5 replies to this topic

[ken14400]

So today, I just found out that my myrmica colony is starting to produce alates and I have no clue what to do with them cause I heard that they don't have to fly to mate and that they can mate inside the colony. So I'm hoping someone could give more insight into this. Thanks 

[dermy]

How large is this colony? Also do you have access to outsite Myrmica colonies of the same species, you can always try to get some males from an unrelated colony and see what happens when you put them together with some queens. I wouldn't put them into the nest because the workers would just kill them probably.

 

Assuming they don't try to fly they will likely 1- Not do anything and be like "larger workers" 2- become a burden to the colony and be killed off.

[ken14400]

i think they have like over 300 workers now maybe and yes there's outside colonies but like my colony has over 15 queen already

[dermy]

300 workers seems a bit small to be making alates.... Are you sure these are alates, are they still in the larval stage? Or are they fully developed winged queens/males?

 

If it's just males I'd suspect some unfertilized eggs were laid and allowed to develop for some reason.

[ken14400]

it has wings and there are some pupae the size of queens and its not the only male alate there is 

[ken14400]

maybe there's 400 workers now I'm not sure but one thing for sure is there's a lot of brood