6 replies to this topic

[KalenH]

Hello all,

 

Hoping to salvage my Pseudomyrmex Pallidus Queen. I've had her for 3 or 4 days now and I've had no progression.

 

At first I treated her as a claustral queen and Nick cleaned up that idea for me. I've tried to expose her to a mosquito and cut out some smaller tubing for her to nest in incase that's more natural to her. She seemed uninterested in the mosquito so I've taken that out and replaced it with a dead fly. She found some basic interest in that but not as food as far as i can tell.

 

She is roaming around and investigating this cell constantly looking for something as well as destroying the cork. She's obviously unsatisfied with this situation but I'm not sure what I should do to improve this for her. 

This situation looks salvageable given her active nature, any tips would be greatly appreciated. 

Thanks!
Kalen

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[TestSubjectOne]

I recommend that you tear or cut the fly you gave her in half. Exposing the insides will make it easier to eat. If you haven't already, you should soak honey into a bit of cotton and give that to her, then put her away somewhere dark for at least a few days to help her settle in. If you have a heat source, you should also heat her.

[KalenH]

Roger that! Cut the fly, soaked some cotton, put a paper sack over her, and placed her in the garage where its 80+f outside for the next week. I'll report back in a few days.

[TestSubjectOne]

Good job. Make sure that the bag is away from direct sunlight if you have your queen in a garage. It takes a lot of heat to kill an ant, but sunlight can easily heat a tube or bag past that point in a few hours. Also, keep in mind that Pseudomyrmex is a very hard genus to keep, so even with good care your queen could still die.

[ANTS_KL]

Good job. Make sure that the bag is away from direct sunlight if you have your queen in a garage. It takes a lot of heat to kill an ant, but sunlight can easily heat a tube or bag past that point in a few hours. Also, keep in mind that Pseudomyrmex is a very hard genus to keep, so even with good care your queen could still die.

My T rufonigra queen never eats protein but drinks honey :-/

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[KalenH]

They're tucked away from sunlight, should be a safe spot. Thanks for the warning though! It will be cool if I can get this Pallidus queen anywhere but i'm overall doubtful. I've got several hardy options that are very easy to grow to keep me entertained. 
 

TC wrote up a Pallidus care sheet back in 2018.

A couple ideas stand out to me in there.
1. Several mentions of low to no moisture in the nests.
2. Colonies (can be or are?) split off colonies where a queen walks off with some workers.
3. Picky eaters, he was apparently successful with fruit for carbs and dubia roaches for protein. 

I may need to revisit these ideas in a few days if the current doesn't work. 

[TestSubjectOne]

It's great that you found a care sheet and are doing your research on the species and are willing to put in the effort so give your queen specialized care. Pseudomyrmex are rarely kept and difficult. I'm interested to see how your colony does and will keep updated on your journal. I'm glad that you are careful about sunlight. I'm a bit paranoid about it, with cause, after I cooked the queen of my first colony because I left them on the wrong side of my desk for three hours.