Ants possible new colony?

[Tleilaxu]

Well I have what I believe to be a queen ant (black) It still has its wings. Anyways I put into into a medium sized critter cage and she is now no where to be seen so one of three things happened 1. She died and I can't find the body. 2. She escaped (doubtful) 3. She has finaly decided to tunnel and make a nest. My question is this: How long till the first workers appear and how do I care for the starting colony? Once established how do I move them to a larger container?(when nessesary) I am up in MN so that may help in placeing the ant type. Thanks

Tleilaxu

 

[Gigas]

first of all, very bad thing to start a colony in, second how much dirt is in it, third a couple of weeks- 2 months depending ion species til you *see* the first workers

 

[Tleilaxu]

first of all, very bad thing to start a colony in, second how much dirt is in it, third a couple of weeks- 2 months depending ion species til you *see* the first workers

Dude this is my first ant farm so to speak and I did not know that till now. Its about half full and I have no intention of digging her up.

 

[Gigas]

im just saying cos they got plenty of air holes in em Lol, personally ive never kept em but you can eith put it in a larger tub and make a moat or smear something around the lid that ants dont like, when the colony does get going you may want to add a thin layer of whatever soild youve got in there every day or 2 untill the KK is full. then buy air hose an make connecting tunnels to other ant boxes and place the food in the other box, the one you have now will become a nest.

Try not take note of my babellings, i would have an Ant colony but alas i am not aloud, im sure if you google you can find a site from wherever you are that does ant equipment etc there is a german company that i can buy from that do superb Ant stuff i will try find the link.

Sorry i sounded so negative, good luck with you colony

 

[Tleilaxu]

Thats OK. The black ants here are pretty large an inch at least( I have seen ones an inch and a half long too all black the smallest "black ants" I have seen are a half an inch) so they cant squeeze through. So basically I want to keep the humidity high and ventalation low yes? We have rapid weather fluctuations here so I would assume they are hardy. What do you mean by add the solid you are using till the KK is full? Unfortunetly connectying things is not my strong point so when their moved they are just going to go in a larger tank (assuming I get the colony to survive)

 

[Gigas]

Where is "here" and surface ventilation must be maintained where is the ant species normally found, woodland, fields? http://www.antstore.net/shop/ a good site to get ideas from.

 

[Ant Worker]

Sounds like you have Camponotus sp. Workers will take approx 2 months. Make sure the soil is moist at all times, if ti gets to dry, she will die. How long has she been in there? if only a few days you could still take her out and put her in a proper rearing container..

 

[zinto]

A book called "The Ants" by Edward O. Wilson and Bert Holldobler has an ideal method of housing and rearing ants towards the back. I've used and am currently using this procedure and know of an ant lab at the University of Arizona that has hundreds of ant colonies surviving extremely well with this procedure as well. You should be able to find it at your local library. It's basically the ultimate ant book although some of the information may be outdated by now. Good luck!

 

[syndicate]

yeah if u still can find the queen id mabey put her in a vial or small jar so u can keep tabs on her.also if she has wings theres a good chance shes a virgin so no eggs.

 

[zinto]

yeah if u still can find the queen id mabey put her in a vial or small jar so u can keep tabs on her.also if she has wings theres a good chance shes a virgin so no eggs.

That kind of depends on where the ant was found. If you were blacklighting for her, then it's possible she's a virgin. If you found her crawling on the ground it is more likely that she was looking for a suitable place to start digging and therefore is fertile, but most queens won't break off their wings until they've established a small little hideaway in the ground. By the way, I found a site that describes the setup used in E.O. Wilson's book "The Ants." http://insected.arizona.edu/antrear.htm Good luck!

 

[Tleilaxu]

OK my brother found her "The ant" looking in rocks. She has been in the cage for about two almost three weeks now. I am in Minnesota. I have no test tubes and since it took her a week to "disappear" I would rather leave her alone. I also have no smaller containers.