So this morning I was cleaning out all of my ant gear, and I realized I should check on my Tetramorium colonies, and I noticed one colony that I put in a clear box full of dirt a while ago. I have been feeding them ever since I moved them in at about 25 workers, and they always had a constant supply of water, and the temperature never went below 65 degrees in their set-up. But a month or two after I moved them in, (this was about mid October 2022) I wasn't seeing as many workers, and then I just stopped seeing them at all. But now a few months later as it starts to get warm where I live, I still didn't see any workers, so I assumed they were dead and I started dumping the dirt out SLOWLY (I did this just in case they were still alive) and I saw one worker come out of the nest. When this happened I was very happy, but then I realized I could have damaged the tunnels. So here I am now, deciding whether to dump the whole thing out and salvage whatever I can, risking injuring the queen and losing most of the brood, or leave them in the set-up and keep taking care of them while risking the queen getting stuck in a chamber and dying. I don't know what I should do so any responses will be appreciated. Thank you in advance.
