3 replies to this topic

[LIFEsize]

I have an invicta colony that numbers in the thousands. The queen seems to lay alates, but the colony shortly kills them off and I'm not sure why?

My colony is housed in an Ants Canada hybrid mini nest with an ants Australia size medium outworld and a 1 gallon grout outworld I made a while back. I have a AC Selenopsis nest ready for them, but am waiting for the right opportunity to give them the extra nesting space. Its filled with gravel, mosses, and soil in different areas.

I feed them a mix of meal worms, dubias, and supers. For surgars, I supply honey water, nectar, fruits, and jellys. Sometimes I give them crumbs of stuff like cookies.

I really don't bother the colony at all except for feeding and looking into their nest a couple times a week. I think I am doing everything right so far, but I admit I didn't feed them much during the fall to early winter season and just in the past few weeks I have begun to feed more often in hopes of growing the colony. As a result of this the queen looks much healthier.

So I was wondering if perhaps the fasting I had them doing would trigger them to off the new alates. On the other hand I don't give them substrates to build their nest with except for the bits of sand they find in the grout nest. Soon that will change when I give them the new hybrid nest. Could it also be perhaps that they need more space. I didn't think that alates would be killed on site by their own colony..

What do you guys think?

[RushmoreAnts]

I believe your theory may be valid, although this issue does not concern the colony's health at all. In fact, we absolutely do not want any more RIFA alates around. The only reason why ants waste their valuable resources on queens and males that don't even do anything but consume more food is because it's instinctual to reproduce. The colony doesn't need them, and they don't breed in the nest.

[Enderz]

alates take food and space.

[Martialis]

I say DON'T. We don't need more S. invicta flying around.