IS THIS QUEEN A LEGEND??

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AntsBC

IS THIS QUEEN A LEGEND??

Post: # 31510Post AntsBC
Sun Sep 17, 2017 7:13 pm

Hi,

This is my journal on my tetramorium sp. E colony.
I hope you enjoy.
PLEASE COMMENT WHAT U GUYS THINK OF THIS QUEEN I WOULD REALLY APPRECIATE IT AntsCanada FAM

Now for some background on the colony, i will start from the very beginning;

I was gazing out into the distance one day when a rather large ant caught my eye. I looked at it and immediately identified it as a queen. When i went to catch it i realized it was trying to get into a hole on the edge of the sidewalk. I caught it and put it in a water bottle for the time being. Then i was fascinated by the hole the queen was trying to get into. So i decided to dig it up. I did and found workers in tunnels but i found only 3 workers and no brood. I wasn't an experienced ant keeper when this happened so i thought the queen belonged to this colony and had gotten out somehow. I decided to keep one of the workers. Then when i went to put the worker into the bottle when i realized the wind had blown over the bottle and the lid was off. I thought “Oh no, the queen”. I looked for her and luckily i found her under where i was sitting. Then this process repeated itself again sadly as i wasn't paying close attention to the bottle. (I did get a worker into the bottle somewhere in between what i was just talking about). Then we had to go shopping after so i had to haul around this water bottle with the ants inside into the store. After that was done and we had driven home i put the workers and queen in the test tube setup with some difficulties as the queen didn't want to leave the bottle. Eventually i did succeed in getting the ants into the test tube. the next day i checked on the queen and not a lot had happened. The day after that i saw that the worker was gone and the queen was curled up and looked half dead. The day after that i saw she was almost dead still and her gaster was stuck to the test tube as i had offered the queen and worker honey when i moved them in. I grabbed a ear thing and rubbed off the honey off her gaster. She still didn't look too good though and still no sign of the worker. At this point i had begun to realize the queen killed the worker. The day after that her gaster had somehow gotten stuck again so i plucked off the honey again. Then the day after that when i checked on her she had laid a batch of eggs. I was amazed that she laid after everything she had gone through. Then the eggs hatched into yellow eggs and then larva and now 4 months later i had gotten my first nanitic. Tetramorium usually go from egg to worker in one or two months though so the length that it took does concern me a bit. She did lay two more batches of eggs though while the first batch was growing so that might have something to do with it. Although i must say It was still so amazing to see that after everything that had happened to the queen she still cared for the eggs all the way to the worker stage. Back to the colony; I proceeded to feed the queen and nanitics honey on wax paper and no fighting between the queen and workers had occurred :). (she had two workers) Now there are 3 more pupae that i expect to hatch any day now and everything has been going good. The only thing is that there is alot of crap growing on the side of the test tube and i think once the bulk of the pupae hatch i am going to move them.
So what do you guys think? Isnt it amazing that after everything that had happened the eggs hatched into workers? Any thoughts on the colony?? I really want to see what you ant keepers think of her and if you guys think this will be a reliable colony.
BTW the species is tetramorium. PLease respond and tell me what you guys think.

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idahoantgirl
Posts: 1521
Joined: Sat Sep 12, 2015 11:52 am
Location: Idaho, USA

Re: IS THIS QUEEN A LEGEND??

Post: # 32248Post idahoantgirl
Tue Oct 10, 2017 9:17 pm

AntsBC wrote:
Sun Sep 17, 2017 7:13 pm
Hi,

This is my journal on my tetramorium sp. E colony.
I hope you enjoy.
PLEASE COMMENT WHAT U GUYS THINK OF THIS QUEEN I WOULD REALLY APPRECIATE IT AntsCanada FAM

Now for some background on the colony, i will start from the very beginning;

I was gazing out into the distance one day when a rather large ant caught my eye. I looked at it and immediately identified it as a queen. When i went to catch it i realized it was trying to get into a hole on the edge of the sidewalk. I caught it and put it in a water bottle for the time being. Then i was fascinated by the hole the queen was trying to get into. So i decided to dig it up. I did and found workers in tunnels but i found only 3 workers and no brood. I wasn't an experienced ant keeper when this happened so i thought the queen belonged to this colony and had gotten out somehow. I decided to keep one of the workers. Then when i went to put the worker into the bottle when i realized the wind had blown over the bottle and the lid was off. I thought “Oh no, the queen”. I looked for her and luckily i found her under where i was sitting. Then this process repeated itself again sadly as i wasn't paying close attention to the bottle. (I did get a worker into the bottle somewhere in between what i was just talking about). Then we had to go shopping after so i had to haul around this water bottle with the ants inside into the store. After that was done and we had driven home i put the workers and queen in the test tube setup with some difficulties as the queen didn't want to leave the bottle. Eventually i did succeed in getting the ants into the test tube. the next day i checked on the queen and not a lot had happened. The day after that i saw that the worker was gone and the queen was curled up and looked half dead. The day after that i saw she was almost dead still and her gaster was stuck to the test tube as i had offered the queen and worker honey when i moved them in. I grabbed a ear thing and rubbed off the honey off her gaster. She still didn't look too good though and still no sign of the worker. At this point i had begun to realize the queen killed the worker. The day after that her gaster had somehow gotten stuck again so i plucked off the honey again. Then the day after that when i checked on her she had laid a batch of eggs. I was amazed that she laid after everything she had gone through. Then the eggs hatched into yellow eggs and then larva and now 4 months later i had gotten my first nanitic. Tetramorium usually go from egg to worker in one or two months though so the length that it took does concern me a bit. She did lay two more batches of eggs though while the first batch was growing so that might have something to do with it. Although i must say It was still so amazing to see that after everything that had happened to the queen she still cared for the eggs all the way to the worker stage. Back to the colony; I proceeded to feed the queen and nanitics honey on wax paper and no fighting between the queen and workers had occurred :). (she had two workers) Now there are 3 more pupae that i expect to hatch any day now and everything has been going good. The only thing is that there is alot of crap growing on the side of the test tube and i think once the bulk of the pupae hatch i am going to move them.
So what do you guys think? Isnt it amazing that after everything that had happened the eggs hatched into workers? Any thoughts on the colony?? I really want to see what you ant keepers think of her and if you guys think this will be a reliable colony.
BTW the species is tetramorium. PLease respond and tell me what you guys think.
Congratulations! I have a thriving tetramorium colony that fill up an entire hybrid nest. They are very hardy creatures, so somehow I'm not surprised that your queen made it. Make sure you don't move your colony till you have 25 workers or more. also if your queen (or a worker) gets honey on them, It is a lot easier to just hold them in some water (they wont drown) and let the honey dissolve off.
Proverbs 6:6-8

Go to the ant, you sluggard;
consider its ways and be wise!
It has no commander,
no overseer or ruler,
yet it stores its provisions in summer
and gathers its food at harvest.

Keeping Tetramorium immigrans, Tapinoma Sessile

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