I meant to post something on Friday about this but became overwhelmed with work and school that I was unable to. 

I decided to take a different approach to this same very experiment (So credit to those who started this for the idea). 

I thought that the same thing could be done in a more applicable way if it was within the same species and that species has been known to be polygynous. I've had previous problems with my Prenolepis imparis queens dying so I thought I'd try it with them. So, I doused 4 caught queens (from recent nuptial flights) in vinegar for 20ish seconds, ensuring no air bubbles. I dried them off with cotton and put them in a test tube for a minute and added them one by one to a bunch of collected workers from a nearby colony. (I did test before this experiment and aggression was shown with the foreign queens) They quickly accepted them and were continuously licking them off for a few hours. They were brought into the nest and have been fed by some of the repletes. I'm still looking for egg laying to begin, but so far they have been peaceful and fully accepted to the colony. 

My purpose of this was to see if vinegar could be used to help queens who had their workers die off, or for colonies in which the queen died off. The same concept works for dousing workers and introducing them to queens. I tried it with a Camponotus chromaiodes colony I have and the workers were quickly accepted and still aren't treated any differently after 2 months. I hope some of you find this applicable and will try and see if this is a possible solution to colonies dying out or worker die offs. I will continue to occasionally try it with other species as the season progresses, but so far it works with Camponotus (not sure if it works for all species, may need more study) and Prenolepis imparis. I didn't take any pictures of the process, but I will take pictures for my next one and document it the best I can for you all. 

I meant to post something on Friday about this but became overwhelmed with work and school that I was unable to. 

I decided to take a different approach to this same very experiment (So credit to those who started this for the idea). 

I thought that the same thing could be done in a more applicable way if it was within the same species and that species has been known to be polygynous. I've had previous problems with my Prenolepis imparis queens dying so I thought I'd try it with them. So, I doused 4 caught queens (from recent nuptial flights) in vinegar for 20ish seconds, ensuring no air bubbles. I dried them off with cotton and put them in a test tube for a minute and added them one by one to a bunch of collected workers from a nearby colony. (I did test before this experiment and aggression was shown with the foreign queens) They quickly accepted them and were continuously licking them off for a few hours. They were brought into the nest and have been fed by some of the repletes. I'm still looking for egg laying to begin, but so far they have been peaceful and fully accepted to the colony. 

My purpose of this was to see if vinegar could be used to help queens who had their workers die off, or for colonies in which the queen died off. The same concept works for dousing workers and introducing them to queens. I tried it with a Camponotus chromaiodes colony I have and the workers were quickly accepted and still aren't treated any differently after 2 months. I hope some of you find this applicable and will try and see if this is a possible solution to colonies dying out or worker die offs. I will continue to occasionally try it with other species as the season progresses, but so far it works with Camponotus (not sure if it works for all species, may need more study) and Prenolepis imparis. I didn't take any pictures of the process, but I will take pictures for my next one and document it the best I can for you all. 

In my experience Prenolepis imparis workers will accept a new Queen even without vinegar, a lot of the times workers from other colonies won't attack each other and will just fuse if put in the same tube. Prenolepis are extremely chill ants when it comes to being introduced to other workers and queens.

I meant to post something on Friday about this but became overwhelmed with work and school that I was unable to.
I decided to take a different approach to this same very experiment (So credit to those who started this for the idea).
I thought that the same thing could be done in a more applicable way if it was within the same species and that species has been known to be polygynous. I've had previous problems with my Prenolepis imparis queens dying so I thought I'd try it with them. So, I doused 4 caught queens (from recent nuptial flights) in vinegar for 20ish seconds, ensuring no air bubbles. I dried them off with cotton and put them in a test tube for a minute and added them one by one to a bunch of collected workers from a nearby colony. (I did test before this experiment and aggression was shown with the foreign queens) They quickly accepted them and were continuously licking them off for a few hours. They were brought into the nest and have been fed by some of the repletes. I'm still looking for egg laying to begin, but so far they have been peaceful and fully accepted to the colony.
My purpose of this was to see if vinegar could be used to help queens who had their workers die off, or for colonies in which the queen died off. The same concept works for dousing workers and introducing them to queens. I tried it with a Camponotus chromaiodes colony I have and the workers were quickly accepted and still aren't treated any differently after 2 months. I hope some of you find this applicable and will try and see if this is a possible solution to colonies dying out or worker die offs. I will continue to occasionally try it with other species as the season progresses, but so far it works with Camponotus (not sure if it works for all species, may need more study) and Prenolepis imparis. I didn't take any pictures of the process, but I will take pictures for my next one and document it the best I can for you all.

In my experience Prenolepis imparis workers will accept a new Queen even without vinegar, a lot of the times workers from other colonies won't attack each other and will just fuse if put in the same tube. Prenolepis are extremely chill ants when it comes to being introduced to other workers and queens.

