Temperature is the likely culprit. Target 78F.
Some species won't lay unless there's substrate in the test tube. Have your queen IDed.
Perhaps the chlorine reacted with the ants? Probably not though since I've rescued tiny public pool ants before.
Ideally, you want to leave them totally undisturbed until their first nanitic is at least several days old. Negligence is key here; enjoy it while it's encouraged!
Whether or not you should attempt to feed them depends very heavily on the species (fully/semi clausteral?), so have your queen IDed.
... it's probably a variety of several factors.
I wouldn't buy a queen. Once you get the pattern down, and you will, you'll have so many colonies that you can't possibly keep up with them (my case
).
the species is solenopsis invicta. does that help or change anything? what are your thoughts.
S. invicta doesn't live near me (probably a good thing!). I think they're fully claustral, which means don't disturb them at all until they have nanitics. In my experience, this means leave them entirely alone without even looking at them for about a month (depends on temp and species). If you look at them, they might think that their test tube is unsafe and continue to eat their eggs until they find a safer location (which she never will). Queens do almost nothing of interest in their first month anyway, so just completely ignore them!
I don't know if I'd be concerned if your queen is tearing at the cotton. My Camponotus pennsylvanicus queen nearly escaped her test tube setup once by tearing away the outer cotton during her founding stage. So, I simply replaced the cotton and put her back in her drawer. Now, 2 months later, she has a small colony. Even claustral queens don't necessarily enjoy being trapped in a test tube setup, but they seem to get over it eventually.
To be honest, I normally keep my founding queens at around 74F instead of 78F due to limited room in my heated tank (http://www.formicult...e-new-colonies/), but my species may very well be more tolerant of low temps than yours. You'll get better results (faster and more reliable) at 78F.
Don't get discouraged! I remember the first time I caught some queens. I captured about 15-20 and was extremely excited and had them all in test tube setups, only to find out later that they were all parasitic. Then, when I finally captured another species, I later found that my test tube setups were all too dry, and they (10 maybe) all died of dehydration. Then, when fall came, I put them into hibernation only to find out that many of my test tubes were too small and they were all running deathly low on water. My point is, ant-keeping is a learning experience. Don't be discouraged with a rocky start. Eventually, you'll have so many colonies that you'll be wondering what to do with them all! Keep trying! As long as your test tube setups are right and you keep them at a good temperature, you'll eventually succeed. I understand that you're probably bummed because there won't be any more queens until next spring, but guess what? The rest of us are putting our colonies into hibernation, so you've actually lost very little time.
