6 replies to this topic

[AntaholicAnonymous]

Hey, I have a colony of manica rubida (large European red ant).

They take in queens at a larger colony size and can become polygynous.They are round about 45 to 50 workers so I'll have to wait a bit but does anyone have experience with adding queens?

I wanna know how to raise the odds of them taking her in and not killing her.
If someone has knowledge or an idea let's talk about it

[AntaholicAnonymous]

Looks like I'll have to try myself. lol

-I'd guess it's best to give them a lot of space so they don't see her as a threat at the nest entrance area.

-Make sure the colony is large enough to welcome another queen wich is probably in the several hundreds.

-maybe cool the environment a bit to make them less jumpy and aggressive.

-Make sure they have more than enough food available.

-definitely a queen without workers or who's not far into the founding stage. I bet she'd wanna do her own thing once she started off properly.

[Mdrogun]

There really seems to be no kind of "tried and tested" method for this in almost any species. My most recent queen introduction was when I introduced a Formica monatana queen to my colony of one queen and ~200 workers. All I did was just throw the queen into the outworld and the workers accepted her. Most likely, many species are going to require more nuance than this. So I guess my conclusion is good luck have fun, hahaha.

[RushmoreAnts]

There really seems to be no kind of "tried and tested" method for this in almost any species. My most recent queen introduction was when I introduced a Formica monatana queen to my colony of one queen and ~200 workers. All I did was just throw the queen into the outworld and the workers accepted her. Most likely, many species are going to require more nuance than this. So I guess my conclusion is good luck have fun, hahaha.

I just throw queens in colonies too, and it works great for most (Lasius, Formica, Solenopsis molesta, Ponera pennsylvanica, etc.)

[AntaholicAnonymous]

Yea finding any data about this or my species in general won't get you very far.

I don't mind doing the science myself tho.
In 2 to 3 months I'll get 2 queens and try my luck.
Manica have no concept of being relaxed both queen and the workers so them meeting will be intense for sure

[Ants_Dakota]

Just make sure they are the same species.

[AntaholicAnonymous]

Just make sure they are the same species.

Yea for sure I bought the first off ant store in Germany and I'll get the others there as well.
Manica are native to my area but the queens are hard to come by.

I have a huge terrarium for them so they can't get cornered by workers the queens no doubt win the 1v1 against a woker