8 replies to this topic

[Buckets]

It's been about a week since I caught these guys, I have two queens in test tube setups. I also caught a queen that was already apart of a colony and some workers when I dug her up, I then ended up going back and getting more works/eggs. They are set up just fine in my omninest and the queen is actually taking care of those eggs so I'm pretty sure that means the eggs are not dead.

 

When I caught this queen though, she was not very far below ground, there had to be hundreds of workers everywhere and I simply dug up one of their holes about 4-5 inches, and there went a queen running out of it. Could this possibly mean she is a worker queen? It has laid eggs yet and it's been a week, but it could be from all the stress of moving her, and also the fact she already has 7 or 8 eggs that I put in there. Not too sure so any help would be appreciated.

[Leo]

1st of all diggin colonies is not the best

2nd if you only found her she probably is fertile

3rd get MORE flippin workers for her

 

and yes being dug up and placed into a test tube is quite traumatizing 

Edited by Leo, April 2 2017 - 10:55 PM.

[Buckets]

1st of all diggin colonies is not the best

2nd if you only found her she probably is fertile

3rd get MORE flippin workers for her

She has about 15-20 already, you think more is needed? If so it can be easily done, my park is dominated by these guys and there's hundreds to thousands in this one particular area.

 

Edit: The one I dug up was around many workers, is it common for colonies to have queens as workers? Because the two Queens I got in a test tube were found pretty close to the rest of the large colony. One of them was even walking with them.

Edited by Buckets, April 2 2017 - 10:58 PM.

[Alabama Anter]

Okay this is when you gone a little to far. Separating a queen from a already mature colony is not recommended at all. First, she would lose most of her worker force which leaves her crippled. Second, she will be stressed and not lay ANY eggs for you because ants can sense the lack of workers, and she is not accustomed to that.

[Buckets]

Okay this is when you gone a little to far. Separating a queen from a already mature colony is not recommended at all. First, she would lose most of her worker force which leaves her crippled. Second, she will be stressed and not lay ANY eggs for you because ants can sense the lack of workers, and she is not accustomed to that.

You literally replied to my only other post about these ants where I explained she wasn't the only queen, and nothing's changed. What do you mean by too far?

Edited by Buckets, April 3 2017 - 7:18 PM.

[Alabama Anter]

 

Okay this is when you gone a little to far. Separating a queen from a already mature colony is not recommended at all. First, she would lose most of her worker force which leaves her crippled. Second, she will be stressed and not lay ANY eggs for you because ants can sense the lack of workers, and she is not accustomed to that.

You literally replied to my only other post about these ants where I explained she wasn't the only queen, and nothing's changed. What do you mean by too far?

 

Like I said in my post if you actually read it... ("Okay, this is when you gone a little too far") Me stating that this is a bit iffy. You legit just dug up a mature colonies nest. Although they are polygynous and all, you still shouldn't dig in to a mature colony. This queen will probably die if you do not apply more workers.

[Buckets]

 

 

Okay this is when you gone a little to far. Separating a queen from a already mature colony is not recommended at all. First, she would lose most of her worker force which leaves her crippled. Second, she will be stressed and not lay ANY eggs for you because ants can sense the lack of workers, and she is not accustomed to that.

You literally replied to my only other post about these ants where I explained she wasn't the only queen, and nothing's changed. What do you mean by too far?

 

Like I said in my post if you actually read it... ("Okay, this is when you gone a little too far") Me stating that this is a bit iffy. You legit just dug up a mature colonies nest. Although they are polygynous and all, you still shouldn't dig in to a mature colony. This queen will probably die if you do not apply more workers.

 

Alright how many is more? 30-50? I only dug a few inches which makes me wonder if it's even a fertilized queen or just a worker that's unfertilized.

[Leo]

ermm as many as possible

[James C. Trager]

Her depth in the nest or level of mobility have nothing to do with whether she is fertile. Nests of N. vividula are shallow and queens of this species are fast runners. One point others are trying to make is NEVER separate a wingless queen from her colony. Another point is that this species has spring mating flights and if you know of a good population as you say, then you should be able to acquire a freshly mated queen to start a colony, and she wouldn't need workers to help at that stage of her life.
Are you going to try to take a picture of these ants? It would be good for confirming their identity.

Edited by James C. Trager, April 4 2017 - 5:40 AM.