 

 

I meant to post something on Friday about this but became overwhelmed with work and school that I was unable to.
I decided to take a different approach to this same very experiment (So credit to those who started this for the idea).
I thought that the same thing could be done in a more applicable way if it was within the same species and that species has been known to be polygynous. I've had previous problems with my Prenolepis imparis queens dying so I thought I'd try it with them. So, I doused 4 caught queens (from recent nuptial flights) in vinegar for 20ish seconds, ensuring no air bubbles. I dried them off with cotton and put them in a test tube for a minute and added them one by one to a bunch of collected workers from a nearby colony. (I did test before this experiment and aggression was shown with the foreign queens) They quickly accepted them and were continuously licking them off for a few hours. They were brought into the nest and have been fed by some of the repletes. I'm still looking for egg laying to begin, but so far they have been peaceful and fully accepted to the colony.
My purpose of this was to see if vinegar could be used to help queens who had their workers die off, or for colonies in which the queen died off. The same concept works for dousing workers and introducing them to queens. I tried it with a Camponotus chromaiodes colony I have and the workers were quickly accepted and still aren't treated any differently after 2 months. I hope some of you find this applicable and will try and see if this is a possible solution to colonies dying out or worker die offs. I will continue to occasionally try it with other species as the season progresses, but so far it works with Camponotus (not sure if it works for all species, may need more study) and Prenolepis imparis. I didn't take any pictures of the process, but I will take pictures for my next one and document it the best I can for you all.

In my experience Prenolepis imparis workers will accept a new Queen even without vinegar, a lot of the times workers from other colonies won't attack each other and will just fuse if put in the same tube. Prenolepis are extremely chill ants when it comes to being introduced to other workers and queens.

Are you from a more southern area? It seems as the Prenolepis imparis population becomes more Northern, the more monogynous they are. I haven't had the same success as you when I comes to introducing workers and queens that aren't from the same initial colony. The vinegar method is the first time I've ever had it work!

 

The vinegar trick worked for me, but you have to keep their diet the same prior to introducing. 

 

 

I meant to post something on Friday about this but became overwhelmed with work and school that I was unable to.
I decided to take a different approach to this same very experiment (So credit to those who started this for the idea).
I thought that the same thing could be done in a more applicable way if it was within the same species and that species has been known to be polygynous. I've had previous problems with my Prenolepis imparis queens dying so I thought I'd try it with them. So, I doused 4 caught queens (from recent nuptial flights) in vinegar for 20ish seconds, ensuring no air bubbles. I dried them off with cotton and put them in a test tube for a minute and added them one by one to a bunch of collected workers from a nearby colony. (I did test before this experiment and aggression was shown with the foreign queens) They quickly accepted them and were continuously licking them off for a few hours. They were brought into the nest and have been fed by some of the repletes. I'm still looking for egg laying to begin, but so far they have been peaceful and fully accepted to the colony.
My purpose of this was to see if vinegar could be used to help queens who had their workers die off, or for colonies in which the queen died off. The same concept works for dousing workers and introducing them to queens. I tried it with a Camponotus chromaiodes colony I have and the workers were quickly accepted and still aren't treated any differently after 2 months. I hope some of you find this applicable and will try and see if this is a possible solution to colonies dying out or worker die offs. I will continue to occasionally try it with other species as the season progresses, but so far it works with Camponotus (not sure if it works for all species, may need more study) and Prenolepis imparis. I didn't take any pictures of the process, but I will take pictures for my next one and document it the best I can for you all.

In my experience Prenolepis imparis workers will accept a new Queen even without vinegar, a lot of the times workers from other colonies won't attack each other and will just fuse if put in the same tube. Prenolepis are extremely chill ants when it comes to being introduced to other workers and queens.

Are you from a more southern area? It seems as the Prenolepis imparis population becomes more Northern, the more monogynous they are. I haven't had the same success as you when I comes to introducing workers and queens that aren't from the same initial colony. The vinegar method is the first time I've ever had it work!

 

Might be an isolated population, but when I collected Prenolepis imparis, I'd see queens be rerecruited into nests even in Toronto

You should probably try this with two similar sized polygynous species.

I think two polgynous Temnothorax  like Curvispinosus and Ambiguus would work. 

Or two hybridizing polygenous species like S. invicta or richteri.

Or two hybridizing polygenous species like S. invicta or richteri.

Why not throw in some Linepithema while you’re at it?

I think two polgynous Temnothorax  like Curvispinosus and Ambiguus would work. 

I had a Temnothorax group of about 20 queens successfully found in 2021 before the multispecies experiments, which now looking back at pictures probably had both curvi and ambi in it and possibly even a duloticus queen. 

 

I think two polgynous Temnothorax  like Curvispinosus and Ambiguus would work. 

I had a Temnothorax group of about 20 queens successfully found in 2021 before the multispecies experiments, which now looking back at pictures probably had both curvi and ambi in it and possibly even a duloticus queen. 

 

Could you post some of the pictures.

Can I use this kind of vinegar to take the scent off of  workers from one myrmecocystus colony so I can add them to another? 

Edited by Tanks, July 31 2023 - 2:50 PM.

Edited by Virginian_ants, August 3 2023 - 1:39 PM.