Adoption of ants

[Puncarlol]

I was wondering if the 20 or so workers that my dead queen left behind, as she passed away today, can be adopted by another Crematogaster queen, given the fact that is a small colony with about 5 more pupas.

If anyone has experimented with this before I'd love to know how did it go and tips.

Thanks!

[JoeHostile1]

Its really hard to get adult workers to get along. You didn’t mention how many workers the living queen has, but if it’s just a few you could get rid of them and then try to introduce the 20 workers one at a time to the living queen, as long as they are not attacking her.

But for 20 workers it’s probably going to be a lot more work than it’s worth. I would take any larvae, eggs and pupae from the queen that died and give it to the living queen. And then just dispose of the 20 workers.

[Puncarlol]

That could be a possibility however I feel like a criminal for abandoning thw old colony. I have tried it already but the workers try to sting thw new queen so I removed her immediately.

[AntsDakota]

That could be a possibility however I feel like a criminal for abandoning thw old colony. I have tried it already but the workers try to sting thw new queen so I removed her immediately.

Crematogaster do not sting, but spray acid.

[TheRealAntMan]

That could be a possibility however I feel like a criminal for abandoning thw old colony. I have tried it already but the workers try to sting thw new queen so I removed her immediately.

Crematogaster do not sting, but spray acid.

Crematogaster don't sting nor spray formic acid. Though they do have stingers but they don't actually use it to sting their victims. Instead they use it to exudes chemical signals to nestmates and to smear defensive chemicals on enemies.