Is my lasius niger queen stresed out?

[DanEyres]

Hi,

​Im very new to ant keeping and i want my first experience to be the best so,
I recently got a lasius niger queen and put her in a test tube setup, but over the past few days she hasn't been moving much and hasnt layed any eggs so i thought that she must be stressed out, as this is the first thing that came to mind as im very new to ant keeping and I know her not laying any eggs is a sign of stress.
​This really worries me please help!
​Is she stressed out or is there another reason?


​Thanks, Dan

[idahoantgirl]

Hi,

​Im very new to ant keeping and i want my first experience to be the best so,
I recently got a lasius niger queen and put her in a test tube setup, but over the past few days she hasn't been moving much and hasnt layed any eggs so i thought that she must be stressed out, as this is the first thing that came to mind as im very new to ant keeping and I know her not laying any eggs is a sign of stress.
​This really worries me please help!
​Is she stressed out or is there another reason?


​Thanks, Dan

It's only been a couple days. Queens take anywhere from a few hours, to a month to lay eggs! Some lasius species even wait the entire winter. (lasius neoniger) I would reccommend not even looking at her for a week. Then check on her without disturbing her as much as possible. If you only check on her once a week, she will be fine.

[DanEyres]

Thanks for the reply,
Maybe that's the problem as I do check her very often because its my first time trying this out so m really exited.
Again thanks so much.

[harry7778]

It's also my first summer trying ant keeping and I understand that it's very hard not to look at them, I could watch them all day, they're just so interesting but it's always best just to put them in a dark warm place with a medium air flow and just let them be for a month, if you left them for a month or two, you could come back to workers and brood! You just have to find something to make you forget about them, they will grow and function a hell of a lot faster if they don't get disturbed, (Make sure to at least check them once a month incase of mold in the setup or if they have ran out of water if she's in a smaller tube) thank you.