New Queen

[gradyleb]

I'm new here.

I have a few questions.

I recently found a queen ant, I found her under a rock by herself, I'm about 95% sure its a queen ant.

I know its too cold for new queens, but I live in Texas and its already begun, its not cold here.

Anyway, I have her in a large globular container, I tried to simulate her natural environment, I placed a rock in the container and she crawled up under it, I put a little bit of honey in there.

how do I know if she has lain eggs or not, I have had cases of some old queens that did not start producing eggs.

the species of the queen I believe to be just a common fire ant.

any advice would be useful.

[Wood~Ant]

Hi Gradyleb and welcome to Ant Hill World.

If you are certain that you have found a queen ant, she may quite possibly be a newly mated queen from a nuptial flight last year who has been hibernating.

You say she has nested under a rock, so it is likely she will lay her eggs underneath this. The only way you'll know for sure that she has laid eggs is to very carefully lift the rock, but only for a few seconds and not more than twice a day, as anything more will make her stressful and she will either eat any eggs that are present, or she will simply abandon them and nest somewhere else.

The main problem all ant keepers have is, we always want to watch the development of our colonies, and so become rather impatient to observe what is going on. It's a bit like having a pet kitten that hides away all the time when the owner want to see it play.
So it is with ants. But the ants in the wild do not often show themselves until the colony has reached a fair size, and it is instinct that makes the young queens hide away to protect both themselves and their future colony workers.

Just hope for the best and try not to despair if you don't see any eggs for awhile, as if she is fertile and fate is smiling on her, she will raise brood before too long

[gradyleb]

thanks for the tips,

I've noticed now that she has started to explore slightly today, I came home and found her on top of the rock, I watched her wonder around in a circle for about 10 minutes and crawled on top of the rock again, I think she is just trying to find a secure place to nest, but I'm not too sure

[gradyleb]

she seems to have a little spot she likes to go to, not all of it is visible, its next to the rock, when she is in it I can only see a little piece of her,

if I bump the cage, she runs to it, is this her nesting place?

[Ant]

I am almost 80% sure what you have is either Lasius umbratus or L. claviger. They are both social parasites to other Lasius, are subterranean, and very hard to keep. Though it is not impossible, as you may be able to keep a queen until you can collect wild pupae L. alienus, L. neoniger, or another L. umbratus colony. I am not exactly sure about their best captive diet as in the wild they farm aphids and scale insects with not much need to forage.

[gradyleb]

what, I was asking whether or not the spot she likes to go to is where she will start laying eggs, maybe I didn't make myself clear enough

there are no parasites, just my queen, I believe she is just a common fire ant, S. invicta

[Jenny]

Feb 14, 2009 4:53:11 GMT gradyleb said:

what, I was asking whether or not the spot she likes to go to is where she will start laying eggs, maybe I didn't make myself clear enough

Once the queen feels safe in a regular place, that is where they usually start laying if they are undisturbed. But, if she gets disturbed be it vibration to the formicarium, anxious ant keepers lifting the rocks to see if she has laid eggs, letting light into the area etc, then all this activity will stress her. The Queen either won't lay eggs and will continue to run around the tank exhausting herself (results will be death) looking for a quiet secluded spot or she will lay her eggs and because she is stressed she might well eat her first brood.

[gradyleb]

thank you so much, I'll have to leave the lights out more, I haven't lifted the rock yet, I don't want to disturb her in any way


at the moment, I give her a little honey, once the colony is started and she has workers, about how many workers should I wait for before putting a live insect in there as prey

[Wood~Ant]

I'd be very careful about placing live insects into a colony, even if there was hundreds of workers present, as I always either kill or incapacitate insect prey so that it doesn't fight back.
If you use a soft bodied insect like a fly, then either remove its wings or at least injure it so it cannot run about or fly off.

While it is exciting to watch a pack of ants attack live prey and take it down, it can mean that ants will sometimes get fed up of chasing a living insect and give up with it
Ants in the wild tend to be foraging scavengers rather than deadly killers, and it needs a larger number of ants to take down living prey than something which is already dead or dying, so I wouldn't offer any living prey until you have a colony of 100 or more

[Ant]

Oh, sorry, I didn't notice you wrote you live in Texas and I assumed you were more north, like in North Carolina or higher. Any way, I wouldn't worry to much. Fire ants usually have their first workers with in a month. As long as she is kept at a good temperature and her soil isn't dry or soggy. (it should feel like sand castle sand if you are using sand) I would also suggest that starting new queens that you use a test tube set up. It is a very effective way of starting a colony and usually a good starter home for your ants until the colony puts on some size. Also I would suggest you give small colonies sugar water because it takes awhile for ants to digest the honey's complex sugars.

[gradyleb]

Thanks, I'll be sure to be careful giving my ants live prey, and thanks for the tip about the honey, how do I put sugar water there, its pretty much a large glass dome with dirt and a rock, if I put in sugar water, it'll seep through the dirt, how do I prevent that?

[Ant]

I usually soak it into a cotton ball and place it on a bottle cap.

[gradyleb]

thanks, what other things should I feed her

[naturekidmn]

You could also give her some dead fruit flies for protein.

[gradyleb]

could I give her a crushed up mass of insect meat. ex. Grasshopper crushed up into jelly