ANTSTORE World of Ants

[charles17]

i found a strange behavior in some ants i caught
when they find an ok place to make a colony, they moved a bunch of workers, larvae, and even a couple queens to the site.
the queens were wingless, but i dont think they were mated because they didnt come from a nuptial flight- they just moved to the site when the ants went there for some reason... does anyone know if they were mated or not? cuz they dont have wings... suggesting that they are mated... this ant species (im not sure what it is actually) but theyre a tiny variety found everywhere in southern california in the usa. the workers are about 2 mm or less and the queen was about 4 mm.

on a related note- i have another question. say you find such a collection of ants. if you chill them to relax, then force them into an ant farm by knocking them in... will they recover and establish a colony or will they be traumatized and not go on with their lives? thanks

[rosswilson]

chill them for about 10 to 15 minutes then they will be sleepy and not moving much then you can move them anywher you want and they will be fine i go out and catch about 20 quennsplus workers from a colonys i split the queens into 5 put them in seprate tubes and put some workers to go with the colony in separate tube chill them for 10 minutes i add the tubes together and put the 1 tube back in for a further 5 minutes and ther we have it a new colony consisting of about 5 queens and 25 workers and somtime they do fight but out of all the times i have done that only 1 has been agresive out of about 50 i only do that will L.N and M.R but it always works and the queens fell more confterble and lay right away

Hope that helps

[Gravitate]

By L.N do you Mean Lasius Niger? You do introduce queens from differant colonies by chilling them and they dont fight when they wake up? So u have a colony of L. Niger With multiple queens when they are supposed to be a mongynous species? I thought of doin this with M.R (Myrmica Rubra?) but still doughted it would work but I didn't think for 1 min that it would work with L. Niger. How long have you had the colony with multiple queens now? Have they Killed each other off yet?

[rosswilson]

i have had them for almost a year now and still going strong with 6 queens

[Gravitate]

And ur certain that they are lasius niger? Just to make clear... You did this by chilling both parties and putting them 2gether while chilled?