2 replies to this topic

[vsotirchenas]

Hello guys,

 

I am a bit lost with a Messor Barbarus queen that simply cannot relax.

 

It came in a test tube and had a few eggs. I left her to relax in the dark but she went crazy on the cotton. After a few days she had eaten her eggs and kept going for the cotton.

 

I prepared a new test tube and also added a bit of sand as recommended by other forum members. The behaviour was the same, constantly upside down, pulling the cotton like crazy, no interest in egg laying. Temperature and humidity is fine by the way, I live in Greece and its a native species.

 

Yesterday I prepared a nest for her (2cm of gravel, 10cm of sand inside a glass nest) and connected it to the test tube. When I connected it, I saw that she had laid a few eggs again. Anyway, she moved the eggs and went on the sand. After a couple of hours of trying to climb up the glass and sliding back down, she started digging. And digging. And digging! 

 

She went all the way down the bottom then changed course horizontally. Woke up today, she is still onto it. No idea where the eggs are, left a dead spider and its gone.

 

Will she ever relax and get down to business? Isn't she supposed to just dig a claustral chamber 2-3cm below ground then chill?

 

Any advice?

 

Thanks,

 

Vassilis

 

[CozmoDog]

Hey Vasilis nice to see a fellow countryman in the forum, in which part of Greece do you live ? because I don't believe we have Messor barbarus here we have few messor species but not barbarus, anyways regarding the queen how did you find it ? Unless I'm mistaken messor fly in september(someone will correct if I'm wrong) but here that's when I've found them and mainly Messor wasmanni. My best advice would be to leave her be in the dark if she is fertile she will eventually calm down.

[vsotirchenas]

Hello CozmoDog! True, have not seen another Greek in the forum. I live in the northern suburbs of Athens.

 

Regarding Messor Barbarus, I was looking for the "very big ant" that is really popular in Athens. From the descriptions, I concluded it was Messor Barbarus, since it lives in the Mediterranean basin, Spain and north Africa. I could very well be wrong about it, but the climate is similar.

 

I have two MB queens and a Lasius niger colony, all of them bought from Germany. Being new to the hobby, I only started looking for ant queens this January and have never seen a queen yet, let alone catch one.

 

I covered the nest with a cloth, in the meantime she dug up the whole place, even the gravel! Will be tricky to water it now.