2 replies to this topic

[NikolaBale]

Hello.

I bought a p.dives colony about 80w 1q.
There was a problem whit shipping and the package arrived after 2 months.
That's quite a long time and pretty stressful for the ants no doubt.
Surprisingly when i opened the package most of the workers where still alive,maybe 3-4 dead.
Unfortunately when i put them in a tubes and tube set up and they spread out so it wasn't as crowded i saw the queen and ahe looked dead.She bunched up and wasn't moving.
Now this was a no brainier i was sure she was dead.But after a few days the ants put all the dead workers in the corner of the tub like they normally would,but not the queen.The queen was right in the middle of the cluster of workers in the tube constantly being groomed basically like she was alive.
And that got me thinking maybe she's just in a phase of shock and the ants are trying to waker her up.
I asked around and one guy told me he had the exact same thing happened to him.The queen was motionless like she was dead and after a couple of days she started moving and the colony proliferated like normal.

Have any of your had or heard of something like this?

[gs5248]

A lot of Camponotus species go into hibernation looking as if they are deceased, but then they wake up again.

[Scherme]

both of my Camponotus queens are currently curled up and look dead atm.. one was even on her back. 
They are both alive and well, just hibernating. What were the outside temps where you were?