7 replies to this topic

[Devi]

I put some of my tetramorium in the fridge yesterday for hibernation. I checked on them today and they looked... Well, not so good. They were spread throughout the test tube and all laying on their backs. Please tell me this is normal and they are not all dead?

[TestSubjectOne]

Take them out and see how they react. The fridge might have been too cold for them depending on how cold they get in the wild.

[Ants_Dakota]

this is usually how ants hibernate, i think.

[KitsAntVa]

There’s a small but noticeable difference between dead and alive when they are asleep they have their legs kinda curled up but not like how you see a dead spider you can tell they are dead when you see them curled in a ball with their legs out, they can’t really move in hibernation so them being on their backs is somewhat normal. Taking them out for a while is good to check in them though as Testsubject said.

[ANTdrew]

Make sure your fridge is not too cold. If you can adjust the cooling level, lower it to increase temp. Also don't put your ants close to where the cooling comes out because that can be significantly colder than the rest of the fridge and could even freeze them. I've never seen hibernating Tetramorium on their backs.

[steelplant]

You probably know this, but you need to lower temperature slowly over 2 weeks so they can make their blood antifreeze.

[Kaelwizard]

That depends on how cold you plan on keeping them. Many people don’t keep them nearly cold enough for the antifreeze to even kick in.

[steelplant]

Thanks kaelwizard.