ANTSTORE World of Ants

[stankenhar]

I have a lasius Niger Queen with quite a few workers and I'm thinking that this year I might collect a mated Queen and start another seperate colony, what I need to know is that if I keep her in a test tube with cotton wool, what is the liquid made of that sits behind the cotton wool that she feeds on whilst laying the first eggs, I assume it isn't only water, does someone have the recipe? and would this be the same for the british red ant ?

[tail__]

The claustral queens do not eat anything at all before raising workers. They need only water.

[Zagone]

In other words, yes, it's only clean water behind the cotton.

[McK]

The claustral queens do not eat anything at all before raising workers. They need only water.

Yes they do, if you offer her a fly or some honeydew she'll gladly eat it.

[tail__]

OK I know, I only say they don't eat anything in natural claustral cell, so it is not necessary to feed them.

[McK]

You're right about that, in nature they rely on their fat reserves