I purchased a fabulous Tar Heel ants set up to replace my old set-up and attached the 1/4" tube to the new formicarium. My ants took off like cheetahs and began moving themselves and their brood (I have about 80 workers and huge piles of eggs) into the tube! Then, they just hung out there. All their other tubing is larger, and of course the test tube is large for them (crematogaster cerasi). They've been hanging out for three days now with no signs of moving into their (beautiful) formicarium.
Thoughts? About a third of the colony + queen are still in the old set-up, which I've exposed to daylight by removing the paper cover from the test-tube.
As usual, I am being patient. Just wondering, has anyone had this happen?
. Once I cut open the end, ants have gone inside the tunnels of the formicarium and are hanging out near the water tower, but they haven't moved in permanently. Still are keeping many of their pupae in the tube ... time will tell ... now I'll go back to my regular life and continue learning how to laugh at myself.
