8 replies to this topic

[Izzy]

Hello,

 

I'm a newer ant keeper. I keep running into problems with one of my colonies workers getting stuck in the honey water I provide and perishing.

 

I have a Camponotus modoc queen who had two workers and within the last month both of her workers have become stuck in honey and died. I tried to save the first one as she was alive when I found her. I used a water dropper to try and clean her off which saw some results but she was still unable to walk. I put her back in the colony in hopes that they would help clean her off, but they didn't and she died. I just discovered that the second, and last worker, has now also perished.

 

I realized after the first death that I probably needed to remove the honey water sooner since the water was probably evaporating and leading to a higher concentration of honey that they were becoming stuck in. Its been about 50 hours since I added the honey water so I was going to remove it and discovered the last worker had died.

 

I was providing the honey water and food on a small sheet of tinfoil in an Ants Canada Test Tube Portal used as an out world, since I wanted to reduce the stress of adding food directly to the colony in a test tube and hopefully prevent mold from putting food directly in there as well.

I have a few questions at this point:
1. I'm guessing I need to go back to feeding the queen sugar and protein in the test tube and hope she can rear up some new workers?

2. Is there something better I can be doing to prevent these honey related deaths? Should I just use sugar water? A liquid feeder?

 

I was hoping to move them into a THA Mini Hearth soon as I thought that would yield better results than a test tube, but now without any workers I figure that's probably a bad idea since the queen is fully claustral.

 

I would appreciate any help or insight anyone may have. Quite a set back to lose both workers on a slow growing species.

 

Thanks,

 

Izzy

[jayhautz]

Hello,

I'm a newer ant keeper. I keep running into problems with one of my colonies workers getting stuck in the honey water I provide and perishing.

I have a Camponotus modoc queen who had two workers and within the last month both of her workers have become stuck in honey and died. I tried to save the first one as she was alive when I found her. I used a water dropper to try and clean her off which saw some results but she was still unable to walk. I put her back in the colony in hopes that they would help clean her off, but they didn't and she died. I just discovered that the second, and last worker, has now also perished.

I realized after the first death that I probably needed to remove the honey water sooner since the water was probably evaporating and leading to a higher concentration of honey that they were becoming stuck in. Its been about 50 hours since I added the honey water so I was going to remove it and discovered the last worker had died.

I was providing the honey water and food on a small sheet of tinfoil in an Ants Canada Test Tube Portal used as an out world, since I wanted to reduce the stress of adding food directly to the colony in a test tube and hopefully prevent mold from putting food directly in there as well.

I have a few questions at this point:
1. I'm guessing I need to go back to feeding the queen sugar and protein in the test tube and hope she can rear up some new workers?
2. Is there something better I can be doing to prevent these honey related deaths? Should I just use sugar water? A liquid feeder?

I was hoping to move them into a THA Mini Hearth soon as I thought that would yield better results than a test tube, but now without any workers I figure that's probably a bad idea since the queen is fully claustral.

I would appreciate any help or insight anyone may have. Quite a set back to lose both workers on a slow growing species.

Thanks,

Izzy

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[ANTdrew]

Izzy, try soaking the honey water into a piece of cotton or paper towel. Also get liquid feeders ASAP. You may want to try boosting the queen with more pupae from another colony if you can get some.

[Ernteameise]

Hi there, well, I think this is a frequent beginner mistake....
I also know these AC videos you refer to!
I myself have lost a couple of my precious girls to the „ honey trap“.
What I do now- in the liquid feeders, I use a bit of tissue paper, so the small ants do not drink the water directly but nibble from the tissue paper. So they cannot get stuck if liquid dries and becomes sticky. I think bigger ants are safer, but a tiny Temnothorax is doomed.
Second, when I feed honey, I offer it on a tiny piece of sponge ( the antstore even sells these for expensive, but I use old sponges from my other hobby, miniature painting and it works a treat. Any will do, as long as there are no chemicals or detergents on it).

As for if the queen will be fine....
I have no experience with that Genus of ants, but I have seen that, depending on where you are, people are willing to help out with some pupae to push a founder colony ( either on this forum, or reddit, or ant Facebook groups). On German EBay people even sell pupae for that very purpose.

[Izzy]

Thank you for the help all!

Using a sponge or cotton ball seems like a great idea. I'll do that from now on. I've done this with pieces of apple, which I've seen Miles do on the Ant Network, but I didn't always have apples available so I did it when I could. Cotton ball seems like an obvious solution to that problem now haha!
 

Luckily my liquid feeder I ordered arrived the other day so I'll have to start using that in situations where I have an outworld.

 

I had plans to brood boost them when I could get my hands on some. Hopefully I can keep her alive until then.

 

Again, thank you for your help.

Edited by Izzy, May 16 2023 - 1:03 PM.

[AntsCali098]

I would also suggest using perky pet hummingbird nectar. Mix it with water in a 4:1 ratio. Water being 4. Its nice because you can store it in your fridge without it going bad.

[Izzy]

That's a cool idea! I'll look into it. I've been freezing and thawing my honey water when I use it which supposedly helps it stay good.

 

Looks like it could be a cheaper solution to something like Sunburst Nectar.

[AntsCali098]

Yeah definitely

[Flu1d]

I would also suggest using perky pet hummingbird nectar. Mix it with water in a 4:1 ratio. Water being 4. Its nice because you can store it in your fridge without it going bad.

Even after you mix the 4-1 water ratio, it will stay in the fridge without going bad? Or do you just mean the hummingbird food itself?