How do i introduce a new queen to a red imported fire ant colony

[XxStrongHeroxX]

how do i introduce a new queen to a imported fire ant colony? the colony has no queen.

[XxStrongHeroxX]

http://prntscr.com/eejdt5
http://prntscr.com/eeje0z

[Phoenix]

Sorry, but I'm afraid it's not possible.

[XxStrongHeroxX]

Sorry, but I'm afraid it's not possible.

what about brood boosting i heard about that and how would i do it

[Serafine]

Put the colony in the fridge for a few minutes so they calm down, then you can try to introduce a new queen. Invicta can found nests with multiple queens and even acquire new queens by raiding other nests, they're sort of used to accept new queens (to a certain degree) so it might actually work.
They may accept her or not, it's worth a try. And since there are like thousands of alates around when fire ants fly it won't be much of a loss either if they kill two or three before they accept one.

[idahoantgirl]

Sorry, but I'm afraid it's not possible.

what about brood boosting i heard about that and how would i do it

Brood boosting is much simpler and less risky than trying to introduce new queens to a setup. you have to find brood from the exact same species of ant. Stick them in a test tube and attach it to your setup. The worker ants will find it, think that it's their own colonies brood, and bring it back into the nest. here is a video from ant's canada on how to go about doing this.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MiIGsScrfqE

[Martialis]

The colony will die without a queen. It can be very difficult to get Solenopsis invicta brood, for obvious reasons.

I think what Serafine said may work and possibly extend your colony's life.

[SpeciesK]

I obviously don't know, since I am new to ants, but...
When beekeepers introduce a new queen to a beehive, they put the queen in a little cage with a few worker bees who take care of her, but the rest of the colony of bees cannot get to her because of a screen on the little cage. The beehive gets used to the smell and pheromones of the new queen and meanwhile there is a hole stuffed full of sugar paste that the workers inside and outside slowly eat thru until the queen is released and by then the hive is used to the new queen. I wonder if you could rig up something like that to introduce a new queen to your colony? The little cage would have to be different to keep the smaller ants out and prevent the ants from stinging thru to the other side, and the sugar plug would have to be thicker to slow down the outside ants from eating thru it too fast. But it might work... or not.

[Martialis]

I obviously don't know, since I am new to ants, but...
When beekeepers introduce a new queen to a beehive, they put the queen in a little cage with a few worker bees who take care of her, but the rest of the colony of bees cannot get to her because of a screen on the little cage. The beehive gets used to the smell and pheromones of the new queen and meanwhile there is a hole stuffed full of sugar paste that the workers inside and outside slowly eat thru until the queen is released and by then the hive is used to the new queen. I wonder if you could rig up something like that to introduce a new queen to your colony? The little cage would have to be different to keep the smaller ants out and prevent the ants from stinging thru to the other side, and the sugar plug would have to be thicker to slow down the outside ants from eating thru it too fast. But it might work... or not.

While I'm not sure this in particular will work, the head admin, MadVampy, would be a good person to ask. He's done this before with a colony of his.

[MadVampy]

OK if you know for sure you've lost the queen in your Solenopsis colony (usually if you can see the trash pile they will take her out of the nest and place her there) you can simply introduce a new queen. I have done this on more than one occasion. If you have another queen put her in a test tube with some water (setup like a test tube brooding chamber) and place her in the outworld or if you're using something like a AC hybrid nest you can simply attached her to one of the open free ports. Once the other workers of the colony find her they may inspect her for a few hours to determine if they want her in the colony, if they do then they will coax her into the nest (don't be alarmed if you see them trying to drag her by her antenna or legs, they are not going to here her. Remember theses same ants carry their brood without killing them). If they are not going to accept her they will swarm and kill her on the spot.

I've done like 5 transplants and had only one fail (and I think it was because the queen was injured and didn't pass the colonies inspection). If you have an open nest you can keep an eye on her to see how she does but don't over do it! Think from her and the colonies point of view, She has now adopted a family and has to get use to them and that goes with the colony also. They will really fuss over her until they accept her fully and also her pheromone scent has been passed throughout the colony. A queens scent is what identifies a colony from other colonies and this is why you can't take workers from one colony to another, they will fight one another.

WIth that being said I saw someone say something about brood boosting. I don't have an issue with this if you're doing it to help a colony to survive or a colony that's having a rough start due to a lazy queen. Also brood boosting will only extend the life of the colony but without a queen no fresh new brood will be produced.

WARNING!!!! SOLENOPSIS DO STING AND IF YOU'RE ALLERGIC ENOUGH STINGS COULD KILL YOU IF YOU DON'T SEEK MEDICAL ATTENTION!!!!

The easiest method I have found to do this is during the hottest part of the day find a Solenopsis mound and collect the eggs from that (they should be near the very top of the mound because they bring them up to incubate the brood in the heat. The way I do it is I put on some of the gloves that go up to my elbows (the yellow rubber/vinyl ones you use to clean with), I then get a small tupperware bowl with a snap lid (take and cut out a 1/2" hole and stuff a big ball of cotton in it so they can get air) and a teaspoon. GO to the mound and rake back the top 3-4 inches being careful to just displace the dirt, in doing so you should see a bunch of brood use the spoon and scoop up the brood without getting a lot of dirt (you will get some workers also because they just went into alert mode) and place it in the bowl (don't snap the lid down just set it on top),MAKE SURE YOU'RE CHECKING YOUR GLOVES FOR ANTS AND BRUSH THEM OFF BEFORE THEY GET TO THE TOP OF THE GLOVES, do this a few times but make it quick because they will be rushing to get the brood back inside the nest. so once you do get what you can snap the lid tight on the bowl and then you're good to go. BTW when you're transporting the bowl don't shake it around and also place it in the shade out of direct sunlight, the heat could easily kill the brood if exposed to it for too long.

Now that you have the brood and some workers you'll need to separate the workers, dirt, and brood. The best way I have found is to place the bowl in the fridge for a little bit to get the ants to slow down to the point that you can open the bowl and then pour some of the contents onto a paper plate then use something like a tooth pick to separate the brood from the rest of the stuff. The ants will start moving more once they warm up and what you do with them is up to you. During the time your picking out brood go ahead and put the bowl back in the fridge until you're ready to pour more out. Once you have all the brood separated then take them and place them in a test tube and place it in the outworld or if you're using something like a AC hybrid nest you can simply attached her to one of the open free ports.

Ok well that should be enough to get you started. Hope this helps, Good luck and try not to get stung!