The AntsCanada Ant Forum's

Yesterday I found a queen red carpenter ant (red mesozoma, black head and gaster), but she seemed to already have been part of a very, very small colony. It’s too late to return her by now though. I have her in a test tube, should I feed her? I know normally you don’t feed them, as they are fully claustral, but I was wondering if you should only not feed ones that were on their nuptial flights. Sorry for long post, I’m very new here.

if it is possible you should go back and try to collect some brood and workers of her colony. make sure you have correct species of worker because if you collect the wrong worker they would kill your queen. if you have at least one of her worker, it can feed her and protect her. you can either give food in her test tube or you should put her test tube in another Tupperware type container so that you can feed her easily.( you should keep her test tube in another container only if you have at least 5+ workers)

So I should feed her? And after I got her into the test tube I went back to where I found her, the workers were gone.

yes you should feed her. you can use a toothpick to put a small drop of honey on a thick piece of paper and put that paper in her test tube. just quickly remove the cotton, put the paper and close the test tube with cotton. but don't push the paper too close to the the queen, keep it near the the cotton.

Ok, later today I might check if any of the workers are there, probably not though. At least I know she is fertilized.

also you should give her small amount of food every week and should wait for one half to one hour after giving food so she have enough time to eat and if you leave food in her test tube for too long the cotton can mold and if there is liquid food she and her brood can drown. giving her food every week can make sure the queen is healthy. Fully claustral queen ants use energy stored in their wing muscles which are no longer needed. they convert this energy into a "tasty soup" which they feed on and give their brood. a queen ant who already have a colony with 3 or more workers probably do not have enough energy to survive alone and give to her brood. So if anyone has a fully claustral queen they dug up from a colony should feed her weekly or depending on how she's doing.

Ok, I put paper with honey on it with her, and I will take it out once she stops eating.

I found two more queens and a bunch of workers from the same colony as each other. Should I release the first one I found since I don’t have any workers for it? And why are the ants seemingly attacking one of the queens When I put one with the ants they’re all from the same colony. And I wouldn’t be allowed to poke holes in a Tupperware so what else could work?

Is it a good idea to put the 2 queens together?

I released all but one queen, and I have some workers (5) in the test tube with her, one of the workers seems to be constantly pulling on one of her legs, is this bad?