84 replies to this topic

[AntsGodzilla]

Fire ants will totally chew through hot glue very fast, it's part of their hard to contain nature.

[cooIboyJ]

I have removed the new test tube, and I have also moved the original test tube to the side of the outworld, so that it is connected by some tubing. I have noticed that the ants are having some trouble climbing up the plastic to the entrance of the nest so I have added a piece of straw for them to climb down. Sorry for not updating sooner, but I have not been on lately. Also sorry for no pictures, as I don't have a lot of access to my phone.   But the ants have been placing a lot of dirt that I gave them in their test tube, they have eaten a couple of mealworms and have drank their water feeder dry twice. They are doing very well

[ANTdrew]

Seal gaps with 100% silicone, not hot glue!

[cooIboyJ]

Seal gaps with 100% silicone, not hot glue!

I have some aquarium silicon leftover from my shrimp hides, so Ill use that next time I need to glue something ant related. I have decided not to try to move the ants because they are doing well in their big test tube, and have filled it up with some dirt.

[cooIboyJ]

The ants have been doing pretty good, and they have eaten a few meal worms. I only had an escapee once, when the tubing connecting the test tube to the outworld got moved a little bit, so now I have moved the test tube back into the outworld. They also have a humongous egg pile with a lot of pupae, larvae, and uncountable eggs! I have also caught four more Solenopsis invicta queens (I caught five originally but my test tube opened up in my pocket, and I later found the queen on my neck before taking a shower lmao. And I let her go into the backyard)

Edited by cooIboyJ, September 24 2024 - 7:34 AM.

[AntsGodzilla]

Invicta are awesome, but how are you going to contain them when they get into the thousands?

[GOCAMPONOTUS]

The ants have been doing pretty good, and they have eaten a few meal worms. I only had an escapee once, when the tubing connecting the test tube to the outworld got moved a little bit, so now I have moved the test tube back into the outworld. They also have a humongous egg pile with a lot of pupae, larvae, and uncountable eggs! I have also caught four more Solenopsis invicta queens (I caught five originally but my test tube opened up in my pocket, and I later found the queen on my neck before taking a shower lmao. And I let her go into the backyard)

letting go of an invasive ant species??? Next time just freeze the queen or simply put her in alcohol, don't release her.

[AntsGodzilla]

He should have gave her to the already existing colony and seen if they accepted her, or, if we're being real, ate her.

Edited by AntsGodzilla, September 28 2024 - 4:42 PM.

[GOCAMPONOTUS]

Mostly anything except for letting her go  would work.

[Stubyvast]

Noice! Solenopsis can grow pretty fast I've heard!

 

Maybe put a few drops of sugar-water around the feeder, and use a dropper to put a few drops right where the drinking tunnels are, so that they can get used to drinking from it. It could also be a problem with the feeder itself, clogged or something. It's worth a try!

Good luck!

[cooIboyJ]

Noice! Solenopsis can grow pretty fast I've heard!

 

Maybe put a few drops of sugar-water around the feeder, and use a dropper to put a few drops right where the drinking tunnels are, so that they can get used to drinking from it. It could also be a problem with the feeder itself, clogged or something. It's worth a try!

Good luck!

Right now I don't have any problems with the ants not finding the sugar water.

 

He should have gave her to the already existing colony and seen if they accepted her, or, if we're being real, ate her.

I gave the least successful queen to my colony after seeing your post, and I think they accepted her :

 

So what happened is I put the test tube with the queen and larvae in the outworld of my Solenopsis invicta colony's outworld, and a worker went into the test tube and the queen bit her and then the worker went out. Then another worker went in and managed to steal a bit of larvae (~10) and brought them into the bigger test tube with the colony. Then I decided to move the test tube with the new queen closer to the entrance of the colony's nest. The queen was really stressed out by now and has eaten 1/4 of her brood. Then she decides to go out of her test tube and started running around the outworld. Once I saw this happen I ran upstairs to tell my brother, but when we got back down the stairs the queen was gone. Then I shined my phone light on the big test tube with the colony, and saw the new queen running crazily around the test tube with ~10 workers on her, and ~20 workers running around the test tube. After around 20 seconds of this the workers calmed down, and so did the new queen. Then the workers let the new queen into the section of the test tube where the older queen was. I don't know for sure if they have accepted her, but I think that it is very likely that they did.

