Saving pool queens, not so successful so far

[adagna]

So far I have rescued 6 queens from my pool over the last week. Out of those 6 only 2 are still alive, and one of the two I just put up in a test tube today, so who knows if she will make it. I believe they are all Solenopsis fire ants species as best I can tell. Being in Arizona I am pretty sure they are Solenopsis Xyloni, but I don't want to stress them out too much by taking pics.

Anyway today I took some advice from Ants Australia YT channel and fed the two remaining queens a very small dab of honey. They older of the two queens had approached it and started drinking before I could even get the cotton ball plug back in the test tube, so I am guessing she was hungry. How often should I feed these queens, given that they are a claustral species from what I have read online? I am guessing that they burn through a lot of their energy reserves trying to swim out of the pool. Will feeding these queens who have nearly drowned increase their chance of survival?

Ultimately I only need one good viable queen from this process, as I am sure my wife will be less then enthusiastic about having a house filled with ants, given that she has already had to compromise on having a bin of feeder roaches in the office... But any extras that survive could go towards the GAN project since there are no GAN sellers in my state currently.

[Antsinohio]

Make sure you feed her some protein ants need protein to grow feed her some bugs or meat every 2 or 3 days if you feed her meat give it to her in a small amount