Problems in the nest!!!

[dazzi41]

Hi
I have been visiting this forum since last year when I became interested in keeping ants. Hi to all who have visited this forum.
A few details about myself as this is my first post.
I'm Darren and I'm from Middlesbrough located north east England about 30 mins from Newcastle (edu-sci).

I am currently working in North Wales (Angelsey) and there are ants everywhere. Well we are about to destroy an ant home so I saved a few, not many and I wish I could have saved more.

All I managed was a few workers (about 6) and a queen I think! it is bigger than the other ants.

THE PROBLEM!
I have put them into a jar (big one) with sand. The ants went to one side and started digging a bit, within minutes of being in there, the queen is at the other end by itself. every time a worker comes to the queen it seems to do somat to the queen which makes the queen run fast (maybe biting it). Anyway if anyone has any information about this please post other wise I might have lost this small colony.

The colony I got it from was pretty big with hundreds of workers, would it be that the colony has suddenly got very small? unfortunately I had to get these as the construction would have killed them anyway.

Thanks for reading. sorry about the grammar lol.

[Jenny]

Hi Dazzi,

firstly let them settle down, but keep them under observation as you may not have the queen it is hard to say, especially at this time of year. You will have to hope that they all belong to the same nest too, or as you know they will fight to the death (colony scent).

If you haven't collected a queen, then I am afraid there is no point as workers alone will die in a few months.

[dazzi41]

actually at a look at ant hill wood, the queen are much bigger than the ants which this queen is not. It is abit bigger but not as big as the queen in the images so what could it be?

maybe an older ant?
it didn't have wings?

[Jenny]

It is not the mating season yet, it is way too early. You cannot mistake a Queen they are a lot bigger than the rest of the workers, which are in various stages of development.

www.antnest.co.uk/caste.html

queenant.proboards82.com/index.cgi?board=learning&action=display&thread=1138202393

[Wood~Ant]

Hi Darren,
What colour are the ants you found? If you captured all the ants from the same nest, and they are all the same, then the larger ant may be what is called a minima or micro queen. It may just be a large worker, as it really depends upon the size of the thorax and gaster to more or less determine the caste.

Some ant nests also contain queens of parasitic species, which may look like the others, but are not of course. Collecting ants from a colony in a wild nest is very hit and miss, as unless you know just exactly what the queen of that particular species looks like, it is possible not to find a queen or queens at all