23 replies to this topic

[Mercutia]

I caught these pretty little girls July 4, 2013.

 

 

 

They urrently are all at the 25 worker point.

[dspdrew]

25 workers, that's pretty good.

[Mercutia]

Yep. The heating cable really helps boost the brood count.

[Mercutia]

So out of all my Tetramorium colonies that I put into hibernation (I think it was about 3) only 2 survived and they aren't doing so well. They don't have any brood and all the workers died. I hope they'll restart okay.

[dspdrew]

So out of all my Tetramorium colonies that I put into hibernation (I think it was about 3) only 2 survived and they aren't doing so well. They don't have any brood and all the workers died. I hope they'll restart okay.

Wow, hibernating them seems dangerous with all these stories I hear. I'm glad I don't normally have to hibernate mine.

[Matt]

I've also had a Tetramorium sp, but even without hibernation, the queen's dead in january. However, I've always read that this species doesn't need any hibernation. 

[Mercutia]

I looked in on my Tets today. One of the queens has a sizable cluch of larvae. Where the hell did that come from?! It wasn't there yesterday.... O.O

[Mercutia]

Wow, hibernating them seems dangerous with all these stories I hear. I'm glad I don't normally have to hibernate mine.

Yeah, I hear a lot of stories of colonies that just die off after hibernation... I'm crossing my fingers.

[Crystals]

Hibernation is generally the last major challenge queens face.  I read a paper somewhere that the gene that allows them to produce the anti-freeze in their blood sometimes doesn't work right.  Odd that the workers died though.

 

Is it possible that they overwintered small larvae in the cotton?  A few of my species did that.

 

If you feed the queens every 2-3 days they may pull through.  Put some food on a small piece of tin foil for easy clean up. 

[WeatherAnt]

Wow, hibernating them seems dangerous with all these stories I hear. I'm glad I don't normally have to hibernate mine.

 

I've never had a problem with hibernation.

 

Mercutia - what temperatures did you keep them at and for how long?

[Mercutia]

Probably around 4-10C? My fridge was set to mid temp.

[WeatherAnt]

Hmm that's usually what I would keep mine at. As long as the queens survived you can still get them going again. Maybe try brood boosting them in case the queens need help.

[Mercutia]

One of the queens died. I have one tetramorium queen left and she has brood but her test tube is getting mad moldy and she refuses to move =/. Why are my ants so stubborn. No amount of light or heat can cooerce them to move.

[Crystals]

You can try putting a syringe in the old tube and removing as much water from the reservoir as possible.  Lack of moisture will convince them to move faster, although it still may take a week or so for the cotton to completely dry out.

 

My ants either seem to follow the heat (probably because the room is somewhat cool) or else they move with a few blows of air into the old chamber a few times a day.  But I will happily admit that I have no experience moving Tetramorium, so I will wait and see what works for you. 

[WeatherAnt]

One of the queens died. I have one tetramorium queen left and she has brood but her test tube is getting mad moldy and she refuses to move =/. Why are my ants so stubborn. No amount of light or heat can cooerce them to move.

 

My Tetramorium colony would be pretty stubborn too. I used heat but that alone wasn't enough. I would wrap a pretty cold (not cold enough to kill them obviously) wet napkin over their tube. They really didn't like the cold you they moved to the heated (new) tube very quickly. You could try that.

[Mercutia]

I've tried that too... they don't move.

[dspdrew]

I tried to get some stupid Lasius queen to move once and that thing just sat there even with the tube sitting in ice water. And no, it wasn't frozen ... yet... eventually she fell over on her side so I took her out of the ice water. But even after she could move again, she still wouldn't even budge for hours.

[Mercutia]

Some ants just don't know what's good for them.

[Mercutia]

Ending this journal. None of the Tet colonies survived.

[Crystals]

That is too bad.

 

I often have problems moving colonies unless the cotton is 100% dried out.