I recently captured the rouge ant queen calling my isopod terrarium her home. The queen is probably a Myrmica and the location Germany. As I was unprepared to keep a queen, I did nothing as youre supposed to. Instead of a watery test tube with cotton balls, I used a tik-tak box with some soil and moss. I also keep migrating ants from the isopod terrarium to her majesty. I was considering making a test tube setup, but since I keep adding more worker ants, this is more convinient. I was thinking about releasing them in spring, but want to give ant keeping a shot.
I currently have 30-40 ants (plus those in the terrarium). Ive read it should be at least 50 before you introduce them to their home. Im sure that when she snuk into the terrarium she brought even fewer workers (she stayed there for 6 months), so I feel like I can rush things. The current setup is suboptimal at best and I dont feel confident making another temporary enclosure or modifying the current one. Although I could if it is nesessary.
My old isopod boxes I used before buying a terrarium should be fine to use, as long as I prevent them from escaping. I did some research about that, as I would like to move the colony this week. I got some talk powder that I'll apply to the walls. I did some basic decoration inside with some pre-poked tunnels. Today I learned, that those ants hybernate. That kind of throws me off track. Does that mean they won't migrate? I don't have a cold room besides the outside (around freezing) and my bedroom (18°C). It won't fit in the fridge and there is no room colder than my bedroom. I just submerged the queen enclosure in cold water, is it better to put them in the fridge or leave them be?
I also made some images of the temporary enclosure and Queen:
https://imgur.com/a/MuKzk0l
What do you think of my situation and plans? What would you do to create a successful colony?
Sponaneously starting colony
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Re: Sponaneously starting colony
It seems Ok to me, but you might have to deal with an explosion of fungi and mold in the queen's temporarily nest because it's moist, and soft which makes it an ideal place for a breakout of germs that might cause the queen and workers to die.
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