5 replies to this topic

[RacRmt]

I have a lasius colony that's got around 300 to 400 workers. For the past few weeks I've noticed around 3 to 5 dead workers per day. Is this a pretty normal death rate or should I be concerned?

Any advice would be appreciated.

[TheMicroPlanet]

That sounds pretty normal to me. Do you happen to know the rate of new workers/is the overall population growing or slowing?

Edited by TheMicroPlanet, May 31 2020 - 3:41 PM.

[ANTdrew]

Totally normal. Think of each worker in a super-organism as one of your skin cells. Also keep in mind that ants like to carry their dead much farther away from the nest than they can in captivity, so you may just be seeing the same dead workers carried around.

[RacRmt]

That sounds pretty normal to me. Do you happen to know the rate of new workers/is the overall population growing or slowing?

 

Thanks for the info! There seems to be a decent amount of brood so I would guess that overall population is increasing. Hard to count though since they are so small. 

[RacRmt]

Totally normal. Think of each worker in a super-organism as one of your skin cells. Also keep in mind that ants like to carry their dead much farther away from the nest than they can in captivity, so you may just be seeing the same dead workers carried around.

 

Cool thanks! That's a relief since I thought maybe the deaths were due to their test tube getting a little nasty. I've been trying to get them to move for a while now, but they are super stubborn so I just figured that they know what they need the best. 

[RushmoreAnts]

Most of those workers were probably born around the same time, and are therefore dying at the same time.