acclimatise to light

[elbee]

Hi,
I'm a newbie. I have an ant farm and a Lasius niger queen. What I wanted to know is this - is it possible to get ants used to the light. I have been told to cover up one side of the ant farm, and also that the queen hates light. But I would like to watch the ants. So if I leave the ant farm in natural indoor light will the ants get used to it? Or is it better to tape black paper to one side, and just lift that up on occasion? To my way of thinking I would find this occasional light where there had been none before a bit scary - but I'm not an ant. Also my queen is just sitting in the petri dish, she has hardly moved, but I think she has laid eggs. So I've covered up the top of the petri dish to make her feel a little more comfortable. She has made a little nest with the vermiculite stuff that was in the tube she came in. Is it OK just to leave her like this?
Thanks

[Jenny]

Hi elbee and welcome to the forum

It is advisable to keep a new queen with eggs in the dark and quiet. Sometimes when they are disturbed, they are prone to eat their eggs, and get stressed.

She should not be in the feeder pot really, and should be moved with her eggs into the main section where there is humidity and she can dig in. Keeping her in the dark in the petri dish will only encourage her to stay there. I am assuming by a petri dish that you are keeping her in an upright formicarium? Or is the petri dish leading off an airline like in the Ant Worlds? I am asking these questions as some of your post I am not clear on

The vermiculite is not necessary and I would personally remove it.

Hope this helps

[elbee]

Hi,
Thanks for the quick reply.
It is an Uncle Milton type ant farm. There is a petri dish attached to the ant farm by a transparent plastic tube. When I got the ant she was in a small tube packed with vermiculite. I opened the top of the tube and placed it in the petri dish. Some of the vermiculite and the ant immediately spilled out. I left this in natural room light thinking the ant would climb up the tube into the ant farm itself. To encourage this I covered the end of the petri dish and that part of the tube leading off the petri dish. However she just stayed there. I even shone a torch on her a bit to try to get her to move into the dark, but no. It has been a week now. I was worried about moisture, so I got a bit of sponge and soaked it with water and put it on a tiny cap and put this into the petri dish at the other end for my queen. I'm pretty sure she has eggs. I don't know how to move her as she is so small. This is why I thought she might have become acclimatised to the light. So now I don't know whether to leave her as she is, or if I should move her, how to do it.
Sorry this is a bit mixed up - it's easy to see but hard to explain.
Thanks

[elbee]

Wow, what a speedy reply! Thanks. I will leave her as she is. I've been reading your pages about how the queen doesn't eat until the first workers emerge as adults, but right after that the workers need food. Well in a couple of weeks I have to go away for 2 days. Should I put some food in just in case any workers emerge during that time?
This forum is great. I feel so much better now.

[Wood~Ant]

Hi Elbee, and welcome to Ant Hill World

Queen ants can do the most frustrating things at times. I currently have a Pheidole rhea queen who was placed in a tank yesterday, and has done nothing but walk around the perimeter constantly, which means she must have done so at least 100 times.
What she should actually be doing is digging herself a chamber in which to settle and lay her eggs, just like my Honey Pot queen has done, as they both arrived at the same time; and were both given a tank of damp sand, as they both come from Arizona in the USA.

Just go with your own gut instincts much of the time, but as Myrm says, if your L. niger queen has laid eggs in the dish where she currently resides, then I see no reason to disturb her. Just keep her quiet and only peep in at her for a short time every so often. I do this with my Lasius queens, and most of them now have pupae and larvae, as first workers only take about 7 weeks from egg to adult, so you won't have too long to wait

[elbee]

Thanks everybody. I'll just leave her to get on with things. I'll have a look every couple of days, and hope that when the workers hatch they will move the queen into the ant farm.
Thanks again.