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Is it ok to take them out of hibernation?

ant ants queen first eggs founding test tube hibernation mold month early brachymyrmex depilis small

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#1 Offline SummysAnts - Posted January 2 2017 - 9:56 PM

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Hello, I posted some while ago about some queens I had caught during a nuptial flight in October.

Here's a link to that post: http://www.formicult...6/?fromsearch=1

They were identified as Brachymyrmex depilis queens. Which was quite exciting since that ment they were polygynous. I of course combined some of them :)
Almost immediately after I caught these queens they seemed to go into a state of hibernation, probably because it was cold outside and the fact that they were caught so late in the season.
So I moved them to the coldest room in the house and made sleeves for the test tube's in order to keep them dark.
After that I mostly left them alone and only checked on them occasionally. On most every check they weren't moving at all and didn't do much.
But a few days ago on December 27th when I checked on them they were moving around and to my surprise one of the queens had a small white clump in her mouth, which upon closer inspection turned outo to be eggs! (yay) Then yesterday when I checked on them again they were moving around more and I saw what I believed to be more eggs in various other test tubes.
Later that day the new bigger test tubes I had ordered from LCM arrived. A lot of the queens current test tube's had a good amount of mold and a few were getin dangerously low on water so I decided to attach them and give them the chance to move on their own. A few actually went out to investigate the new tubes, which is more activity than I've seem them do since I caught them.
I was wondering if given these eggs and their increased activity it would be OK to take then out of hibernation early and place them on a heat cable. They have only been in hibernation for about two and a half months. Sorry if that's a silly question.

Also if I do take them out of hibernation should I feed them since they went into it so early?

Also another possibly silly question, would it still be OK to combine a few more of them into multi queen colonies or are they already too established? I don't want them to kill each other or eat their eggs.

Thank you in advance for reading this and giving your suggestions, by the way I plan on starting a journal on them soon.

#2 Offline AnthonyP163 - Posted January 3 2017 - 6:59 AM

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Hello, I posted some while ago about some queens I had caught during a nuptial flight in October.
Here's a link to that post: http://www.formicult...6/?fromsearch=1
They were identified as Brachymyrmex depilis queens. Which was quite exciting since that ment they were polygynous. I of course combined some of them :)
Almost immediately after I caught these queens they seemed to go into a state of hibernation, probably because it was cold outside and the fact that they were caught so late in the season.
So I moved them to the coldest room in the house and made sleeves for the test tube's in order to keep them dark.
After that I mostly left them alone and only checked on them occasionally. On most every check they weren't moving at all and didn't do much.
But a few days ago on December 27th when I checked on them they were moving around and to my surprise one of the queens had a small white clump in her mouth, which upon closer inspection turned outo to be eggs! (yay) Then yesterday when I checked on them again they were moving around more and I saw what I believed to be more eggs in various other test tubes.
Later that day the new bigger test tubes I had ordered from LCM arrived. A lot of the queens current test tube's had a good amount of mold and a few were getin dangerously low on water so I decided to attach them and give them the chance to move on their own. A few actually went out to investigate the new tubes, which is more activity than I've seem them do since I caught them.
I was wondering if given these eggs and their increased activity it would be OK to take then out of hibernation early and place them on a heat cable. They have only been in hibernation for about two and a half months. Sorry if that's a silly question.
Also if I do take them out of hibernation should I feed them since they went into it so early?
Also another possibly silly question, would it still be OK to combine a few more of them into multi queen colonies or are they already too established? I don't want them to kill each other or eat their eggs.
Thank you in advance for reading this and giving your suggestions, by the way I plan on starting a journal on them soon.

take them out, I look forward to seeing a journal on these. I also look forward to mine laying eggs (:


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#3 Offline SummysAnts - Posted January 5 2017 - 8:10 PM

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I will take them out thank you :) and yes I'm excited to start the journal as well. I look forward to hearing about your queens

#4 Offline Batspiderfish - Posted January 5 2017 - 10:31 PM

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I wouldn't take them out until you see ants returning to forage in the wild.


If you've enjoyed using my expertise and identifications, please do not create undue ecological risk by releasing your ants. The environment which we keep our pet insects is alien and oftentimes unsanitary, so ensure that wild populations stay safe by giving your ants the best care you can manage for the rest of their lives, as we must do with any other pet.

 

Exotic ants are for those who think that vibrant diversity is something you need to pay money to see. It is illegal to transport live ants across state lines.

 

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Black lives still matter.






Also tagged with one or more of these keywords: ant, ants, queen, first, eggs, founding, test tube, hibernation, mold, month, early, brachymyrmex, depilis, small

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