Rearing ants.

[Malhavoc's]

The snow is gone, the air is warm. and theres a certain buzz tobe heard... ANTS! flying everywhere gathering in the lights on the window, in the spider webs. This year I decided to catch one, and a fat little queenie she was. I gat a 10 inch tall plastic container, filled it with soil and peatmos to make a firm base. put in some rocks, a lump of sugar. Two days later sugar is gone, ant has dug a hole, wings are torn off. All good signs, but now. I am confuesed!

The little queen, has dug a very nice tunnel along the side of the plastic where I can see her. however shes done the oddest thing! shes filling the tunnel up behind her as she digs! shes going deeper and deeper and I am worried and perplexed by this action (I've never seen an ant willingly burry herself alive). any help?

 

[kingfarvito]

shes going to dig a chamber and seal her self into it where she will then lay eggs and care for them to hatch out workers who will then build the nest this can take a while

 

[Malhavoc's]

Nifty, Never knew they burried themself to do such, I guess its a good defence. and patiences is all I got. I'll put it in some dark corner and wait for ants to appear. or is there any other steps I should take?

 

[echostatic]

Nifty, Never knew they burried themself to do such, I guess its a good defence. and patiences is all I got. I'll put it in some dark corner and wait for ants to appear. or is there any other steps I should take?

keep the plastic covered with a sheet of cardboard or something, covering the container from the dirt down, to keep the light out during the life of the colony. the queen is sensitive to light. man youre lucky, i havent seen a single ant queen yet. im very much looking forward to the flight of the fire ants here in texas, ive almost finished building an "ant farm" style enclosure thats optimized for fire ants.

 

[Anh]

what species do you have?

 

[Malhavoc's]

to be honest, I am not entirly sure. They are fairly comen around here. and I am suprised I even found here, there is a fierce carpenter ant nest in my yard that usualy destroy any new queens that enter the yard.

This queen is small (about 1cm body lengh) and orangish red, fairly commen around here, threw her wings a few days ago, kinda curious how long before I see a few new drones on the surface now. I've been lazily going through the net trying to find ID keys for my local ants so far no success.