8 replies to this topic

[ecobb10091]

Hello everyone, 

 

I am a new ant keeper, and caught my first Camponotus pennsylvanicus. queen 5/8/18. I was SO excited! Everything I read said to just leave her alone and let her adjust. This is where i recognize I messed up. The first night went good, and I was ecstatic to see the very next day she laid her first egg! I put her back in my closet and left her alone. I checked on her again the 5/11/18 and saw two eggs, but I saw that she had pulled so much cotton (had her in a test tube set up) and nearly escaped. 

 

I am sad to say in the midst of pulling the cotton ball out and putting a new cotton ball in, her eggs were destroyed. I truly felt awful and certainly didn't mean to. I set up a new test tube and she crawled into it, plugged it, and put her away.. I know she probably didn't appreciate a new test tube already but I didn't want her smashed eggs to be with her. 

 

Now, 5/13/18, she hasn't laid anymore eggs. My knowledge is limited (thus the reason I am reaching out here). Will she lay any more? Was it too much "change" for her too soon and she'll die? I truly feel terrible about it, and I hope she can recover.  

 

Thank you for your advice and responses everyone. I greatly appreciate them. 

Best,

ecobb10091

Edited by ecobb10091, May 13 2018 - 3:06 PM.

[Shifty189]

The best thing you can do is forget about her. Leave her aloe for seriously 3 or 4 weeks. She will by that point either have a decent looking brood, have escaped, or died. And no matter what, there will be nothing better that you could have done for her.

[Mortamir]

YA leave her be. Then go out and look for more queens.

[Serafine]

You can put her into a plastic box with a small pile of sand so she can walk around a bit and decorate her nest. She should be in a really quiet place with little to no vibrations (like in a room that isn't frequented much).

[super_oil]

Here are some of my advice:

 

Don't do everything based off one source of information. For example, watch videos and read threads from multiple people instead of just getting all of your ant keeping knowledge from one guy. I live in Florida right now and I've only been keeping ants here so the things I say might not apply to you at all times.

 

Be patient. This is something I struggle with. Ant keeping requires a lot of patience to be rewarding. I recommend checking on your founding queens once a week, she should have workers in less than two months. If you disturb you're queen too much, she might not lay any eggs or eat the eggs she laid. Keep her in a place that's dark and away from vibrations (off the ground).

 

Don't perform a risky action if not necessary, I did that a lot and I don't want you to make the same mistakes I've made. For example, don't attempt to move your ants out of their current nest unless necessary, it will stress them out. When I was a new ant keeper, I would always try to move my ants as soon as I see a little bit of mold, but it is completely unnecessary to do so, ants won't be harmed by a little bit of mold, only move your ants in situations such as the mold covering over half of the test tube water reservoir cotton. 

 

Following up my last point, think thoroughly before performing an action. Before you removed the cotton and ended up accidentally destroying her eggs, were there anything else you could have done that had less chance of harming the queen or her brood? Would she really escape the test tube or were you just too worried? (Not saying you did the wrong thing I'm just setting possibilities.) When coming up with a solution to a problem, make sure to research and plan it thoroughly and think of alternatives and situations where your plan won't go so well and how to deal with it. Constantly moving your queen can harm her more than you think, when a queen settles down in an area and gets moved to a new area she cannot recognize, she can be seriously stressed out, but do not move your queen back now, try to keep her in the test tube you have her in right now unless she MUST move out of it. You can glue or tape cotton balls together to form stronger cotton balls that are harder for your queen to tear and escape through, or you can give her an out world so even if she manages to escape you would still know where she is. Make sure to keep the test tube wrapped in paper so it is always dark if you do provide her with an outworld. Example of an outworld can be a small tupperware big enough to fit her test tube with a hole bored out plugged with cotton for ventilation. Even if you're queen manages to obtain a way to leave her test tube it is unlikely she would actually leave the test tube as long as it is dark and humid because she already settled down and there is no other better place to nest.

