ANTSTORE World of Ants

[mzfckr]

i heard that, if the quuen dies or if they are just moved from quuen(workers) they forget their quuen and can addopt any quuen from their species.

so if i have a c. ligniperda quuen with 10 workers and i take 10more workers from garden.keep garden workers with food and without quuen three or more weeks.then add garden ants to my quuen with 10 workers,they will accept them?
and how long a c.ligniperda worker lives?

sorry for bad english!

[KiamCameron]

On some cases they accept but its quite rare and i would of thought ligniperda workers live to a year or so...

[mzfckr]

are there other ways to boost a colony?

[KiamCameron]

Yes some species accept cocoons from other species and colonies I put a lasius niger cocoon with my lasius flavus colony and it was accepted and it hatched

[miszt]

Coccons are the best way to do this, if you must however add workers, I recomend that you add them one at a time, 10 workers could easily kill your queen, also I recomend that you put them in the fridge for half an hour before adding them, then leave them in the fridge for an hour or so, usually this is enough to supress any agression, however be prepared for casulties, and if adding one causes problems, certianly dont attempt to add more

[JimmyVe]

Why would you boose your colony ? I don't get it, it could be useful is some rare cases (like when most of the workers died from a young colony). Don't do this if you just want your colony to grow faster. Be patient with your ants.

Still if it is necessary it is better to give them cocoons from the same species.

[ratgreen]

so are cocoons better for boosting instead of larvea or eggs?

[JimmyVe]

Eggs will be eaten ore they will just leave them, also larva ore not accepted (rare cases maybe) best way is just to give them cocoons from the same species. But like i said, you don't need to do this, if the colony is healthy they will grow just fine without boosting them.

[miszt]

larva and eggs will be eaten

but i have to agree with Jimmy, ant colonies are all about patience

[ratgreen]

indeed, i dont need to do this anyways.

[tail__]

i heard that, if the quuen dies or if they are just moved from quuen(workers) they forget their quuen and can addopt any quuen from their species.

This is usually true. If you want to add new queen to old colony without queen, you can increase the chances of success by cooling the ants (both colony and queen) for a few hours. There is still no guarantee of success, but most ants will accept the new queen this way.

[badman]

to answer jimmy, i would boost a colony purely because seeing one type of ant working for another type of ant is weird and interesting to me.

[miszt]

Check some of the slave robber species like Formica sang

[Ehx-ray]

Exactly, you can give Formica sanguinea cocoons of every serviformica species. They won't be eaten.
It's interesting to watch colony made of for example 5 different species of workers.
In my colony i have only Formica fusca "slaves" , but in this summer I will try to boost it with F.cunicularia, F.cinerea and maybe F.lemani

(sorry for my english:))

[JimmyVe]

Yes if you have a bit of experience you could try to keep some Fromica sanguinea they keep other species as there slaves. Really nice ants and that way you have an excuse to boost your colony.

@ Ehx-ray :Hello and welcome, your English isn't that bad.