Help, she's dying... I think

[ProTurtle435]

Sugar water is probably the closest thing to honey. But is more dangerous in my opinion because of how liquidy it is. If you put to much, she could drown. You have to put just enough so that it satisfy her needs and doesn't leave much to flow around the tube. As for disturbing her with light, ants can't see red light which means you can wrap a red tinted plastic/paper that is clear and still be able to see them, but they think they are in darkness.

[argh226]

I dont have honey at home at the moment and I don't think water with sugar would be good either. I was maybe thinking about a little bit of strawberry jam. More sticky, fair amount of sugar and non-toxic.

I did went and see my queen once so far and she was rather relax in the tube. Must resist the urge to see her again, it has been 3-4 days.

[AntsLuxembourg]

As for disturbing her with light, ants can't see red light which means you can wrap a red tinted plastic/paper that is clear and still be able to see them, but they think they are in darkness.

I'm not sure whether or not it's true but I think that ants actually can see red light. So I would much rather keep them in the darkness. It would actually be great, to have that fact checked because if it's true that they can't see red light, then why would one of my older colonies decide that a piece of green tube is much better than a piece of red tubing/an area in red light? Both areas were humite but it's still very strange to have the queen sitting in a green area instead of a red one :/

You know what I mean?

[argh226]

As per the last video from Mike of AntsCanada, thats what he said : they are blind to red.

[AntsInMyEyesJohnson]

@AntsLuxembourg

Hi,
I would believe it’s a carpenter ant, it’s pretty much what we have around in Québec and pavement ants. I think I got her covered for the tube/quiet zone and darkness. As for the stress I might have failed miserably as for my kids keeps poking me to see her every few hours or so. Obviously I didn't, but might have done too often none the less.

The size is a little more than 1cm, or close to.

If I dont have any honey at hand at the moment what would be the best next thing to offer her?

Thanks!

Mix some sugar with some water in about a 1:1 ratio, get a skewer and drop in a tiny, I mean like pinpoint tiny drop of the sugar water. Too much wasted food promoted Mold growth.

[Darkhero0987]

I will try tonight... if she still moving, but I fear the worst now

In the tube : https://ibb.co/ma102z

Could it be a lack of oxygen? Too much air tight?

thats alot of room for her it should be mostly water in the tube this is usely a good amount https://imgur.com/eJM9DI0 maybe even less

do your ants hibernate she maybe going into a hibernate period. She may also have not been mated and bay actually be dieing its hard to say if your worried about the cotten being to much put a little else in and make sure its loose not a loose fit but the cotten has been played with abit so its loosend up and has a lot of breath

I think this is actually something worth to discuss to be honest. I mean I myself try to keep the testtube at a 50-50%. Like half the testtube is filled with water and the rest if for the queen to hydro and thermo regulat. So far my queens seem to like it this way. It also gives me some space to work with. Like I want to offer them food but how when the testtube is packed with workers ready to burst out? I've seen some people doing testtubes packed with workers which looks like they are about to get squeezed to dead by the upcomming brood which looks pretty sad and distrubing to me.

That's basicly my opinion but so far it works perfectly fine for me.

I agree with your statement I for a colony that has a lot more workers 50-50% would probably be a good idea for more, room I find the more space I give them in the founding stage the longer the queen takes to lay. I was referencing the founding stage as it may take longer for the queen to lay and she may need more water I had the issue that having less water in the tube the queen actually ran out befor she even had her first worker which probably didn't help with her not being stressed because I had to make her move which lead to some loss of brood. But at the end of the day its up to the keeper to decided what best suits there ants and the ants needs.

[Darkhero0987]

As for disturbing her with light, ants can't see red light which means you can wrap a red tinted plastic/paper that is clear and still be able to see them, but they think they are in darkness.

I'm not sure whether or not it's true but I think that ants actually can see red light. So I would much rather keep them in the darkness. It would actually be great, to have that fact checked because if it's true that they can't see red light, then why would one of my older colonies decide that a piece of green tube is much better than a piece of red tubing/an area in red light? Both areas were humite but it's still very strange to have the queen sitting in a green area instead of a red one :/

You know what I mean?

A lot of ants are blind to red light from my understanding not sure if all

[AntsLuxembourg]

I agree with your statement I for a colony that has a lot more workers 50-50% would probably be a good idea for more, room I find the more space I give them in the founding stage the longer the queen takes to lay. I was referencing the founding stage as it may take longer for the queen to lay and she may need more water I had the issue that having less water in the tube the queen actually ran out befor she even had her first worker which probably didn't help with her not being stressed because I had to make her move which lead to some loss of brood. But at the end of the day its up to the keeper to decided what best suits there ants and the ants needs.

