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Post by Piranha-Bite on Jul 11, 2006 3:05:43 GMT
Hi, I'm new to here and I have this question. I recently caught a Lasius niger Queen, who I affectionally nicknamed Cleopatra, and I'm worried about her. This is the first time I ever had an ant farm. First I set her up in a small tank, but the next day I found a much larger aquarium. Cleopatra had already settled in, So I had to shake all the dirt from the tank and look for her in the mound of dirt. I think this might have been extremely stressful for her. I wanted to help her with her starting of the future colony. So...I'm wondering could I introduce wild Lasius niger worker ants to help her with her setting up of the nest. Would the worker ants kill the queen? or will they help her? Thanks so much in advance, Kevin
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Post by Jenny on Jul 11, 2006 5:02:56 GMT
Hi Kevin and welcome to this forum Moving your queen to a larger environment is no problem in the early stages. However leave her to dig in, don't add any workers from any other colonies, as they will kill her. The scents are different, think of it like animals you can't always mix them. But with ants it is a definite NO! You will see as you read different areas of this forum, that the lads "Boost", their colonies. This is the eggs/pupae from another nest of the same species. This is a good way of increasing colony size, but is usually done once the queens first workers have appeared.
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Post by Piranha-Bite on Jul 11, 2006 5:29:41 GMT
Thanks so much! Thank goodness I haven't put in the workers yet. Tomorrow I'll set them free.
Thanks again, Kevin
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Post by Wood~Ant on Jul 11, 2006 7:50:07 GMT
Hi Kevin and welcome to the Ant Hill. As Jenant says, ants have their own colony scent called " Pheromones", which they use to identify friend from foe. Any ant which doesn't have this scent is attacked and killed. Even if the queen you have was from the same colony, it is not safe to give her workers from the nest, as her scent may have changed, so they won't accept her. Lasius only have 1 queen per colony/nest, so play safe and only boost with pupae, NOT ADULT WORKERS! A fertile queen will produce her own worker daughters in a matter of a couple of months anyway
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