Tapinoma Sessile Colony - Advice welcome!!

[DoctorRichtofen]

I got my first two ant queens this summer! I *thinkkkk* I have a pavement ant and a tapinoma sessile.

The latter excites me because I haven't been able to find much information on keeping them, so I'm hoping I can add to the pool of knowledge that exists. She's so teeny and has a nice little egg pile going.

The first thing I wasn't able to find was whether she was claustral, semi-claustral or what-have-you. I connected her test tube to one of the AntsCanada test tube portals and put a dab of honey in there, just in case. When I checked on her again, she had burrowed into the cotton of her tube when before she was comfortable with her egg pile in the middle section. I'm taking this to mean that she's claustral and didn't like the open ended tube. Thoughts?

I think she moved her eggs into the cotton too. I hope she didn't eat them because I upset her! The eggs are so tiny I can't tell. I also put the honey in there on a piece of foil for easy removal.

I would love advice or critiques, I want my ants to be happy and healthy. I will post updates as they happen! Love y'all.

[QJH2023]

I got my first two ant queens this summer! I *thinkkkk* I have a pavement ant and a tapinoma sessile.

The latter excites me because I haven't been able to find much information on keeping them, so I'm hoping I can add to the pool of knowledge that exists. She's so teeny and has a nice little egg pile going.

The first thing I wasn't able to find was whether she was claustral, semi-claustral or what-have-you. I connected her test tube to one of the AntsCanada test tube portals and put a dab of honey in there, just in case. When I checked on her again, she had burrowed into the cotton of her tube when before she was comfortable with her egg pile in the middle section. I'm taking this to mean that she's claustral and didn't like the open ended tube. Thoughts?

I think she moved her eggs into the cotton too. I hope she didn't eat them because I upset her! The eggs are so tiny I can't tell. I also put the honey in there on a piece of foil for easy removal.

I would love advice or critiques, I want my ants to be happy and healthy. I will post updates as they happen! Love y'all.

ive raised tapinoma many times I must congratulate you on catching a queen as mating mainly happens in the nest also they are very small so hard to spot. one thing I will say is colonys remain rather small until about the 4th year then alates start to apear as I said before breeding happens in the nest so that their are many more queens and that meens many more workers and they are fully claustral