 

Two eggs shouldn't be a big loss for her and if she laid eggs in only three days of you catching her she will likely lay more. Also don't worry about her dying, Camponotus are very hardy ants. You can try feeding her protein if you want, Camponotus are known to like fruit flies and crickets from pet stores. I saw a method of feeding cricket legs to ants without leaving the garbage in the test tube in a blog by TarHeelAnts, it demonstrated tying a string to the end of a cricket leg (not the thigh, the smaller part) and making sure the string is sticking out of the cotton that is blocking the entrance of the test tube while feeding so the caregiver can pull the cricket leg out after the ants are done eating. I have never tried this method but you shouldn't worry too much about leaving garbage in the test tube. You can also catch insects in the wild to feed the ants. I would recommend researching on what your species like to eat and sterilizing the insects somehow before feeding. Also make sure you feed dead food to your ants in founding, live food can seriously stress out small ant colonies.

 

Blog link: http://tarheelants.blogspot.com/

 

At this point I have realized that there are too many things about ant keeping I can't remember and write down. Don't worry too much about your queen, she will most likely be fine. If she does end up perishing you can always catch more. And if you have any more questions don't be afraid to ask! 

Edited by super_oil, May 15 2018 - 8:52 AM.

[super_oil]

I forgot to mention, if you ever want to have a community of people to talk about ants to, you can join the ant keeping discord server. The server is more like the Formiculture live chat here but more people use it and it has more features, you would get faster responses to questions or generally anything there, it is hosted on the software Discord. You can also join the ant keeping sub-reddit, it does not affiliate with Formiculture but the people that run the discord server runs the sub.

 

Discord link: https://discordapp.com/invite/qrAqPAQ

Sub link: https://www.reddit.com/r/antkeeping/

[ecobb10091]

Here are some of my advice:

 

Don't do everything based off one source of information. For example, watch videos and read threads from multiple people instead of just getting all of your ant keeping knowledge from one guy. I live in Florida right now and I've only been keeping ants here so the things I say might not apply to you at all times.

 

Be patient. This is something I struggle with. Ant keeping requires a lot of patience to be rewarding. I recommend checking on your founding queens once a week, she should have workers in less than two months. If you disturb you're queen too much, she might not lay any eggs or eat the eggs she laid. Keep her in a place that's dark and away from vibrations (off the ground).

 

Don't perform a risky action if not necessary, I did that a lot and I don't want you to make the same mistakes I've made. For example, don't attempt to move your ants out of their current nest unless necessary, it will stress them out. When I was a new ant keeper, I would always try to move my ants as soon as I see a little bit of mold, but it is completely unnecessary to do so, ants won't be harmed by a little bit of mold, only move your ants in situations such as the mold covering over half of the test tube water reservoir cotton. 

 

Following up my last point, think thoroughly before performing an action. Before you removed the cotton and ended up accidentally destroying her eggs, were there anything else you could have done that had less chance of harming the queen or her brood? Would she really escape the test tube or were you just too worried? (Not saying you did the wrong thing I'm just setting possibilities.) When coming up with a solution to a problem, make sure to research and plan it thoroughly and think of alternatives and situations where your plan won't go so well and how to deal with it. Constantly moving your queen can harm her more than you think, when a queen settles down in an area and gets moved to a new area she cannot recognize, she can be seriously stressed out, but do not move your queen back now, try to keep her in the test tube you have her in right now unless she MUST move out of it. You can glue or tape cotton balls together to form stronger cotton balls that are harder for your queen to tear and escape through, or you can give her an out world so even if she manages to escape you would still know where she is. Make sure to keep the test tube wrapped in paper so it is always dark if you do provide her with an outworld. Example of an outworld can be a small tupperware big enough to fit her test tube with a hole bored out plugged with cotton for ventilation. Even if you're queen manages to obtain a way to leave her test tube it is unlikely she would actually leave the test tube as long as it is dark and humid because she already settled down and there is no other better place to nest.

 

Two eggs shouldn't be a big loss for her and if she laid eggs in only three days of you catching her she will likely lay more. Also don't worry about her dying, Camponotus are very hardy ants. You can try feeding her protein if you want, Camponotus are known to like fruit flies and crickets from pet stores. I saw a method of feeding cricket legs to ants without leaving the garbage in the test tube in a blog by TarHeelAnts, it demonstrated tying a string to the end of a cricket leg (not the thigh, the smaller part) and making sure the string is sticking out of the cotton that is blocking the entrance of the test tube while feeding so the caregiver can pull the cricket leg out after the ants are done eating. I have never tried this method but you shouldn't worry too much about leaving garbage in the test tube. You can also catch insects in the wild to feed the ants. I would recommend researching on what your species like to eat and sterilizing the insects somehow before feeding. Also make sure you feed dead food to your ants in founding, live food can seriously stress out small ant colonies.

