hedst8
Nurse Ant 
Posts: 95 
Pets: koi,sturgeon,messor barburus,budgie
I Like: Turtles
I Hate: Caravans
Likes: 16
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Post by hedst8 on Jul 27, 2013 20:57:50 GMT
Hi my son caught 5 queens the other day all wing less.What is best thing to feed them now.He has put them in little pots with sand in and used bottle lids with water in buried level with the sand and filled it with cotton wool.Would they need to eat anything?
also one of the queens seems to have a dead worker attached to its leg via its jaws.Will this fall off or will the queen remove it?
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Post by Wood~Ant on Jul 28, 2013 0:52:29 GMT
New queens can survive for months on no food, as they have to do when they found a new colony in the wild, so don't worry about giving them food for now.
As for the queen with the dead worker ant on her leg, this she will pull off in time or it will drop off.
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Post by darkm666 on Jul 28, 2013 16:59:52 GMT
If you wish though you can feed her later on, but seeing as she will be buried in the sand this will be difficult if not impossible to do.
Do as Wood said and don't worry much they were built to survive on their wing muscles and fat stores.
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hedst8
Nurse Ant
Posts: 95
Pets: koi,sturgeon,messor barburus,budgie
I Like: Turtles
I Hate: Caravans
Likes: 16
|
Post by hedst8 on Jul 29, 2013 10:21:47 GMT
I checked them all yesterday and the queen with the worker on her leg has fallen off now.They are all alive and a few have made little holes which when I checked they ran back into.Will it be best to take everything out of the pots and just have the queens in there or leave it as it is?
I was also wondering will it be a case of leaving them until next year after hibernation now until they need water or food?
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Post by Wood~Ant on Jul 29, 2013 11:05:11 GMT
Eggs laid now should produce nanitic workers in around 9 weeks, give or take a few days. Once each queen has about 3 workers then you can start to offer food, as by that time the first born worker will show signs of interest in foraging as they would in a wild nest.
Very young worker ants never venture far from the nest to begin with, and mostly search for soil dwelling invertebrates in the soil. Only when a colony gets more workers will the older ones venture out farther to forage, with their younger sisters staying home in the nest and performing nursing duties for the brood or enlarging the nest, though generally this nest extending doesn't happen until the following year.
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Post by michaelofvancouver on Aug 31, 2013 18:35:38 GMT
In the future, I would recommend placing them in a transparent conatainer (water bottle, cd case or test tube) WITHOUT MUCH SAND. That way, you'll have much more visibility.
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Post by michaelofvancouver on Aug 31, 2013 18:36:52 GMT
In the future, I would recommend placing them in a transparent conatainer (water bottle, cd case or test tube) WITHOUT MUCH SAND. That way, you'll have much more visibility. Oh yeah, and if you use a bottle or tube, I recommend placing it horizontally, and placing a small piece of wet cotton near the entrance, and removing/replacing the cotton every 3 days to prevent mold. |
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