5 replies to this topic

[Herdo]

Hey everyone. I'm having some trouble with my Pheidole queen. She had a colony of about 30 or so last summer, but they've slowly died off, and the queen has been eating the new eggs.

I noticed towards the end of last summer that no new workers were being made. I assumed the nest was too dry because I had to essentially flood it to get any sort of moisture in the chamber. As the workers died off I would see new eggs one day, but then none a few days later. This went on a while until only the queen and one major were left. I ordered a new nest for them and transferred the queen and her major into a test tube.

I tried feeding them a small piece of cut up mealworm every other day, but I'm not sure they were eating it.

Then one day the major was on her back with her legs in the air twitching. She was several months old, so I expected this to happen soon. I came back the next day and found only a tiny piece of the majors gastor left so I assume the queen ate her. This got me thinking that maybe she doesn't want mealworms anymore. I then tried switching to pieces of small crickets. I've seen the queen personally eat a small cricket when I moved the colony from their original test tube.

Unfortunately I'm still having the same problem. I saw a few small eggs about 3 days ago, and now they are gone.

I'm not sure what the problem could be. I've been giving the queen a tiny piece of cotton soaked in diluted humming bird nectar as well.

Maybe moisture was the problem, and she got too died out? Is that possible? I'm just not sure what to do at this point.

Had anyone else ever dealt with anything like this?

[Bryce]

I think everybody has had there queens eat there brood, it happens. Sounds like you have a couple issues. Maybe they were dehydrated, temp drops, food issues,ect. To me, the bigger issue is you only had 30 or so workers in almost a year. That's not a lot. Sometimes the genetics just are not there. If you like to try a different set up stop by my house this weekend I'll give you a hydrostone nest to try out. Pm me for address.

Edited by Bryce, March 15 2016 - 5:03 AM.

[antmaniac]

Maybe try another setup than the test tube?

[dspdrew]

Some queens just aren't fit. When you have a bad queen, nothing you do is going to change things. You can continue to try making changes, but if she keeps eating her brood, I wouldn't put that much blame on yourself. I think if every queen that had the right conditions produced huge successful colonies, the world would probably be overrun with ants.

[Herdo]

Hey, thanks for the replies everyone.  Bryce, thanks for the offer, I will send you a PM.  I should clarify that the queen had the first 30 workers within a couple months.  She was actually doing really well and several people made remarks about how quickly the colony was growing.  Then one day she just started eating the eggs.  I remember it being around the time I noticed the first nest wasn't getting properly hydrated, which is why I think maybe she got too dried out.  I bought a different nest (small Hybrid Nest from AntsCanada), but I want to keep her in the test tube for now because it's much easier to feed and monitor her.  My plan was to just start over with her; keeping her in the test tube until she had about 10 workers.

 

I guess my best bet is to just keep trying different foods for now.  Thanks again.

Edited by Herdo, March 15 2016 - 9:40 AM.

[Mdrogun]

Have you been disturbing the queen often? Some queens will refuse to lay or keep their eggs if they are stressed out.