Help, she's dying... I think

[AntsLuxembourg]

Perhaps mix a small amount of water with sugar. It's the second best thing. Honey is just easier to put inside with a toothpick. For your kids. Tell them that the queen might be sick and that she needs a lot of rest so she can become healthy again. That is basicly true and it gives them a reason not to disturb her too much. Even if it is very interesting and I know how curious people can be.

It would however be sad if she didn't make it. The only other reason why she doesn't move would be that she is covered in a crust of sugar or something else and needs to be washed off. Usually her workers would do that for her but she still has no workers. :/
I don't think that she needs an antwashing under the tabwater.

She might be able to recover from all the stress but she definetly needs a lot of rest. If your kids are still curious about ants perhaps show them some videos about ants. I myself have streamed my colonie of Messor barbarus a lot so they can observe them a lot if they want to watch ants. And yes they are all on Youtube to rewatch. It got no sound tho, since I haven't got my new computer for this task. As soon as I have it I will be able to set up a much better stream.

Anyway. Make it clear with your kids that the queen must not be disturbed no more in order for her to recover. Check in perhaps 2-3 days again so you can see if she is still moving or not. If not you can hold a little antfuneral for her. If she is still moving you might have just scraped by and saved her.

Also there are a couple of GAN Farmers arround Quebec so you could try to contact them via this side or ask to be provided with the contact informations for those farmers. https://www.AntsCanada.com/queen-ants-for-sale/

Please keep me updated on the queen. I will try to check on here a couple of times. Keep in mind the timeshift between Luxembourg and Canada.

[argh226]

Will certainly keep you updated. I will get her very little sugar tonight... and we'll see in a few days.

I know I could get some ants from someone, but since it’s my first time (also with kids) I want to make the whole process ourselves. Maybe if I look for a 2nd colony I might get it from someone else, or if I don’t find a specific species around here (legally speaking of course).

That said, I also sent my boy in a "quest" for another queen. The more the merrier, if I have too many I'll simply give/sell them away. This way he'll have more time than I do to look for another queen ant and raises chances to have one before the end of summer.

By the way, I think the ant community is a great one, lot of nice peoples/comments.

[argh226]

Well... bad news... she didn't make it.

I'll have to get another one and try not to do any mistake.

I believe she might have been starving a little and I had trouble to get her at first hand. I wasn't at home and I didn't have much on me at this time.

On top of this she might have lacked oxygen...

[argh226]

On another note, I just found this

https://youtu.be/4-7pV3N9wSE

What should I do?

Btw, forgive my really poor recording skills....

(Should I start another thread?)

[argh226]

And yet again....

I just found that (picture) : https://ibb.co/dNPYPe

Another quick video https://youtu.be/MDFbXKOvikM

[AntsLuxembourg]

Sad to hear she didn't make it. But don't worry. Everyone is just so super curious about keeping ants so they keep checking on them every few hours. I myself did some research before I got my own colony. Although I didn't knew how frail those little fellows can be.

About your video. That's definetly a nest. I guess they are getting ready for their nuptial flight. So you should keep an eye out for that. About that queen you caught. Was that one straight from that nest? If so you better put her back because chances are high that she isn't fertile. As soon as their nuptial flight has happened they fly away from their nest to whereever the males spray their pheromons. This means if they had their flight you won't find many workers arround but many queens and perhaps some males.

Anyway it's normal to be curious about the unknown and yes I also felt horrible after my very first queen had died. :C
I've got a couple of queens ready myself for sale and also to put into a nice setup but I'm also thinking about waiting with that until next year because that's easier for me to keep the ants in. I might even do a little experiment about colouring. Many people say that ants can't see red light but I'm also curious why my queen then wouldn't stay in that nest with a red foil over it. I mean she was nesting in the tubing close to the water testtube. The strange thing was. She choose green over red. So I will have to make an experiment to see if they really prefer red or green or blue. It's like I have to find out but I also need the right setup for that. It will definetly take a lot of time to test that. :/

[Hunter36o]

