Need help moving ants to new test tube

[BlastRiot]

Hi, I have a baby colony of Camponotus Hyatti in a test tube set up (one queen, four workers, and a bunch of eggs). I recently found mold on the cotton closest near the water and created a new test tube to move them into so they don't die. I connected the two tubes with some cotton and tape as a makeshift pathway and left a flashlight on their current tube and the other tube I left covered in darkness. I left them like that overnight and ten hours later they still haven't moved from the old test tube! They seem unaffected, any ideas as to why this is or how I can better move them would be appreciated.

[Jadeninja9]

Can anyone help out the homeboy?

[Jadeninja9]

But how would you feed them if they are connected together?

[CreeperUniverse]

Hi, I have a baby colony of Camponotus Hyatti in a test tube set up (one queen, four workers, and a bunch of eggs). I recently found mold on the cotton closest near the water and created a new test tube to move them into so they don't die. I connected the two tubes with some cotton and tape as a makeshift pathway and left a flashlight on their current tube and the other tube I left covered in darkness. I left them like that overnight and ten hours later they still haven't moved from the old test tube! They seem unaffected, any ideas as to why this is or how I can better move them would be appreciated.

They probably like the heat, and/or don't care about the mold, so they don't need to move. Most mold is harmless or can be with the ants for a while before becoming harmful.

[Jadeninja9]

But this is how much mold he has. He and I are friends btw.

[Serafine]

That's nothing. No need to worry at all. Even if the entire cotton is black as long as the ants don't actively avoid it's fine.
You can put the tube into a small container (I'd recommend that anyway, makes feeding much easier) and put a fresh test tube into that, so that if they see the need they can move on their own.