ANTSTORE World of Ants

[sianhilton]

Received 3 workers & Queen (Tetramorium Caespitum) from Ant Store in September the queen appeared this week but no sign of workers. After closer inspection could not find any of the workers, assumed they died?

I have moved the queen from the ant basin to a couple of petri dishes joined by a tube and put them in the airing cupboard.

Any tips so as make sure she survives and has a successful colony i,e some kind of claustral cell.

Regards

[JimmyVe]

That is why i recommend keeping young colonies in a tube, better to watch them, move them into a farm if they have enough workers.

If you could put the queen in a tube that would be good, give her some small insects because she probably used all of the reserves she had left.

Hope she will have new workers soon. (Is there any brood ?)

[sianhilton]

Hi Jimmy

Unfortunately no brood.
I have transferred her into a pair of petri dishes joined together with tube.
One side contains a claustral cell (Damp cotton wool strip) with a small amount of fine earth. The dish with the containing the claustrel cell has had 4 small air holes drilled. The other contains nothing but food a dead fly and some brown suger.

My only concern if this would be to damp as I heard Tetramorium prefer dryer conditions to say Lasius Niger.

I this ok?

[JimmyVe]

Do you have a picture of that setup ? I think it should work.

[sianhilton]

I have the image but unsure how this can be done?
Tried to down load as file but message says unable to attach file of this size.

Can help a novice?

Regards

[mzfckr]

maybe try host it on Hyperlinks sind nur für registrierte Nutzer sichtbar and gives us the link

[sianhilton]

Here goes:-

Hyperlinks sind nur für registrierte Nutzer sichtbar

[JimmyVe]

Seems fine, yes.

You also could make your picture smaller.

[sianhilton]

Update

The queen made a brief visit into the claustrel cell area but for the majority of the time she spends most of the time in the connecting tube area.

She occasionally visits the petri dish containing a dead fly and Brown sugar and tucks into the fly.

She has also put in place a barrier of earth between a the entrance of the claustrel cell and the connecting tube.

Currently residing in the airing cupboard where it is 25 degrees C

When can I expect to see any brood?

[JimmyVe]

Brood (eggs) should be visible in 1-3 weeks (normally).