<IceWhyte> Myrmica rubra

[IceWhyte]

As some of you may have read, my previous Myrmica rubra queen died so I decided I wanted some more. I ordered a queen with 10-15 workers from www.antdealer.com/, where Kevin gave me a really good deal, £10 including postage to the Uk. Definately the cheapest place I have seen Myrmica rubra specially considering shipping from Germany usually costs around €8.

My plan is to keep then in a small set up at first then put them into a premade gypsum nest from that anthills.net site (maybe, need to find some reviews first).

As far as I know there are still a large number of brood in my old nest along with the workers. I think I could give the new queen the brood but I don't think I should risk trying to give her the workers, its not worth the risk I don't think.

Please post your thoughts and comments here

[IceWhyte]

My new Myrmica rubra colony arrived today, there is a queen and 12 workers. Kevin from Ant Dealer also included a small colony of Lasius flavus as a gift which was very generous I thought. The package also included a small heat pack to keep the colonies warm for their journey which was also very considerate of Kevin. All that for only £10

Anyway, I was planning on buying one of those gypsum nests from anthills.net but came to the conclusion that they are far too over priced. I may make one myself for these ants but for just now I have put them in the slim nest that I had my previous rubra colony in.

While they were still in the test tube I thought I would put a worker from my old colony in to see if they would accept them, I put a young worker in and as soon she it was approached by workers of the new colony it lay down flat on the ground and tucked it's legs under its body, I haven't seen ants do this before but I presume that it was scared or submitting. The other ants seemed very interested and were having turns of interacting with the new worker but there was no voilence shown and seemed to have been accepted.

I then tried it with an older, larger worker but straight away there was aggression from the new colony, they don't seem to want to kill the stranger but just seem to be dragging it away.

I also placed a couple of fruit flies in the test tube but despite their efforts they could not catch one. I will wait till they have settled into the new home and then offer some more food.

Anyway, here is a video and some pictures of the new colony:

[IceWhyte]

Young worker going for a walk.