ANTSTORE World of Ants

[AndyB]

i recently bought a colony of Myrmica rubra from steveuk which are doing fine at the moment with around 1 queen and 13-15 workers. i noticed that a queen unfortunatly died during transport and some workers had dragged it into the ytong. A while later they had it in the otherside of the ytong and ever sine they have just dragged it everywere in there not taking it out, they are also trying to hide it in little gaps. I cant explain this, dose anyone know what they are doing because its kinda disturbing lol had the colony for a while now, over a week

[JimmyVe]

Can't explain why they are trying to hide the dead queen but with this ant species you can introduce a new queen to the colony without much problems.

[AndyB]

yeh thanks, they have taken it out now and burried it under the sand loam, very interesting to watch must thank steve again

[SteveUK28]

all good mate.. just hope they make a good colony for you.. Il remember to knock something off the price next to you have any ants off me for the queen that died.. i am sorry about that bud.. as jimmy says tho.. you could reintroduce another queen or two fairly easily.

[AndyB]

yeh its all good its not like they are not eating, they are showing very good sings and they have hidden their eggs in the tube.

[weiland]

Which is the safest way to introduce new queens?

[SteveUK28]

during hibernation when the colony is less active. However if you have a small colony now in a small setup you could always put it in the fridge for 10 mins and then put the new queen/queens in... Other than that.. its hope for the best.. But Myrmica are pretty good, my colony excepted a new queen with no probs.

[weiland]

I guess you have to make sure they are really the same species? Introducing a Myrmica ruginodis queen in a M. rubra nest has got to be difficult.