7 replies to this topic

[evanmancini2011]

Yesterday when feeding my young Pavement ant colony I noticed that the water supply for their test tube is nearly gone. I am worried about moving this colony in a tubs and tubes setup because they only have 9-15 workers which is pretty young. Dose any one have any idea's what I should do in this situation?

 

Thank you!

Edited by evanmancini2011, July 25 2024 - 1:04 PM.

[cooIboyJ]

I would just move them into a new test tube

[ANTdrew]

Expose the old tube to bright light and attach to a new tube that is darkened. Sunlight will really get them moving, but carefully supervise, so you don’t bake them.

[evanmancini2011]

Thank You for all your help! Do you have any ideas how to attach the two test tubes together?

[GOCAMPONOTUS]

I would use tape.

[The_Gaming-gate]

I moved my fire ants into a tubs and tubes set-up when they had 7 workers, and it hasn’t affected their growth negatively (in fact, quite the opposite.) So I would recommend putting a fresh test-tube in an outworld near your ants’ current test tube.

[Etnies]

yeah u can do that with tape, it worked for me

[rptraut]

Hello evanmancini2011,

When my queens get nanitics, I make a small feeding tray that will fit into the test tube. I’ve used small balls of cotton, now I use small pieces of sponge, I saturate one with water and the other with sugar/water and put them on the tray. You can also put small pieces of protein on the tray. Slide the tray into the test tube and replace the stopper. Blowing gently on them often makes ants retreat to the depths of the tube when you go to replace it. Timing is critical. Prepare a replacement tray ahead of time and act quickly to minimize escapes.

Your colony is still quite small and they can live with low humidity as long as they have drinking water. Feeding them in the test tube will give them time to increase in numbers large enough for an outworld.
RPT