Eggs wont hatch

[Dandolfi]

Hey, i have a lasius Niger queen who i cought a view months ago, one month ago i had to move er out of a moldy testube and she didnt take her eggs with her, she layed only about 4/5 eggs in the nee test tube, and These eggs havent hatched yet in about a month. I do keep her at probably 18 degrees C instead of the 20/25 as my house is pretty cold. Is there still hope?

[AntsLuxembourg]

Chances are pretty low since they prefer a temperature of arround 20-25. The low temperatur is probably slowing down the developpment of the eggs which is why they haven't hatched yet. Usually insects need some heat to develop or else it will take ages. If possible place her a bit closer to a source of heat so her eggs/larvae/puppae can grow. Perhaps provide us with a picture of your setup and the eggs so I or someone else could tell you in which stage the eggs are.

[Dandolfi]

here are some pictures of my setup, and the best pictures i could get of my eggs and queen (sorry for the bad quality, had to use my phone). i have moved the queen to a room thats a bit warmer but it will still be below 20C when no one's home.

[AntsLuxembourg]

those are really still only eggs. :/
I know that queens sometimes eattheir eggs because they get stressed too much. I think it should be alright to have her in the warmest room in the house. I don't know if you have a nice warm cave or something but if you can find a room with more than 20°C that would be really great.
So the two possible reasons why could be:
- It's too cold for your queen and her eggs so they don't develop very quickly.
- The queen keeps eating and laying new eggs. Due to stress or perhaps because it's too cold for the eggs so she eats them and lays new eggs and hopes for higher temperatures.

[JoeHostile1]

You should never force a founding queen to move before she has workers. If you hadn’t made her move and lose her eggs she would most likely have workers by now. Those eggs she laid a month ago are larvae you can tell by how they have a bend in them. From egg to worker typicaly takes between 2-3 months. Your 1 month in. 18C is not too cold to have eggs develop into workers, but it is not an ideal temperature. Therefore your looking at a longer development time.

Since you’ve had her for months now and she lost her initial batch of eggs/larvae in the move I would feed her since she would have normally already had workers that would forage for her by now. Give her a piece of cotton soaked in sugar water and an insect part. Feeding her might also prevent her from eating her eggs if that is what she is doing.

[AntsDakota]

here are some pictures of my setup, and the best pictures i could get of my eggs and queen (sorry for the bad quality, had to use my phone). i have moved the queen to a room thats a bit warmer but it will still be below 20C when no one's home.

There is a larva in that batch, so they are hatching.

[AntsLuxembourg]

@JoeHostile1 if it's lasius niger then it's not taking 2 months for them to develope. I got more than 10 lasius niger queens and they all had their nanitics within a months so I am sure it's either that they are a bit too cold or that they aren't Lasius Niger at all. Sadly I'm not an expert about the identification but I think it's probably the low temperaturs which makes it harder for them to develop.

[Dandolfi]

I believe 1 more eig has hatched, but she has eaten her other eggs again. So now there are only 2 larvae, pretty sure she die this because i moved her around when placing her into a new room and she probably got a lot of stress because of me making pictures and exposing her to light. I left cotton soaked in sugar water in her testube for about 4 hours and left a view Tiny curshed nuts in the testube overnight. Will this be enough? Or should i try to Find an insect for her?

[AntsLuxembourg]

what would a non harvester ant do with nuts? She hasn't even got the pinsers for seeds. It's a lasius niger or something like that. So I would either offer her a little bit of honey or as you already did some sugar water. Make sure to leave her in peace if possible. About getting some insect flesh I would say suguest you leave it at the sugar water.