The AntsCanada Ant Forum's

So basically I hibernated my ants (lasius niger) and took them out the fridge last week and about 2/3 weeks ago the queen was fine and she seemed dead couple days ago. Now I know for sure shes dead as for some reason i guess her workers while trying to move her around ripped her to pieces i can see that shes missing 3 legs which i found in the test tube and i also cant seem to see her head either and her body has been put far away from the main chamber.
So since my colony has no more queen i wanted to know if there is a way of adding these workers to another colony and maybe since they dont have a queen they could join a new queen? otherwise there are about 50 more eggs in the test tube and could any of these be turned into a queen egg maybe or if not can these eggs be given to another colony who will take care of them as their own eggs or they ill eat them?
Many Thanks

Sorry to say this but your colony wilk probably eventually die out. As far as i know lasius niger isnt polygenous so i would release them, freeze them (will slowly fall asleep then die and isnt painful to them at all), or just keep caring for them until the last few brood turn into workers... sorry for ur loss.

Yeah, without the queen they aren't able to produce any more workers and the colony will just die out. I would suggest releasing them otherwise you can just wait until they all die out. Sorry for your loss

I am so sorry to hear about your lost, I guess the best way to do now is to release the remaining ants as reproduction won't happen when the queen died.

Well I really hope you did not release them as all hope is not lost. Now, if you do manage to take good care of the ants and allow them to take care of the brood, you should check if a Lasius parasite queen can be found in your area. These queen's can only start a colony with host workers by sneaking into an existing nest and killing their queen. If you are able to get one of these you will be able to raise a new colony by allowing the current to become a host.