Hi.
Today I was able to get more workers from the original colony that I caught my queen from. I've done this before, and that's how I was able to reach about 30 workers so fast. I used an old method of mine (find a foraging tube, use a plastic bag to scrape the dirt into a ziplock bag) and I got maybe 20 or so new workers (maybe 3 soldiers, 15 minors, and 1 male alate? I couldn't count). I refrigerated them (and the dirt they came in) and poured that into the outworld of my Pheidole colony. First, all of the resident pheidole poured out of the nest. That had never happened before, so I was worried. The newly caught majors went berserk and one major started attacking a minor (which was one of the minors from the newly caught nest). They all were running around for quite a while. Eventually, all the minors went into the nest, even the newly caught ones. The majors and the alate were still in the outworld. Eventually, for some reason, the minors pushed the queen out. The majors went and started to guard the queen, and the workers pushed the male alate to the queen. I don't know if the workers were trying to get the queen to mate, but the male broke free and ran into the nest. Then all of the workers (and queen) went back into the brood chamber and there were no ants in the outworld. Well, almost none. They had left a callow out. The callow is just sitting there. I wonder if its trying to harden its exoskeleton.
Sadly, the male alate died. I don't know why.
Has this ever happened to any of you guys?
