Brood boosting
Moderator: ooper01
Re: Brood boosting
Thx but I mean like do you dig them out of a wild colony of the same species of your queen .
Re: Brood boosting
He says in the video that it is not recommended unless you are absolutely sure it is the same specie.
- Batspiderfish
- Posts: 3315
- Joined: Wed Jun 29, 2016 3:47 pm
- Location: Maine
Re: Brood boosting
Brood boosting is not a good practice. There is only one circumstance by which brood boosting is useful, and that is with social parasites. Brood boosting will generally not be what saves a failing queen/colony (unlike proper care), nor do I think it's worth it to threaten a wild colony just so we can shelve our patience.
If you enjoy my expertise and identifications, please do not put wild populations at risk of disease by releasing pet colonies. We are responsible to give our pets the best care we can manage for the rest of their lives.
- Batspiderfish
- Posts: 3315
- Joined: Wed Jun 29, 2016 3:47 pm
- Location: Maine
Re: Brood boosting
Having said that, I have two good tricks for securing brood in a way which is minimally destructive to the wild colony.
The first is to take a flat rock and place it in a safe, partially sunny place, over the nest entrance of a populous colony. What this is doing is creating a warm chamber space which ants love to use to speed the development of their pupae. It may take a few weeks, but eventually the ants are likely going to have brood under there when you turn it over. Removing the rock will not damage the nest any further than how you found it.
The second trick is in the case of your particular ant being the host of a raiding species. Most Formica social parasites, for example, fly during the same season as when sanguinea group Formica and Polyergus are conducting raids. There will be trails of workers towing host pupae back to the nest, to eat or to raise as their own. If you've located such raids, you can take a fine paintbrush and rob the raiders as they are returning to their nest with the pilfered brood. Formica social parasites only require 6-8 pupae, which is often all they will choose to care for.
The first is to take a flat rock and place it in a safe, partially sunny place, over the nest entrance of a populous colony. What this is doing is creating a warm chamber space which ants love to use to speed the development of their pupae. It may take a few weeks, but eventually the ants are likely going to have brood under there when you turn it over. Removing the rock will not damage the nest any further than how you found it.
The second trick is in the case of your particular ant being the host of a raiding species. Most Formica social parasites, for example, fly during the same season as when sanguinea group Formica and Polyergus are conducting raids. There will be trails of workers towing host pupae back to the nest, to eat or to raise as their own. If you've located such raids, you can take a fine paintbrush and rob the raiders as they are returning to their nest with the pilfered brood. Formica social parasites only require 6-8 pupae, which is often all they will choose to care for.
If you enjoy my expertise and identifications, please do not put wild populations at risk of disease by releasing pet colonies. We are responsible to give our pets the best care we can manage for the rest of their lives.
Re: Brood boosting
Thx . The reason im doing this is because one of my queens isnt doing so well at starting a colony .
Re: Brood boosting
Also the queen ant I'm trying to brood boost in pogonomyrmex barbatus .
Re: Brood boosting
What do you mean by not doing so well? There could be some factors leading to that, such as your queen being stressed, cold, hot, not in a humid condition, etc. If that's the case, I don't think brood boosting is the best solution.
Re: Brood boosting
Well I caught 2 queens and 1 of them is about to have workers and the other one I don't even know if it has larva yet . The queen that's not doing good I think is just having trouble starting a colony but that's just a guess .
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