The AntsCanada Ant Forum's

That's very interesting. Thank you for the info ... I clearly have much to learn!

Our ants moved to the entrance end of the tube yesterday and we also saw them tugging at the queen to get her to move. We had put a light close to the tube to encourage them out so I guess they were feeling uncomfortable with that. Interestingly, when we removed the light, they all moved back next the moist cotton wool. They're clearly happy where they are and need the moisture/humidity for the nest.

I've decided to leave it for now as we're planning to hibernate them.

Ants can be very stubborn at times
That happened to me so many times, don't worry.
Good luck for hibernation by the way!

UnrealSparks wrote: ↑

Tue Dec 04, 2018 2:39 am

Ants can be very stubborn at times
That happened to me so many times, don't worry.
Good luck for hibernation by the way!

LOL. Many thanks for all your advice and support so far. Really appreciated.

No problem, glad I could be helpful.

yaktriangle wrote: ↑

Thu Nov 29, 2018 1:25 pm

Thanks for all the feedback guys.

We won't sweat it for now and will keep trying. As you say, I guess the ants will soon move if they're not happy with something.

Another quick question though ... who in the colony initiates the move? Will it be the queen to move first and then the workers follow her or will a worker decide it's time to move and start moving the eggs/pupae out?

Cheers.

Hi, after the workers arrive the queen makes zero decisions. The workers decide what to eat, where to live, etc. When it is time to dig for hibernation, yada yada.

There is actually a huge but passive debate on weather or not "queen" is an accurate title for her. Yes she lays all the eggs and the growth of the colony depend on her health but after that it is believed by many (scientists and keepers alike) that the queen is more so a slave to her own children. In some species this can be seen a lot more then others. A fine example of the theory is in one of AC's YouTube videos where he adds new queen's to his existing yellow crazy ant colony.

One of the 3 queen's seems to fight back and does not want to be dragged around by these new workers but it is not enough and the workers drag her into their nest (alive ) where it would seem she is forced to add to their ranks.

A good theory for that, which I believe came from a viewer who commented on that videos was that the reluctant queen was an alpha because she came in with 2 other queen's who were calmer and willing to be taken to their new nest. Which would make sense to have a primary queen, however the existing colony already have an alpha queen so the new one was forced to fall in line.

yaktriangle wrote: ↑

Thu Nov 29, 2018 1:46 pm

UnrealSparks wrote: ↑

Thu Nov 29, 2018 1:36 pm

I've always seen workers starting to move, taking out the brood first. It happened to me to witness even them forcing the queen in the move by pulling her from the antennae, so cute!

That's cool ... didn't realise they did that.

DO you reckon sugar-water would help entice them out of the old tube?!

I doubt this as the sugar water is a sweet to them and they need normal water to hidrate their nest. If they were to live in a sugared test tube the mold would double in its rate to spread.

I have Lasius Niger also and I have this very same issue but the mold broke out too soon and has discoloured their water.
Unfortunately for these moment it does not help that Lasius Niger ants are one heck of a hardy bunch sand can and will tolerate issues like this until last second.
I find leaving them alone helps the move. They know we are watching them

Hunter36o wrote: ↑

Wed Dec 12, 2018 4:18 am

[snip] ... the queen is more so a slave to her own children. In some species this can be seen a lot more then others.

In particular the Human species!!

In all seriousness, many thanks for your informative posts. Really interesting stuff.

Cheers.

Just posting to see if anyone has any other suggestions for this situation. I'm having a similar issue with a colony of Camponotus. They have an Ant Tower attached, but won't move into it, and the cotton in their two water tubes has turned almost completely black. It's occurred to me to pull the tubes out and basically dump them out into the tower, but I don't want to do something that drastic unless they're really in danger from the mold.

PAants wrote: ↑

Wed Jul 15, 2020 12:53 am

Just posting to see if anyone has any other suggestions for this situation. I'm having a similar issue with a colony of Camponotus. They have an Ant Tower attached, but won't move into it, and the cotton in their two water tubes has turned almost completely black. It's occurred to me to pull the tubes out and basically dump them out into the tower, but I don't want to do something that drastic unless they're really in danger from the mold.

That's what happened with my queens, the black mold, and I'm also from PA. Something in the air? The weather? I still haven't figured out why this happened, but it killed one of my colonies. I was able to get my ants to move just by exposing their tube to natural light and covering the new tube, but until this point they'd been kept in a dark drawer. I imagine the contrast may have something to do? I will say, it took two weeks for my last colony to move. I wouldn't dump them, though. One, you might injure or even kill the queen. Two, what's to keep mold from dumping into your shiny new set-up? Generally, unless they're obviously doing poorly, I would trust the ants know what they're doing and will move when the time is right.