5 replies to this topic

[Seaking]

About one year now I brought a Banded Sugar Ant at the beginning she start laying eggs and she start to eat the eggs so I read about and look like I was looking her to many times so I left her alone and after some time she had 4 ants, about a month ago she decided to kill all her workers the only 4 I had, now she is in a new and clean test tube again but she not laying any eggs, well we are in the winter time here and the temperature in her place is 15c and 54 humidity.

I do have a heat matt I had used before but look like sometimes she was running away of the heat and i noticed the water was evaporating  (The heat matt is a reptile 5w) this was the lowers I could find.

I have her in the tube inside a Wardrobe in my computer room the noise is quite low and I don't open the wardrobe often but no heating inside there which keep the temp low.

Well the main question here is what can I do to make her start to have some eggs and start to grown a colony Thank you.

 

[ZTYguy]

Were you feeding them? I don't believe she killed them, this sounds like a textbook case of waiting too long to feed a Camponotus colony qnd all the workers die. In terms of refounding her, I suggest offering her some sugar water and placing her in a dark and warm place for a month. Then once workers emerge you have to start feeding the colony regularly.

[L.H]

If you could get your hands on some banded sugar ant brood, and brood boost your queen, along with feeding her some honey and protein, that would have a pretty high chance of success for her to refound. Then just take care of them like a normal ant colony once they have workers.

[Seaking]

Thank you for the reply and yes she was getting feed, her tube was inside a closed carboard box and had a heat pad I gave to her and the worker ant food and some chicken paste some time I leave the food for 24 hours then I remove the food, then one day I went to look and I just saw Pices of ants on the ground, so I moved her to a clean tube about a month now and she is inside a red chamber to protect from the light and also she is inside of a wardrobe nobody use.

The only thing is the temperature is around 15 degrees and 53 percent of humidity, I know is cold but as far i read she hibernate in winter and here is winter now, I not sure if I use the heat mat right now.

Sorry guy's this is my first time on this new hobby.

Thank you for your time. 

 

About the ant brood for me is the wrong time of the year to find then thank you for your input.

Edited by Seaking, Yesterday, 5:10 PM.

[Stubyvast]

Ok, couple things to note here: I think that in general, you're doing great so far! 

You should make sure that the heating pad is not directly contacting the test-tube (I think you mentioned you were not making direct contact, so good job), as it could overheat and stress out the queen. 

Second, I probably wouldn't feed the colony every day, just once or twice a week for small colonies. That should keep disturbances to a minimum. Ants don't need that much food. Also make sure the colony is getting sugar-water or honey. Without it workers will starve to death, and be recycled as food for the next generation.

Since you can't find brood for your queen, you might want to start a new thread asking for brood here on formiculture. Assuming their are other ant-keepers in your area, you might be able to obtain some brood for the queen. If this is not the case, I would just treat your queen as a semi-claustral, feeding her sugar-water and food once a week. And yeah with hibernation keep the temperature low. Keep your fingers crossed!

[Seaking]

Thank you for you help always is good to know I not going to kill the queen Yet .