Interesting about this is that I actually came to notice yesterday that one of my colonies might run out of water very soon while the others don't. I got all my queens put inside a glass testtube except for one. That single colonie of ants has about the same size as some others and they had laid eggs within their first 3-4 days in there. Some even laid the next day.

Anyway. I noticed that for some reason the testtube made of glass keeps the water much better than the testtube made out of plastic which is wierd since it is basicly the same setup except for the material of the tube. So to me it seems that somehow the plastic must be letting out the water at some point which gives me the question on how this is possible. I however prefer the glass testtubes even when the topring seems to break of easy on some of the testtubes but the testtube itself doesn't break.

I will keep a look on this because I find it very interesting to see how long they can manage to keep the water. I will probably have to bet me a very long needle to refill their watersupplies somehow because the next station of the colony should be that they get a bigger home setup for the colony. Like a little glass tank or something. I am still working on something for the ants.

[JoeHostile1]

As for disturbing her with light, ants can't see red light which means you can wrap a red tinted plastic/paper that is clear and still be able to see them, but they think they are in darkness.

I'm not sure whether or not it's true but I think that ants actually can see red light. So I would much rather keep them in the darkness. It would actually be great, to have that fact checked because if it's true that they can't see red light, then why would one of my older colonies decide that a piece of green tube is much better than a piece of red tubing/an area in red light? Both areas were humite but it's still very strange to have the queen sitting in a green area instead of a red one :/

You know what I mean?

A lot of ants are blind to red light from my understanding not sure if all

They say ants can’t see the COLOR red. This somehow got twisted into ants can’t see light coming from light bulbs that are tinted red or that somehow a red tint can somehow cancel out light. That’s basicly saying that something that is red is invisible to the ants because they can’t see the COLOR red. If you think about it this makes no sense; that would imply that if we paint a rock red ants will not see the rock. This is not how being color blind works. They can still see the rock it would just not appear red to them. So why would red light be invisible if the rock is not invisible?

Light and color are two different things. Light is actually every color in the rainbow, not yellow, red ect. If we were apply this same logic to someone who is color blind( let’s say they can’t see the color green) then we would be able trick them into thinking that all their lights in their house are burnt out by tinting all the their lightbulbs green. They would turn on the light and since it’s tinted green and they can’t see the COLOR green apparently then it would be pitch black. This is not the case, they would see the light it just wouldn’t be tinted green.

All of this is completely beside the point because most Ants have Ocelli eyes that they use to detect light, which have absolutely nothing to do with color at all. They’re not detecting red light, green light, white light, they are simply detecting light.

[Darkhero0987]

I agree with your statement I for a colony that has a lot more workers 50-50% would probably be a good idea for more, room I find the more space I give them in the founding stage the longer the queen takes to lay. I was referencing the founding stage as it may take longer for the queen to lay and she may need more water I had the issue that having less water in the tube the queen actually ran out befor she even had her first worker which probably didn't help with her not being stressed because I had to make her move which lead to some loss of brood. But at the end of the day its up to the keeper to decided what best suits there ants and the ants needs.

Interesting about this is that I actually came to notice yesterday that one of my colonies might run out of water very soon while the others don't. I got all my queens put inside a glass testtube except for one. That single colonie of ants has about the same size as some others and they had laid eggs within their first 3-4 days in there. Some even laid the next day.

Anyway. I noticed that for some reason the testtube made of glass keeps the water much better than the testtube made out of plastic which is wierd since it is basicly the same setup except for the material of the tube. So to me it seems that somehow the plastic must be letting out the water at some point which gives me the question on how this is possible. I however prefer the glass testtubes even when the topring seems to break of easy on some of the testtubes but the testtube itself doesn't break.

I will keep a look on this because I find it very interesting to see how long they can manage to keep the water. I will probably have to bet me a very long needle to refill their watersupplies somehow because the next station of the colony should be that they get a bigger home setup for the colony. Like a little glass tank or something. I am still working on something for the ants.

Glass has a hard time holding heat if I remember right so plastic would hold it better meaning the water would evaporate faster I would assume that would be my guess on that. just get them to move test tubes once the water gets super low they will notice the tube isnt staying humid enough and will move quickly or mine did anyways. then one your bigger set up is done just put the testtube in there