The AntsCanada Ant Forum's

Ok, so its been almost a week since I put my black crazy ant queen in a test tube setup, and after finding out that my queen is worker dependent I moved 4 workers in the test tube setup with her. But, after she laid her brood she did nothing with them, and once I moved in the workers they slowly moved them into a "ball". Now it seems like they are waiting to move out of the test tube setup and find a nest, one of the workers is almost always carrying the brood "ball" and my queen has not laid any more eggs. So I was wondering if once I get my formicarium I should go ahead and collect a lot more workers, and move them and my queen inside of it. Thanks for any and all help!

Small update: The workers in the test tube setup now have started to pull strands of the cotton to try and get out which means they are trying to forge which bring up my questions up above.

Offer them some sugar and a bit of protein (either in the tube or put the tube into a small outworld). The workers are most likely very hungry and if they're not fed they might end up eating the larvae.

You shouldn't move the ants to a formicarium until they are 20-50 workers strong and you should NEVER force them out of the tube unless it gets super moldy (a bit of mold is normal and doesn't matter). If you force the colony into a formcarium while it is too small the ants might die because they fail to thermo-/hydroregulate the nest.

Serafine wrote:Offer them some sugar and a bit of protein (either in the tube or put the tube into a small outworld). The workers are most likely very hungry and if they're not fed they might end up eating the larvae.

You shouldn't move the ants to a formicarium until they are 20-50 workers strong and you should NEVER force them out of the tube unless it gets super moldy (a bit of mold is normal and doesn't matter). If you force the colony into a formcarium while it is too small the ants might die because they fail to thermo-/hydroregulate the nest.

I have given them two kinds of insects, honey, and a small piece of an apple but they seem to not touch them any ideas?

No idea, sorry.
Maybe place them in an outworld, open the test tube and see if they calm down when they can run around?

Xephke wrote:

Serafine wrote:Offer them some sugar and a bit of protein (either in the tube or put the tube into a small outworld). The workers are most likely very hungry and if they're not fed they might end up eating the larvae.

You shouldn't move the ants to a formicarium until they are 20-50 workers strong and you should NEVER force them out of the tube unless it gets super moldy (a bit of mold is normal and doesn't matter). If you force the colony into a formcarium while it is too small the ants might die because they fail to thermo-/hydroregulate the nest.

I have given them two kinds of insects, honey, and a small piece of an apple but they seem to not touch them any ideas?

Colonies have different foods they like and don't like; Try feeding them a variety of different food and find out which food they like. If that's not the case, think: Do you check on them to much, causing stress? Do they have plenty of water? Air? Are they at a reasonable temperature? Are they often exposed to light?

Could be that they are in a state of "move to a dark nest at all costs" - provide a fully covered, dark humid tube for them to migrate to and only expose the outworld to the light for feeding atc... if the queen doesn't feel safe I reckon the workers will be focused on looking for a safe nesting spot, and will keep the eggs and queen in a "prepared to move" status until they settle. I'm no expert but trying to think like an ant lol

They could also have full gastors and social stomachs so maybe food isn't a priority right now - safety is.