7 replies to this topic

[jabasson]

Hi, I have had a Mexicanus queen for the past 2-3 months and she has 2 workers, which is the amount she came with when I bought her. I think the colony is struggling with something but I don't know what. One worker finally eclosed after about 2 and a half months and immediately one of the nanitics died, although this happened as I was driving them back home from college so it might just have been from shipping complications. I have seen them have lots of brood, and many cocoons, but somehow they just never seem to develop. One cocoon they just put in the outworld and it grew mold a few days later, the rest just seem to disappear. Right now they have 3 larvae and 1 cocoon, maybe a few eggs. The ants all seem healthy, and eat the food I give them. I don't actually see them foraging but they will bring things into the nest and their gasters always look full. I heat them with a gradient, and keep their water full.

Point is I'm wondering if it is possible to grab wild workers, or buy them from someone else, and introduce them to the queen. I think they might not be doing so well because 2 workers can only do so much for a colony. I've heard workers without a queen will sometimes readily accept a new queen. If this is the case could I just get some workers from a colony, and introduce them one by one to my queen? Brood boosting might also work but it will take someone willing to dig into their nest for brood, which is probably not something ant keepers really want to do. 

[kiedeerk]

Sometimes, these queens are not meant to succeed. It could be genes. All you can do is provide optimal conditions: temperature, humidity, ample supply of protein and sugars. Honeypots can be picky about proteins in my experience. Give them a variety of choices and see if they will take. If the queen doesn’t succeed on her own boosting her with pupae might prolong this colony but I doubt it will be long lasting

[jabasson]

Yeah I'm hoping its just shipping stress and heating complications, or the fact that I fed them about once a week and not that the genes are bad. I've since fixed all of that. I am leaving for a wedding tomorrow and will come back in about a week so that sucks for feeding but we will see. They are eating the protein because I do find cricket parts and exoskeletons in the nest (idk about the mealworms), and I have seen them drink the sugar water before, so I don't think that's my issue. I haven't seen any actual foragers for a long time though, only when i first got them and I was checking it every few minutes. 

[Mushu]

Were the pupae(cocoon) black where you can see it's very dark through the cocoon. In my experience that usually means the it failed to pupate properly and that's usually due to stable temperature where the pupae are placed. While some may still develop(I've had 4 out of 10) pupate fail this way for example when I was still experimenting with my setup.

 

My buddy boosted 3 colonies with an existing colony of Myrmecocystus placodops with workers and about 80 percent of them died 2-3 days later after eclosing. Either the issue was during the brood move for whatever reason or in the founding colonies setup(test tubes), there was some issue with development, as he has never had that type of sudden die off before this.

 

Need to know your current setup(temperature and humidity) to perhaps have a better idea. However as kiedeerk suggested, sometimes it's just the queen genetics or otherwise. You can provide the best conditions you can and only hope for the best.

 

I personally would up the protein feeding to twice a week with small portions.

Edited by Mushu, December 30 2024 - 4:09 AM.

[jabasson]

For the cocoons, they don't seem very dark, but are brown and an even color (not white with a little black dot). 

 

I taped some heat cables to the side opposite the water tower and have them set to 85 degrees, and I'm going to start feeding them more often. All they have is 3 larvae, and I think that when I thought a worker died, and one eclosed, I think that what I thought was a dead worker was actually a failed worker ant, one that almost eclosed but didn't fully develop. I know that this queen got 2 nanitics fine and that she arrived with a healthy brood pile before I started taking care of her. It has to be something that I'm doing wrong but I'm just not sure what. I used to have them one side on a heat mat with no temp control, and now I run a cable against one side of the nest with a thermostat taped to that side above the cable. It's set to 85 degrees right now. If there is anything you think I could change to improve the setup it would be appreciated but it is probably hard to tell what is wrong with limited information. The two workers she arrived with are still doing well. I would love to know the temp/humidity inside the nest, I'm just not sure how to get those measurements.

Edited by jabasson, Yesterday, 2:42 PM.

[jabasson]

Overall Setup:

 

The thermostat I use:

 

The way I've had my cables for the past week:

 

My attempt to show the 3 larvae on top of the water tower, they are there just trust me:

 

I can't seem to add more images but there is a worker also enjoying the heat on the right side, the other with the larvae on the water tower on the left, and a light brown cocoon with a a little black spot on the end that looks slightly deflated (with a dent in the top) to the middlish rightish of the nest. I dropped a mealworm in the nest to make sure they had access and its exoskeleton is in front of the water tower. I'm unsure why they would place it there. Also due to small colony size the right side of the nest appears to have some trash stored in it but it is hard to tell. For now it isn't a problem. I check on them probably once every 3 days, and as I said before I used to feed once a week, now I'm gonna start feeding about once every 2 days. Any info on what I'm doing wrong would help. I'm sure part of it is a nest that is too large, but it wouldn't explain why the cocoons wouldn't develop. 

Edited by jabasson, Yesterday, 3:13 PM.

[kiedeerk]

Hate to say it but the chance of this colony recovering is pretty much 0. It’s not your fault sometimes and there is nothing you can do. They should be in a test tube since you only have one worker left. Claustral queens pretty much loose their ability to care for brood and just sit around and lay eggs after they get first batch of workers. This was just not a very good queen if her first batch only had two workers. Usually the first batch is at least 5-10 workers

[Mushu]

As kiedeerk has mentioned, it may not be a strong queen. It would be good to know some info to try to perhaps tweak and not make the situation worse.

 

1. What's your ambient room temperature? You may want to invest in a infrared temperature gun to check the actual temperature in different areas of the nest to get an idea of the temp. The area where you are heating the nest, you want to make sure it is 80-85 ideally.

 

The reason I ask is If your ambient room temp can get down to 60-70(thus the nest is most likely a bit warmer), even low 70's F, the pupae may not develop properly. Currently the room I keep my M. placodops it can get down to 60-70 F and I have 2 water towers full of larvae that appear to be in diapause state with no pupae. It's been 2 months and I've not seen a cocoon.  I noticed my pupae eclose success rate dropped also during the cold temps. I don't mind that the colony in a mild diapause. I had 50+ cocoons at all times during summer brood cycle with high eclose rate. Queen was from a Jan 2024 Nuptial flight. 

 

2. Humidity should be fine with a water tower and a nest mate that I can see.

 

As long as they have a good feeding response, that is a good sign. It's also good that you have eggs and larvae(brood cycle) as least. 

 

For the failed worker ant that didn't fully develop, did it have deformed(crumpled antennae,legs,etc)? That would be an indication of not ideal temps for the pupae to develop.

 

 

Good Luck, you need to get your pupae to develop and eclose properly. If your parameters are fine, it may just be something genetic. Failed brood is not uncommon but it's very delicate at this junction of your colony's life.

Edited by Mushu, Today, 5:54 AM.