4 replies to this topic

[Winston]

My camponotus ligniperda queens (4), and what I believe to be a camponotus pennsylvanicus queen (1), sometimes pick at the cotton that seals the tube (fairly aggressively), they will do this for a decent amount of time, is this normal behavior similar to tunneling in logs in the wild, or do they not find the test tube setup a suitable home, and are trying to get out. In one of my colonies that has its first workers, they pile their brood at the cotton ball that seals the entrance to the tube, and they sit/hang onto the cotton, I'm not sure what to do since this makes it difficult to feed them, get access to them etc. Need some help with these queens.

 

Edit: Is the digging and picking at the cotton behavior negative in anyway towards their health? (Priority for me atm)

Edited by Winston, May 14 2017 - 6:50 PM.

[Flubby100]

I'm not an expert but base on my novice experience, Check the area if they are not near any heat source i.e. Heating cables. Place them in a dark room or cover them from any lighting and see if they start to calm down.

Edited by Flubby100, May 14 2017 - 10:28 PM.

[dermy]

Mine do this all the time. Maybe try covering the test tube with paper but leaving the entrance area in the light so they are more inclined to move to the other side of the tube.

[Batspiderfish]

Don't feed your colonies inside of test tubes. If they are ready to forage, they need space to do so. There's no way to dispose of garbage in a sealed test tube.

[Winston]

Don't feed your colonies inside of test tubes. If they are ready to forage, they need space to do so. There's no way to dispose of garbage in a sealed test tube.

Well, I'm not feeding them in their test tubes, never said I was in the post.

 

Mine do this all the time. Maybe try covering the test tube with paper but leaving the entrance area in the light so they are more inclined to move to the other side of the tube.

I do keep them all in the dark, sometimes when I open up my drawer to check on them this one queen is always picking or gnawing at the cotton ball that seals off the tube.

 

I'm not an expert but base on my novice experience, Check the area if they are not near any heat source i.e. Heating cables. Place them in a dark room or cover them from any lighting and see if they start to calm down.

Not near any heat source, and yeah I'm keeping them in the dark, they're all pretty calm except for one of the queens she is always gnawing at the cotton sealing of the tube.