8 replies to this topic

[Foogoo]

Has anyone tried this? If you were to include a few (~5) workers with a founding queen in a test tube, would they assist her with tidying up the nest and caring for the brood? Or do founding queens expect to be alone?

[antmaniac]

When I tried this, the introduced workers would attack the queen. I guess they treat her as another food for their colony. To be safe, you may want to try brood boost (pupae etc) instead.

[dean_k]

Every queen has different scent. And workers accept only one kind of scent. If it's different, it's an enemy to them.

 

The only way it could work is where workers you want to introduce are from the same nest. To be safe, you need to add pupae which will accept the queen's scent upon eclosing.

[Foogoo]

Maybe I didn't phrase it correctly. Say I were to witness a flight from a colony and catch one of the queens but also include a few workers from that nest they flew from. So they're from the same nest, but would they work together or just annoy/eat each other?

[dspdrew]

My Pogonomyrmex tenuispinus colony included three of the queen's sisters. They all got along great.

 

Also, about introducing workers to a queen... I have put a few workers in with a different queen quite a few times. Usually after a bit of fighting they got used to each other and all became family. I have done this with Pogonomyrmex and Myrmecocystus quite a few times. These have always been workers from another one of my colonies that lost their queen, so they were nanitics and smaller than usual. The workers were too small to really do much damage to the queen, and the queens seem to be too uncoordinated and slow to do any real damage to the workers. I think I have lost a few workers before doing this, but I can't remember ever losing a queen. Adding workers to a colony that already has workers does not work very well though. They usually end up ripped to pieces. I have done it though with Pogonomyrmex and Veromessor, but the success rate is pretty low. It seems if they can endure the fighting for a day or so, they'll be fine.

[Crystals]

It really depends on the species.

If you are sure the queen came from that nest than introduce one worker to check.  If they do fine, then you can add more.

 

In several species you can add workers from other colonies.  Such as drew's example.  Some species that are polygyne usually can do it.

With other species, it can be hard to even introduce a barely emerged callow worker.

 

Boosting with pupae from the same species is fine.  They cost the queen nothing to look after them until they eclose.

[Alza]

As far as pogonomyrmex californicus, they don't care at all. Dorymyrmex insanus attacked the queen, well the first wave did. The second wave didn't care. Brachymyrmex, and Technomyrmex don't care. that's all I've tried so far .-. i left out linepithema, cause i thought that was obvious. 

[Foogoo]

As far as pogonomyrmex californicus, they don't care at all. Dorymyrmex insanus attacked the queen, well the first wave did. The second wave didn't care. Brachymyrmex, and Technomyrmex don't care. that's all I've tried so far .-. i left out linepithema, cause i thought that was obvious. 

 

Were these from the same or different colony?

[Alza]

Different.