Looking at the second short vid, do you notice how frantic the queen is? For me (did personal tests at home as information on ants in Ireland is very limited) I had purposely caught a non fertile queen to place beside a definite mated queen (caught her in the act ) and I studied their behaviours side by side. A fortune queen is more relaxed even when looking for a new nest, it is like the sexual drive for her had run out and it was time to get to work.
However I noticed that the infertile queen was frantic and would not rest u til she crashed and burned (she was given honey and I got her energy back, and if you are wondering I let her go as soon as I knew a second flight took place, she happily flew off)

For AntsLuxembourg I have seen huge debates on this so I decided a few days ago to look into it. In short ants can see red but not like we do. It all depends on light intensity mixed with the shade of red used. A really dark red with medium light intensity can not be visible for Myrmica, but can be visible for Lasius (although another huge debate and is continuously being tested is that Lasius Niger's can see all things red)
See the belief that ants cannot see red comes from the fact Honey bees cannot see red and because they a loosely related People believed the same for ants but ants are proven them wrong day by day. A lot of people do not know ants are actually a closer relative to the wasp, sharing a common ancestor. Wasps see red better then bees.

Sorry for the massive post but I hope this information can help in some ways.

[Hunter36o]

Oh for my ants and their room I am having my light switch changed for those that let you alter the light intensity. Not something that will cost you an arm if you wanted to investigate your self.

[AntsLuxembourg]

Looking at the second short vid, do you notice how frantic the queen is? For me (did personal tests at home as information on ants in Ireland is very limited) I had purposely caught a non fertile queen to place beside a definite mated queen (caught her in the act ) and I studied their behaviours side by side. A fortune queen is more relaxed even when looking for a new nest, it is like the sexual drive for her had run out and it was time to get to work.
However I noticed that the infertile queen was frantic and would not rest u til she crashed and burned (she was given honey and I got her energy back, and if you are wondering I let her go as soon as I knew a second flight took place, she happily flew off)

For AntsLuxembourg I have seen huge debates on this so I decided a few days ago to look into it. In short ants can see red but not like we do. It all depends on light intensity mixed with the shade of red used. A really dark red with medium light intensity can not be visible for Myrmica, but can be visible for Lasius (although another huge debate and is continuously being tested is that Lasius Niger's can see all things red)
See the belief that ants cannot see red comes from the fact Honey bees cannot see red and because they a loosely related People believed the same for ants but ants are proven them wrong day by day. A lot of people do not know ants are actually a closer relative to the wasp, sharing a common ancestor. Wasps see red better then bees.

Sorry for the massive post but I hope this information can help in some ways.

Yeah I think it is commonly beleaved because so many people beleave it. I also just remembered that I got one of those color changing lights from IKEA which would be even better to test. Like changing it to a diffrent color for a week or so. I actually got two so I can set that up easily.
I would test which testtube they prefer by lighing one with red and another one with green. Also Ants are related to both. Wasps and Bees but that's because they have developped diffrently. And I think ants came out of the wasps which is shown best by the queens and males which still look very similar to those of wasps. But it's also very interesting to see how diffrently they have developped.

Nature is very fascinating in general.
Anyway. I will try to do some color experiments to see what color my ants would prefer. This way I could actually just change the color of a flashlight to check on my ants.

[argh226]

Hey guys,

I had a not so clean tube outside while chasing and the ant was far more relax in that one. When I transferred it into the clean one with water she got a little bit more excited for some reason.

She might have not mated yet, but the reason I took her anyway is that from AntsCanada YouTube videos, wings aren't a good indicator as for if she mated or not. However, seeing the nest with all the males (now I know they were from the size of the queen I got) there is good chances, I think, that she got impregnated (typo?). It was about 100-150m from that big nest.

I was quite sad, when my boy came back from a friend, I wanted to show him the nest and all the activities around it but it was too late. Barely any ants were left outside.... hopefully I had a small video to show.

As for the current queen, I dont know how long it'll take to start laying egg/losing her wings. These ants are quite small and I believe they are pavement ants. If she dont lay any egg, I'll set her free. How long should I wait and see? Few days or few weeks? I dont want to keep her otherwise.