Page 1 of 1

Still waiting for hibernation...

Posted: Thu Nov 22, 2018 5:01 am
by UnrealSparks
Hi everyone!

I've already put half of my colonies in hibernation in my fridge and they're doing fine.
The problem is that some of the other half still have cocoons, so I'm still waiting for them to hatch but it's taking forever (it has already been 3 weeks now).

It's almost December, so my question is: "Aren't they a bit too late for hibernation? Will this negatively influence the colony in any way? But most importantly, do I just wait?

Re: Still waiting for hibernation...

Posted: Fri Nov 23, 2018 7:57 am
by JoeHostile1
You are becoming late for hibernation. I never wait for cacoons to hatch. That could be a never ending waiting game. You wait for 4 cacoons to hatch and while your waiting 3 larvae spun cacoons. You see where this is going?

I’m guessing you have small colonies where waiting for cacoons could even be considered. Imagine your colony has 1k workers. That means you could have like 100 cacoons and several hundred larvae at any givin time. You couldn’t possibly try and wait for the cacoons. Now imagine your colony has 2k workers, 5k workers.

You’re also assuming that your colonies are aware it’s december, but meanwhile your house is probably 20C.

If your goal is to make sure they don’t have Cocoon you would have had to mimic outside temperatures. By very gradually decreasing the temperature this would give them the environmental cues that winter is coming. Then they would do whatever it is they do to prepare for winter. The lower temperature might make the larvae stop developing so by the time November came there wouldn’t be any cocoons. Or perhaps the lower temperature causes the queen to stop laying eggs in September so that by the time November comes there is no brood in Cocoon stage.

This is also assuming that cacoons cant survive hibernation. Is this true for every single species? I don’t think so. Many many many insects and bugs in general survive hibernation because in their lifecycle the cocoon stage occurs during winter while in their cocoon form or specifically spun a cocoon for winter. I’m assuming you read somewhere that cacoons cant survive hibernation; no doubt written by an ant enthusiast who hasn’t studied ant hibernation in a scientific fashion and is only dealing with a few of the ten thousand ant species.

Honestly I wouldn’t believe any blanket statement written on the internet about ants. Including statements that I write. Everything has to be taken with a grain of salt since ants are 1: incredibly hard to study in their natural Environments and 2: there are 12,000 different species of ants at least.

Re: Still waiting for hibernation...

Posted: Sat Nov 24, 2018 7:24 am
by UnrealSparks
I totally get where you're going and you're right. My room is about 17-18 °C at the moment but I'll hibernate all of my remaining colonies asap... I've been waiting way too much. I indeed read somewhere the fact about cocoons not surviving the winter, but at this point I'd rather sacrifice some individuals (as we said we don't even know if their life will be in danger) for the good of the colony.

Thanks a lot for the clarification! Very appreciated!! :D