ANTSTORE World of Ants

[anquietas]

hey do L. Flavus colonies stay polygenus? asking because i found 4 queens no joke 2 were together and 2 were single but i put all 4 of them together and now they wont leave eachothers sides there is only 1 worker that i found and its only about 1mm in length i am guessing that these are starting colonies but i am not for sure but the larva that are with them are also only 1mm long there were no other L. Flavus ants in the area so did i find a founding colony? and do they stay poloygenus and if i put those 4 queens in with another L. Flavus colony will that colony accept them? or if i put them with another starting colony that i have (no workers yet just 1 queen) will the 1 queen take well to the other 4? i have noidea what to do i dont want through the 4 new queens out but i relly have no space for them except were i alredy have a colony and also were i have a starting one plz help!!!!!!!

p.s. thank you ppl for answereing my endless ammount of questions

[tail__]

Lasius flavus aren't so small You must have found something else...

[anquietas]

like i said i think it is a starting colony because i know the queen is L. Flavus and the worker is a mini L. Flavus worker but if i am not mistaken arnt the very first workers a queen has relly small compaired to the 100th or so worker

[miszt]

1st Gen Lasius flavus workers are very tiny

It is possible that they are poly, but its only really been seen in cooperating mature colonies, see the link i posted a few days ago

[anquietas]

as of right now the 4 queens are cooperating completly (even looks like they are aeither feeding or cleaning oneanother) so what should i do with them like i said they are not fighting and they as well as the little worker are taking care of the larva i have them in a test-tubeish envermont oh and would a pre-killed worm work as a sorce of protein?

[JimmyVe]

We still don't know the species, maybe if you can post some (good) pictures. As long if they look happy, not killing each other, you could keep them in the same nest. Bet keep an eye on them.

[anquietas]

well how do u get a good pic my camra just gets relly fuzzy ones

[ashhad1]

use a magnifying glass, that works with mine but of course itl be no where near macro shots but good enough for a start to identify species

[anquietas]

ok so how do u get them out of there hole? (moved the queens from test tubeish envirment to a new one they just could not get confterible in there)

[miszt]

you dont, you leave them to move when they are ready to move, you can help them by creating a nest which is suitable for them

think about it, if they cant find somewhere better to nest, there must be something not quite right with your setup, so work on that, check things like damp/humidity, tempreture, darkness inside the nest, etc


sometimes you just have to wait, n wait a bit more....Ants are not a good hobby for impatient people lol

[ashhad1]

miszt i think he ment he moved the ants into a earth/sand farm or something and thats why he cant take photos of them since there hidden

but if im wrong then miszt is right

[anquietas]

ashhad1 is right and i know about the whole cant be impatient thing when trying to get ants to move

[anquietas]

is it possible to get a queen to stop fearing light? maby even thrive in it?

[ashhad1]

Well its possible, but really only when you keep them used to light right at the beginning. Such as keeping them in a test tube uncoverd etc...
If you let your queen live underground for a short time they developsomething which then makes them blind when exposed to light (not blind forever but they cant c when its light) I cant remember the scientific word for it.

But yes its possible and my lasius niger thrive in those conditions as i never let them get used to darkness. But then come questions if its right to do that because aybe its harmful in the longrun and not natural etc...

[anquietas]

you may be right but then again one of my queens about 30seconds ago layed an egg under a relly bright light wich brings me to my next question how do i feed my ants withouth them escaping? they are in an 8cm long RX bottle that is 3 cm in diamiter should i refirgate themlike you do with harverstar ants the you order for a farm? o and does antstore ship to the usa? o and another thing do you have to hibernate your ants or not jw?