5 replies to this topic

[evanmancini2011]

I have an unidentified ant colony that I have had for a few years, this year they started producing ant alates which I was super excited for! But suddenly the queen alates started dying randomly. I made sure that this colony had plenty of access to food and water and suddenly the queen alates started dying! It's weird why only the queen alates were dying and the male alates weren't. Dose anyone know why this is happening?

 

Thank You for your time!

 

[GOCAMPONOTUS]

Its normal for colonies to cull alates. Females tend to sap up a lot of food while the males less. When they don't fly they become of no use and therefore culled. Its not a big problem so no need to worry much.

[Artisan_Ants]

Its normal for colonies to cull alates. Females tend to sap up a lot of food while the males less. When they don't fly they become of no use and therefore culled. Its not a big problem so no need to worry much.

In some species they can also use them as workers but it's usually culling they do as explained by GOCAMPONOTUS. You might have alates for a while so it would be useful to post some pics of your colony to ID as it could help you with future problems (if any occur if course).

[ANTdrew]

Fixed spelling in title.

[Stubyvast]

Can't wait to hit that point for my ​lasius niger. At what point do they start producing alates? 

[Artisan_Ants]

Can't wait to hit that point for my ​lasius niger. At what point do they start producing alates?

Usually in the thousands but for some species, they may rarely get alates in the hundreds (although it is highly unlikely even though a possibility). Most start getting them in the thousands though and they receive them at their flying times (if a species that flies in the spring of next year, then they will produce alates in the fall or winter before while in captivity and just naturally from what I’ve seen).