2 replies to this topic

[CozmoDog]

Hey guys I have in my posession a winged camponotus queen, she is acting very strangely and I was wondering if you could tell me something, so I'll start on how I got this queen basicly a friend of mine who was working in the fields cleaning found the queen apparently there are no ants there because they spraythe flowers so My guess is that the queen either landed there or he dug her up by accident. When he brought here to me I placed her inside a test tube. Her behavior is very weird at first she was pulling her gaster up to her face manically almost like she was trying to spray herself, the second thing is she would stay in a curled up position for a bit like she was playing dead, after I checked today about 4 days since I got her she seems like she stopped doing these things and is instead trying to get out by tugging on the cotton. Now my first question is if she is fertile and she already laid eggs and then was dug up will she be willing to lay again also should I try adding some soil into the test tube if so do I need a certain type of soil or will plain old dirt from outside work.

[Serafine]

They spray the flowers so she most likely got poisoned. If you're lucky she manages to survive and will calm down after some time. You might however have to offer her a bit of honey or sugar water once she calmed down (if she survives) cause she's probably burning a lot of energy right now.

 

You don't need to add soil to the tube, especially if you're not sure that earth isn't contaminated with pesticides. Camponotus (and all other ants) can live fine in a glass test tube with no substrate. She just needs fresh water and probably a small drop of honey or sugar water (if she survives the next days).

Edited by Serafine, April 28 2017 - 3:11 PM.

[Martialis]

Both my Camponotus queens displayed this behavior before dying.