23 replies to this topic

[T.C.]

But the earth has a geothermal temp and the ants are insulated by water tables and the ground they're bunkered down in. Surely their ambient air temp doesn't go so drastically low when they're hibernating underground?
The glass of testubes provide no insulation and your basically cryo-freezing ..
Not so sure I'd expose them to anything below -10C.
Even if they're Minnesota ants, I still don't think the outside temps resemble a hibernation chambers temperature...just saying...

Did the lavae pupate or continue to develop after freezing like that? I'm super curious
And did they lay eggs after??

 

Test tubes where kept in a garage packed into a styrofoam block. And most of the ants shown lived in wood, not soil. And the Camponotus noveboracensis colony as well as the others shown had no deaths and all with brood lived as well. Here is a picture of the colony from a few days ago.

 

[StayLoki]

Huh .. My thoughts were going to denaturing the sperm and if the queens would still be fertile
and I was super curious.
Very cool to see they can take the extremes and not to worry... Interesting 😎

[StayLoki]

Also didn't realized u had them insulated a little, my apologies

I'll have to hit you up for advice when I'm ready to hibernate my ladies

[T.C.]