The AntsCanada Ant Forum's

Hello! As i said in the title, i am a newbie at ant keeping, and i got a queen ant almost by accident some 1-2 months ago.
I did the test tube setup, put some water, cotton, had some hesitations about food, but decided not to feed after i read a post here...
Well, in some time, she laid eggs!, about 6 of them, altough they needed some time to develop, eventually they grew bigger...
But then came a problem, some days ago, i believe one egg hatched, and the, or what appears to be a larva, is (i believe) dead...
I dont really know what happened, but im really worried about her and her eggs.

she is a Camponotus, i did not find the specific species, but im still in the works...

(im also worried about that black stuff on the left cotton, should i move her to a new, bigger one?)

Welcome to ant keeping!

First of all, the queen is perfect in there. If the black thing gets bigger, you should connect another test tube (with the same size) and she'll decide to move in there.

Maybe, she ate the larvae because of stress. If you didn't know, you must put firstly a red cellophane around the test tube, then a rag in top of it. You MUST leave the queen in a silent and ventilated place.

Also, you mustn't check on the queen very often because she gets stressed. You must check on the queen every 5-7 days.

Finally, the place mustn't have any vibrations or agressive movements near. Put the queen in the most silent and peaceful place in your house.

Greetings

If the black stuff is not covering the entire cotton surface then its fine otherwise you should move her. Also are you sure that the larvae is dead? Ant larvae dont move alot like worms but sit there and think about life. The the queen ate it then it was probably dead. But if the queen continue to eat the eggs then dont check on her very often( do things suggested above) and try feeding her a teeny tiny drop of honey. If she doesn't eat then clean it using some cotton( you can feed her on a peice of foil) but dont disturb her or poke her of feed her any more till the workers arrive

Antloverhuman wrote: ↑

Thu Nov 11, 2021 9:29 pm

If the black stuff is not covering the entire cotton surface then its fine otherwise you should move her. Also are you sure that the larvae is dead? Ant larvae dont move alot like worms but sit there and think about life. The the queen ate it then it was probably dead. But if the queen continue to eat the eggs then dont check on her very often( do things suggested above) and try feeding her a teeny tiny drop of honey. If she doesn't eat then clean it using some cotton( you can feed her on a peice of foil) but dont disturb her or poke her of feed her any more till the workers arrive

well, thanks for your tips

Can we get an update on your queen?