[AntsGodzilla]

Wow! That is awesome! I did not expect that.

[cooIboyJ]

Wow! That is awesome! I did not expect that.

I have three other queens that I have no plans to keep, and I am going to try giving them to the colony, but first I am going to wait a couple of days. Though my brother has two Solenopsis invicta colonies and if he agrees, we might try giving one of his colonies a queen. 

[AntsGodzilla]

Hopefully it will last!

[cooIboyJ]

Hopefully it will last!

I think that Solenopsis invicta have multiple subspecies, and some of them are super aggressive and won't accept any queens; they will just kill them. But some subspecies will accept more queens after the founding stage (like mine did) and will form huge colonies with tons of queens. Though I am not sure on this and I might just be lucky.

[cooIboyJ]

I have bad news: 

 

The workers have let the new queen into the test tube as you all know, but now the queens are fighting each other and the workers are not doing anything besides watch. What should I do? Should I just wait and see which queen wins the battle? Or should I try to remove one of the queens? I am afraid that the queens will kill each other and I will be left with a queenless colony. Though I think if that happens then I might introduce another queen lol.

[RushmoreAnts]

I have bad news: 

 

The workers have let the new queen into the test tube as you all know, but now the queens are fighting each other and the workers are not doing anything besides watch. What should I do? Should I just wait and see which queen wins the battle? Or should I try to remove one of the queens? I am afraid that the queens will kill each other and I will be left with a queenless colony. Though I think if that happens then I might introduce another queen lol.

They are likely one of the monogynous subspecies, and what you are witnessing is their pleometrosis (queens cooperate until after workers arrive). I gained much experience with this behavior as documented in my Tetramorium journal. As demonstrated in that journal, there is a chance all queens will die. If they do accept new queens then there would still be hope for that colony. immigrans doesn't have such a complacent subspecies.

Edited by RushmoreAnts, October 2 2024 - 9:47 AM.

[AntsGodzilla]

I have bad news: 

 

The workers have let the new queen into the test tube as you all know, but now the queens are fighting each other and the workers are not doing anything besides watch. What should I do? Should I just wait and see which queen wins the battle? Or should I try to remove one of the queens? I am afraid that the queens will kill each other and I will be left with a queenless colony. Though I think if that happens then I might introduce another queen lol.

I hope I din't send this too late, but you should definitely remove one of the queens, otherwise the surviving one will be permanently injured.

[cooIboyJ]

I have bad news: 
 
The workers have let the new queen into the test tube as you all know, but now the queens are fighting each other and the workers are not doing anything besides watch. What should I do? Should I just wait and see which queen wins the battle? Or should I try to remove one of the queens? I am afraid that the queens will kill each other and I will be left with a queenless colony. Though I think if that happens then I might introduce another queen lol.

I hope I din't send this too late, but you should definitely remove one of the queens, otherwise the surviving one will be permanently injured.

one of them is already injured, but the other is not.

[cooIboyJ]

Both queens are still alive (as of last time I checked on them) but one of them has been injured, and the other is not. The old queen (no idea which one that is since I gave them the new queen) has stopped laying eggs. The workers have also started moving the dirt from the nest out into the outworld, and some of them are hanging out in the outworld (only like two or three) as if they do not want to watch the fight. I think that the old queen is the one that has been injured, but I am not sure if that is a good thing because she was the one that started the colony, and the new queen was my least successful out of my new Solenopsis invicta queens. The good thing is that if this colony dies I have three other queens that are doing very well.