing is already missing a leg but let's see what i can do. The point is that she survives. Anyways Thanks!