Captured queen who had a colony. How do I take care of her?

[zsluyter]

Hi there everyone. I recently was in my yard and accidentally dug up an ant nest. The queen came out and I managed to capture her with my test tube. I am wondering what I should do in terms of feeding and care because she lost her workers. Thanks!

[Ltislander]

Well if you can you should collect the workers because she will die withought them. She grew dependent on them.

[idahoantgirl]

Not necessarily. It is possible for her to "start over" however she will need food.

[zsluyter]

I gathered a few of her workers and put them in a temporary mason jar with dirt. I then put the queen in and the workers began to dig tunnels for her. So I think all is well. What should I feed the small colony?

[idahoantgirl]

A test tube setup would be preferable. For food they need sugary substances (Sugar water, honey, jam) and protein, preferably insects bought from a petstore (crickets, mealworms, fruitflies) (make sure you kill them before feeding them to your colony. Make sure you don't feed them in the tube, but rather in an outworld.

[zsluyter]

She seems settled into the mason jar. I put some honey in the jar for them to drink. Hopefully it all goes well.

[idahoantgirl]

The main issues with mason jars are
1 you can't move your colony into a nest easily later
2 humidity is difficult to control
3 you disturb them every time you need to feed them
4 you cannot monitor your colonies progress or potential issues that will arise.

[zsluyter]

How would you recommend I move them into a test tube setup?

[idahoantgirl]

That depends. Can you give us a picture of the mason jar setup? You may have to dump the mason jar and then gather the workers and queens. I know that sounds damaging, but you will have to do it at some point and it is best to do so before she lays eggs.

[zsluyter]

There are about 10-15 workers with her in the jar. Catching all of them would be very difficult. And the only thing I worry about is her stress level. She has gone from colony to tube then to jar.