 

Blog link: http://tarheelants.blogspot.com/

 

At this point I have realized that there are two many things about ant keeping I can remember and write down. Don't worry too much about your queen, she will most likely be fine. If she does end up perishing you can always catch more. And if you have any more questions don't be afraid to ask! 

Thank you all for your responses. Thank you for your feedback as well^. I can tell you are a very knowledgable person. I left her alone and went to catch more queens. I returned from my walk with 4 new queen Camponotus' today and after getting their test tubes set up, I put them in the same tub as my other queen. I saw two new eggs from her! Restored my hopes with her. Thank you again. 

 

Best, 

ecobb10091

[super_oil]

 

Here are some of my advice:

 

Don't do everything based off one source of information. For example, watch videos and read threads from multiple people instead of just getting all of your ant keeping knowledge from one guy. I live in Florida right now and I've only been keeping ants here so the things I say might not apply to you at all times.

 

Be patient. This is something I struggle with. Ant keeping requires a lot of patience to be rewarding. I recommend checking on your founding queens once a week, she should have workers in less than two months. If you disturb you're queen too much, she might not lay any eggs or eat the eggs she laid. Keep her in a place that's dark and away from vibrations (off the ground).

 

Don't perform a risky action if not necessary, I did that a lot and I don't want you to make the same mistakes I've made. For example, don't attempt to move your ants out of their current nest unless necessary, it will stress them out. When I was a new ant keeper, I would always try to move my ants as soon as I see a little bit of mold, but it is completely unnecessary to do so, ants won't be harmed by a little bit of mold, only move your ants in situations such as the mold covering over half of the test tube water reservoir cotton. 

 

Following up my last point, think thoroughly before performing an action. Before you removed the cotton and ended up accidentally destroying her eggs, were there anything else you could have done that had less chance of harming the queen or her brood? Would she really escape the test tube or were you just too worried? (Not saying you did the wrong thing I'm just setting possibilities.) When coming up with a solution to a problem, make sure to research and plan it thoroughly and think of alternatives and situations where your plan won't go so well and how to deal with it. Constantly moving your queen can harm her more than you think, when a queen settles down in an area and gets moved to a new area she cannot recognize, she can be seriously stressed out, but do not move your queen back now, try to keep her in the test tube you have her in right now unless she MUST move out of it. You can glue or tape cotton balls together to form stronger cotton balls that are harder for your queen to tear and escape through, or you can give her an out world so even if she manages to escape you would still know where she is. Make sure to keep the test tube wrapped in paper so it is always dark if you do provide her with an outworld. Example of an outworld can be a small tupperware big enough to fit her test tube with a hole bored out plugged with cotton for ventilation. Even if you're queen manages to obtain a way to leave her test tube it is unlikely she would actually leave the test tube as long as it is dark and humid because she already settled down and there is no other better place to nest.

 

Two eggs shouldn't be a big loss for her and if she laid eggs in only three days of you catching her she will likely lay more. Also don't worry about her dying, Camponotus are very hardy ants. You can try feeding her protein if you want, Camponotus are known to like fruit flies and crickets from pet stores. I saw a method of feeding cricket legs to ants without leaving the garbage in the test tube in a blog by TarHeelAnts, it demonstrated tying a string to the end of a cricket leg (not the thigh, the smaller part) and making sure the string is sticking out of the cotton that is blocking the entrance of the test tube while feeding so the caregiver can pull the cricket leg out after the ants are done eating. I have never tried this method but you shouldn't worry too much about leaving garbage in the test tube. You can also catch insects in the wild to feed the ants. I would recommend researching on what your species like to eat and sterilizing the insects somehow before feeding. Also make sure you feed dead food to your ants in founding, live food can seriously stress out small ant colonies.

 

Blog link: http://tarheelants.blogspot.com/

 

At this point I have realized that there are two many things about ant keeping I can remember and write down. Don't worry too much about your queen, she will most likely be fine. If she does end up perishing you can always catch more. And if you have any more questions don't be afraid to ask! 

