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Re: I found a QUEEN!
Posted: Fri Sep 22, 2017 9:45 pm
by idahoantgirl
No. Ants mate in flight, and only when the right pheremones are in the air.
Re: I found a QUEEN!
Posted: Sat Sep 23, 2017 8:30 pm
by Jessewitt60
I came back today and one of my fire ant queens was wingless! I can see one of the males has died. I'm hopeful that she is now mated. Also one of my other queens has only one wing. I separated out the one with no wings and left the rest all mixed together
Re: I found a QUEEN!
Posted: Sat Sep 23, 2017 8:44 pm
by Jessewitt60
But other than is she mated or not I need more help:( lol I put everything I have into a big plastic jug full of sand the unmated queens, the male alates, the workers that came with the queens ect. The sand was all different Colours I bought it from the store. When I opened the container tonight I cough like a paint smell. I now wonder if this sand is ok for my ants. That is why I separated the one wingless queen just now. I don't really have other containers available yet.
Re: I found a QUEEN!
Posted: Sat Sep 23, 2017 8:45 pm
by Jessewitt60
The whole container has a paint smell now
Re: I found a QUEEN!
Posted: Sat Sep 23, 2017 9:21 pm
by idahoantgirl
That sand is probably not good for your ants and may be toxic. shedding wings does not mean she is fertile. She will not breed in a test tube. It is highly unlikely that she is mated. you can hang on to her if you want to, but she probably isnt.
Re: I found a QUEEN!
Posted: Sat Sep 23, 2017 9:46 pm
by Jessewitt60
Ok I took them all out changed back to just regular dirt for now then put them all back in
Re: I found a QUEEN!
Posted: Sat Sep 23, 2017 9:47 pm
by Jessewitt60
I seen a video of ants breeding in captivity I'm hoping that my ants have done that as well.
Re: I found a QUEEN!
Posted: Sat Sep 23, 2017 9:50 pm
by Jessewitt60
I have them in a much bigger container than a test tube. It's like a 1 gallon jug. There may be 10 workers, 5 unmated queens, one queen I suspect is mated, and 3 alate males left alive as of now
Re: I found a QUEEN!
Posted: Sun Sep 24, 2017 4:25 am
by af4545
Jessewitt60 wrote: ↑Fri Sep 22, 2017 7:14 pm
Ok I found some male alate of the same type of ant and I put them in with the inmates queens. Will this work?
maybe but very likely not unforntunatly
Re: I found a QUEEN!
Posted: Mon Oct 02, 2017 4:35 am
by AntsOnTheCoast
1. Don't take workers or brood from existing ant colonies from the wild.
2. You can do 'brood boosting', which is taking brood from a dead queen that you have caught. Afterwards, you place the brood in another queen's setup and they will possibly adopt the new eggs.
3. You can capture alates and unmated queens of the same species and place them together for them to mate. However, if you take them from the same general area, they could possibly be related.
4. Don't know what you're doing with the big container but anyways, don't place queen ants from different colonies in the same place together. They could fight.
5. Love ants! Good luck mate!