24 replies to this topic

[Foogoo]

 

Can you make a picture of the nests?

Here's my setups, ranging from bare test tube, tube with some sand, filled with sand, to various nests. The ones in the THA Talus and Mini Hearth seem most calm. The ones in my homemade nests are ok, while the ones in the tubes are all still nuts...

 

[Jonathan21700]

Thanks!

[PTAntFan]

How's everyone's queens doing? A few of mine have laid eggs but they're nearly all still going nuts. I think test tubes really aren't their thing. Some of the tubes I filled with earth and they've dug tunnels, but just to go at the other cotton. I also made a few hydrostone chambers (need to update my founding setup thread) and they're not much happier. The only two that seem calm are in substrate-coated artificial nests...

All three of mine are doing poorly.  One of them has died.  The other two just won't calm down.  One is in a tube with some soil.  The other is in a tube attached to an outworld.  She at least goes back into the tube regularly and chills, but no sign of any eggs yet.  I wonder if these queens all had small clutches already and so they are battling the instinct to find the clutch instead of starting over.

[Chromerust]

I've seen Pogonomyrmex eventually give up after losing their eggs a few times

[Foogoo]

Even though most of mine have eggs, they're still agitated. When I get time in a few weeks I'm going to make more of my hydrostone nests and hopefully have enough to give to people in the area to try with the desert queens that don't do well with test tubes. Hopefully it'll be a better alternative to the test tube...