Thank you all for your responses. Thank you for your feedback as well^. I can tell you are a very knowledgable person. I left her alone and went to catch more queens. I returned from my walk with 4 new queen Camponotus' today and after getting their test tubes set up, I put them in the same tub as my other queen. I saw two new eggs from her! Restored my hopes with her. Thank you again. 

 

Best, 

ecobb10091

 

Happy to hear the great news!

[Shifty189]

 

Here are some of my advice:

 

Don't do everything based off one source of information. For example, watch videos and read threads from multiple people instead of just getting all of your ant keeping knowledge from one guy. I live in Florida right now and I've only been keeping ants here so the things I say might not apply to you at all times.

 

Be patient. This is something I struggle with. Ant keeping requires a lot of patience to be rewarding. I recommend checking on your founding queens once a week, she should have workers in less than two months. If you disturb you're queen too much, she might not lay any eggs or eat the eggs she laid. Keep her in a place that's dark and away from vibrations (off the ground).

 

Don't perform a risky action if not necessary, I did that a lot and I don't want you to make the same mistakes I've made. For example, don't attempt to move your ants out of their current nest unless necessary, it will stress them out. When I was a new ant keeper, I would always try to move my ants as soon as I see a little bit of mold, but it is completely unnecessary to do so, ants won't be harmed by a little bit of mold, only move your ants in situations such as the mold covering over half of the test tube water reservoir cotton. 

 

Following up my last point, think thoroughly before performing an action. Before you removed the cotton and ended up accidentally destroying her eggs, were there anything else you could have done that had less chance of harming the queen or her brood? Would she really escape the test tube or were you just too worried? (Not saying you did the wrong thing I'm just setting possibilities.) When coming up with a solution to a problem, make sure to research and plan it thoroughly and think of alternatives and situations where your plan won't go so well and how to deal with it. Constantly moving your queen can harm her more than you think, when a queen settles down in an area and gets moved to a new area she cannot recognize, she can be seriously stressed out, but do not move your queen back now, try to keep her in the test tube you have her in right now unless she MUST move out of it. You can glue or tape cotton balls together to form stronger cotton balls that are harder for your queen to tear and escape through, or you can give her an out world so even if she manages to escape you would still know where she is. Make sure to keep the test tube wrapped in paper so it is always dark if you do provide her with an outworld. Example of an outworld can be a small tupperware big enough to fit her test tube with a hole bored out plugged with cotton for ventilation. Even if you're queen manages to obtain a way to leave her test tube it is unlikely she would actually leave the test tube as long as it is dark and humid because she already settled down and there is no other better place to nest.

 

Two eggs shouldn't be a big loss for her and if she laid eggs in only three days of you catching her she will likely lay more. Also don't worry about her dying, Camponotus are very hardy ants. You can try feeding her protein if you want, Camponotus are known to like fruit flies and crickets from pet stores. I saw a method of feeding cricket legs to ants without leaving the garbage in the test tube in a blog by TarHeelAnts, it demonstrated tying a string to the end of a cricket leg (not the thigh, the smaller part) and making sure the string is sticking out of the cotton that is blocking the entrance of the test tube while feeding so the caregiver can pull the cricket leg out after the ants are done eating. I have never tried this method but you shouldn't worry too much about leaving garbage in the test tube. You can also catch insects in the wild to feed the ants. I would recommend researching on what your species like to eat and sterilizing the insects somehow before feeding. Also make sure you feed dead food to your ants in founding, live food can seriously stress out small ant colonies.

 

Blog link: http://tarheelants.blogspot.com/

 

At this point I have realized that there are two many things about ant keeping I can remember and write down. Don't worry too much about your queen, she will most likely be fine. If she does end up perishing you can always catch more. And if you have any more questions don't be afraid to ask! 

Thank you all for your responses. Thank you for your feedback as well^. I can tell you are a very knowledgable person. I left her alone and went to catch more queens. I returned from my walk with 4 new queen Camponotus' today and after getting their test tubes set up, I put them in the same tub as my other queen. I saw two new eggs from her! Restored my hopes with her. Thank you again. 

 

Best, 

ecobb10091

 

Awesome! give her a week or two before checking on her again or you run the risk of her eating her eggs