Ant Colony Collapse Disorder. Colony dying. Advice needed.

[Therat]

Hello!
I made this thread almost a year now.
https://forum.AntsCanada.com/viewtopic.php?t=5285

The colony has been a success...until they finally ate through the cotton into the drying/moist/extremely black moldy chamber across, where it was extremely dirty, with a clear biofilm layer, and stank! Well, soon enough the queen moved into it, and brood...She seemed very happy, and kept on laying eggs! I estimated 800 ants, all in a small Ferrero Rocher box.

Sure enough the ants start to become afflicted with an ailment, I suspect either viral or bacterial, a mutation may have happened that they have no immunity against. Ant FLU! They started to develop a malaise, they started to ignore food, sugar water, dead insects, they actually stop laying down pheromone trials...they started to ignore looking after their brood. They have stopped maintaining the nest. Leaving dead bodies among the brood. The ailment seemed contagious, slowly spreading across the colony rather than afflicting all the ants at the same time, but they all stopped caring for each other; not even carrying sick ants far away (which I had observed them previously doing)

Ants started to roll over, you can see them become less active, especially with their antennae, and then they seemed to get paralysed from their rear legs progressing forward, they would just flip over and not able to right themselves, then in 2-3 days, they die.

After I lost 200 ants, I decided to move the tube into a new enclosure. They still continued to die. I then forcibly moved what I think were healthy ants into a new fresh test tube and another new enclosure after i think another 300 died.

This was likely a very traumatic experience for them, but has to be done, to remove them from all the dead bodies, new test tube without any pathogens. And assured me I have done all I could, and not ruminate about what if.

What pained me was that young ants eclosed, but then died. Poor things, unmoving and still pale and semi transparent. Never had a chance at life. The Queen seemed to be okay, but she has stopped laying eggs, they have been in the new tube and new enclosure for a week now. I think I have 100 ants left. The affliction is still there, ants are still slowly dying.

There is bright greenish yellow fungus seen over some decayed bodies in the tube, next to still living and dead larvae and pupae, likely helped by the increased humidity. I have not seen this mold in the nest or enclosure before! usually the ants would keep clean and preen and prevent such fungus growth. They would have stopped such growth from happening in the past.

Options:
1) Leave everything as it is. Continue to remove the dead accessible bodies. Let nature take its course.
2) Move the Queen alone and restart in a new setup...will she able to re-lay eggs and provide self care again? Maybe carry over some hopefully still healthy ants?
3) End the ants' suffering. Freezer awaits.

Advice welcome!

[DontSquishTheAnt]

Hmm, it does sound like CCD, I always thought it only happened to bees. The answer to your question depends on what your goal is: try to save the colony (2), learn more about this (1), or clean out your supplies and hope for another queen this year (3)? Personally, I would go for the second option, try to save the queen if she isn't afflicted. I would quarantine the infected ants, keep a notebook of their behavior, and compare it to their actions before the collapse, which it sounds like you have partially done here.

The collapse sounds like it came from the mold, is that correct? If it did, that would mean the younger workers, queen, and brood would be afflicted first, because they are the only ones that don't forage, spending more time near the mold. To me it seems more like it came from the outside, not really going after any specific age group or the queen. The fact that they had contact with the mold a year ago makes me think that the mold isn't the problem. Since the queen isn't afflicted, but the brood is, it sound like a protein problem, because the queen rarely eats protein, but the brood doesn't eat much else. This leads me to my other point...

You said in your other post that you were feeding them cooked meat, I don't know what meat you gave them exactly, but if it were meat with hormones on it, it could be toxic buildup, especially if the ants ate their dead. Just throwing some ideas out there.

I hope they live,
Mark

[Therat]

XXXX. Queen died!

My poor Queenie!
Still wearing her cape of tattered wings.
Some ants crawl all over her corpse, poking her with their antennae; while sick, wriggling ants struggle around them. They turn to me as I shine the torch at them, their antennae waving too and fro, their compound eyes, looking like tiny dots, pausing to look at me, uncertain on what they should do now. I shall leave them be to mourn as they die. Spare the freezer. Only around 30 live ants left. I think they all be dead by Wednesday.

She must have starved. I have not seen any ants perform trophylaxis on themselves or with her, for almost 2 weeks, as I mentioned. Maybe they know something is bad and its spreading amongst themselves as they feed each other. They are all starving to death. They keep on ignoring the food (cockroach) and sugar water I place in their container.

How she first charged out at me from under my keyboard at work...how the heck did she end up in there, past the doors and all?
She'd used come to the entrance of the test tube to greet me as I drop sugar/chicken bits/cockroach meals, while the ants buzzed in excitement. I dont have much memories/photos, I keep on delaying the purchase of the macro lenses.

.
.
.


Ah well, its Spring time in Brisbane! Cant find any ants yet. Despite the showers. There was a mega million black ant colony in the grounds of my apartment, but they had invaded the apartment units, and white powder was laid, likely poison. (this was sometime around May). It would be nice to get a colony of this type. They have diamond shaped abdomens. Anyway, this colony seems to have died out. I also noticed that there's less insects and bugs around too, no spiders, wasps, bees, butterflies...whereas at my work, the gardeners, not sure if they are aware of ants; tolerate them, there are 7 ant species (I hope I can get a dolly or carpenter ant colony), and there are bugs and birds everywhere! So if you get rid of your garden ants, you risk a decline in the ecosystem!

Back to mourning. RIP my first ant colony.

[Darkhero0987]

XXXX. Queen died!

My poor Queenie!
Still wearing her cape of tattered wings.
Some ants crawl all over her corpse, poking her with their antennae; while sick, wriggling ants struggle around them. They turn to me as I shine the torch at them, their antennae waving too and fro, their compound eyes, looking like tiny dots, pausing to look at me, uncertain on what they should do now. I shall leave them be to mourn as they die. Spare the freezer. Only around 30 live ants left. I think they all be dead by Wednesday.

She must have starved. I have not seen any ants perform trophylaxis on themselves or with her, for almost 2 weeks, as I mentioned. Maybe they know something is bad and its spreading amongst themselves as they feed each other. They are all starving to death. They keep on ignoring the food (cockroach) and sugar water I place in their container.

How she first charged out at me from under my keyboard at work...how the heck did she end up in there, past the doors and all?
She'd used come to the entrance of the test tube to greet me as I drop sugar/chicken bits/cockroach meals, while the ants buzzed in excitement. I dont have much memories/photos, I keep on delaying the purchase of the macro lenses.

.
.
.


Ah well, its Spring time in Brisbane! Cant find any ants yet. Despite the showers. There was a mega million black ant colony in the grounds of my apartment, but they had invaded the apartment units, and white powder was laid, likely poison. (this was sometime around May). It would be nice to get a colony of this type. They have diamond shaped abdomens. Anyway, this colony seems to have died out. I also noticed that there's less insects and bugs around too, no spiders, wasps, bees, butterflies...whereas at my work, the gardeners, not sure if they are aware of ants; tolerate them, there are 7 ant species (I hope I can get a dolly or carpenter ant colony), and there are bugs and birds everywhere! So if you get rid of your garden ants, you risk a decline in the ecosystem!

Back to mourning. RIP my first ant colony.

Its always sad when a queen dies