My Queen ate her eggs. looking for pointers

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SageePrime
Posts: 13
Joined: Wed Jul 26, 2017 7:08 pm
Location: Belleville, Illinois

My Queen ate her eggs. looking for pointers

Post: # 26989Post SageePrime
Thu Jul 27, 2017 12:17 am

So I caught a Formica subsericea Queen after looking forever for a queen this one just ran up to me on my break at work. She was in a testube setup and manage to get up to about 30 eggs all piled up together. I had her on a bookshelf with all my other queens stacked between movies. It's pretty stable and dark on the shelve and I normally carefully check on her once a week just because I've had a couple queens die when I opted to just ignore them for a month and let them do their own thing.

I checked her this week and all her eggs were gone. Needless to say I wasn't happy and I'm worried that she may die without ever getting any nantics. I've improvised by turning one of the testube portals into a mini formicarium with two water test tubes an empty testtube and a sugar water testtube. I then placed her in a large container and one by one introduced caught wild workers from another Formica subsericea colony in my back yard. the workers and queen seem to have accepted eachother so I added them to the testube portal setup.

I figure if she doesn't make it to nantics she'll need the workers to keep her going. Any pointers beyond what I've done?
5 Queen Tapinoma Sessile colony
2 Queen Tetramorium colony
2 Aphaenogaster Tennesseensis
1 Camp. Pennsylvanicus colonies
1 Camp. Subbarbatus colony
1 Camp. Herculeanus Colony
1 Crematogaster Cerasi colony
1 Formica Subsericia colony

Cartil
Posts: 98
Joined: Thu Jul 20, 2017 8:13 am
Location: Halifax, NS

Re: My Queen ate her eggs. looking for pointers

Post: # 27048Post Cartil
Thu Jul 27, 2017 1:50 pm

I don't know enough to help you but I am curious to see how people will resolve it. With the little I know, I wonder if, prior to being captured, she expended a lot of energy and needed sweet to eat something to regain some strength. I don't know what else you could do besides putting a tiny drop of honey on a piece of paper you can remove after they are done eating.

SageePrime
Posts: 13
Joined: Wed Jul 26, 2017 7:08 pm
Location: Belleville, Illinois

Re: My Queen ate her eggs. looking for pointers

Post: # 27107Post SageePrime
Thu Jul 27, 2017 9:04 pm

She seems to be doing fine but they are basically all huddling together not doing much of anything. I hope she starts laying again...

http://imgur.com/a/t8PxA

Image

Image
5 Queen Tapinoma Sessile colony
2 Queen Tetramorium colony
2 Aphaenogaster Tennesseensis
1 Camp. Pennsylvanicus colonies
1 Camp. Subbarbatus colony
1 Camp. Herculeanus Colony
1 Crematogaster Cerasi colony
1 Formica Subsericia colony

Antsinohio

Re: My Queen ate her eggs. looking for pointers

Post: # 27642Post Antsinohio
Tue Aug 01, 2017 2:38 pm

She ate her eggs from being hungry or she was stressed check your queen every 3 weeks or so at the most. the light, vibrations, and movement probably is what stressed her out

Serafine

Re: My Queen ate her eggs. looking for pointers

Post: # 27651Post Serafine
Tue Aug 01, 2017 3:54 pm

NEVER put workers of another colony with a queen, there is a very very high chance that they will kill her. It works only in some rare occasions or with certain species. If you want to boost her take PUPAE from that nest and put them into her test tube (don't go crazy, 10-20 pupae is more than enough). The new eclosing workers will see the queen as their queen, adult workers will not.

SageePrime
Posts: 13
Joined: Wed Jul 26, 2017 7:08 pm
Location: Belleville, Illinois

Re: My Queen ate her eggs. looking for pointers

Post: # 27677Post SageePrime
Tue Aug 01, 2017 10:04 pm

Serafine wrote:
Tue Aug 01, 2017 3:54 pm
NEVER put workers of another colony with a queen, there is a very very high chance that they will kill her. It works only in some rare occasions or with certain species. If you want to boost her take PUPAE from that nest and put them into her test tube (don't go crazy, 10-20 pupae is more than enough). The new eclosing workers will see the queen as their queen, adult workers will not.
I fully understand all of this. I had two camponotus colonies and one queen with a full colony died while a young queen with just eggs was going strong. I transferred all brood to her and one by one introduced the young workers to her. she accepted 2/3 of the young workers. all adults and rejected workers were released. that colony is at about 100 now and going strong...

A for my formica queen. I got only young workers. No brood could be found and she shouldn't be hungry since she's fully claustral and just mated a month ago. Anyway...

She's managed to start laying eggs again. She's at 5 eggs currently and the 8 workers are taking good care of her. I believe I'm in the clear
5 Queen Tapinoma Sessile colony
2 Queen Tetramorium colony
2 Aphaenogaster Tennesseensis
1 Camp. Pennsylvanicus colonies
1 Camp. Subbarbatus colony
1 Camp. Herculeanus Colony
1 Crematogaster Cerasi colony
1 Formica Subsericia colony

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