ANTSTORE World of Ants

[LukeyG21]

I caught my first queen! Not sure of the species as of now. The only thing I had on hand at the time was a jar so I put her and a few workers in it with a wet cotton ball and then sat the jar in my room with some cloth put over it for darkness. I hope this works. If anyone has any tips on what I should be doing at this point I would greatly appreciate it. Also, when I have my farm ready to go should I just lay the jar in the foraging area until they are ready to move out? Thanks.

[miszt]

I'm assuming that the Queen is wingless..?

Yep just put the jar in the foraging area, depending on the species, the workers may or may not help setup the new nest...

[ford-ute]

i put my queen straight in the farm at first and she died but when i collected another i put her in a piece of 10 mm clear plastic tube with moist rag in both ends and now i have eggs

i caught 4 queens before i got one that laid any eggs so i would suggest catching a few more maybe 5 or so i have just got 10 queens and only 3 have laid eggs all kept in the same condition and none have wings so im not sure maybe some just arent well enough after their flight to produce eggs

[LukeyG21]

Yes the queen is wingless. However, she wasn't caught after a nuptial flight so it makes me wonder how old she is and whether or not it's a good idea to start a farm with her. If anyone has any advice I would appreciate it. Thanks. Oh, one more question. How exactly do colonies go about raising replacement queens? If nuptial flights are for starting new colonies, how does the colony where they came from get a new fertilized queen themselves?

[JimmyVe]

Hello Luke,

If i'm not mistaken, you captured the queen from an existing colony ? If this colony only has 1 queen they rest of the colony is going to die now... I know there are plenty of ants probably where you live but i prefer catching queens after a nuptial flight.

If a colony is big enough they produce males ore (and) queens. These fly out to have a nuptial flight, the old queen stays inside and lives on with the rest of the colony. A colony without a queen is doomed to die.

Now you captured the queen with a few workers, if you captured enough workers they will survive, but like you said, the change of the queen been old is big (if it was a bigger colony you took her from). If you capture a new queen she will live longer.

Best way, catch a queen after nuptial flight and keep here in a test tube (water/cotton/queen/cotton) and keep her in there until she has workers. If possible catch more than one queen, not all queens are strong enough to start a colony.




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[LukeyG21]

Yeah I guess I probably shouldn't have done that. I'm going to wait for the nuptial flights. They start soon anyway. Sorry, beginner's mistake.