ants in test tubes

[elitzchupa]

Hello,

I was curious as to how you would feed ants properly in a test tube and cleaning them out.

I have connected a fresh test tube and given the adequate conditions to move. Warmth and dark etc. But they just do not show an interest in exploring that part of the tube.

[Wood~Ant]

Asiletto may be able to help with this as he rears small ant colonies in test tubes, and I am sure several other members have done so? I tend not to keep ants in test tubes for very long as I have found it hard to feed them, and the interior can get very dirty.
Having said this however some ant species do very well kept in test tubes, although cleaning and feeding may be a bit difficult. 

[elitzchupa]

What alternative do you use when capturing and rearing the Queens on nuptial flights? Do you place them straight into a nest?

[Wood~Ant]

Mar 27, 2014 16:21:02 GMT elitzchupa said:

What alternative do you use when capturing and rearing the Queens on nuptial flights? Do you place them straight into a nest?

This is where test tubes really work, as a single queen or small group of related queens will rear their first brood in a test tube. You can also watch the progress of the brood development from egg to larvae, then to pupae and finally adult ant.
Queens will still successfully raise brood in soil or other types of set up, but newly mated queens caught from a nuptial flight do not always need food until they have their first workers; and once a colony is founded you can then move it into a more permanent home.

[Deleted]

I found it useful to connect the test tube to a very small tupperware container. That way the ants don't have too much ground to cover (they're not very brave when colony numbers are small) and have a mini foraging area in which to gather food and dump waste. This is far easier to clean than trying to get into a test tube .

[elitzchupa]

Well at the moment I have 6 colonies from last year's flights of Lasius niger. Each had about 10-15 workers is estimate with a good amount of eggs and larvae, no cocoons though. They are in their test tubes but are moldy and running out of water so I connected then all to another fresh tube with water in and covered in the dark. I managed to catch a few small bugs today and placed them in the tube with the ants, dead of course. I just don't know if it is best practice to place it in the tube as they have a lack of space to store garbage. Although the tubes have been connected, several days have now gone past and the ants haven't really explored far enough to find the fresh tube. They were all over the bugs I placed in but just seem to climb all over them. They didn't actually take it to the larvae as I thought they would and pave the larvae in it. Sorry for such a long post.

[Wood~Ant]

That isn't a long post as you should see some of mine 

You might not think the ants are showing any interest in the prey food, but in small colonies they may wait until they are in the dark and quiet before feeding the larvae. If the larvae are hungry they will beg for food from the workers. 

[elitzchupa]

I've noticed when they find food that they will jolt back and forth to it. Is this excitement or being cautious? How are larvae fed, are they given food by regurgitation or do they feed of the dead themselves? The test tubes are in the light as the new ones are in dark to encourage a move but they don't seem interested in moving even though their tube is filthy.

[Deleted]

If you really want them to move into a fresh test tube you need to make their current test tube as hostile as possible. Lasius niger are quite hard to convince to move in my experience. What I've found most effective in the past is getting a lamp to shine as close to the current test tube as possible. This not only makes it uncomfortably bright in the nest, it also increases the temperature which makes the workers search for a new home pretty quickly.