Interesting problem, moving hibernating ants!

[Barfdog]

Hello AC fam, its been a while since I've posted or poked around. I guess I'm used to little activity during hibernation season.

Anyways, I currently have my colony hibernating at my dads house in a small fridge in the ballpark of 8-15C.

I've recently moved out and as we get closer to spring, I worry about how in the heck I'm going to go about moving these girls.

I would like to keep them in a hibernated state while transporting them to reduce stress, however I have no idea how to go about doing this. I need to travel about 20 miles with them to get them to my place.

I was thinking on a cold morning, transporting them and keeping the heat off.

I also pondered powering the fridge from my vehicle via a power converter/adapter but worried my vehicle wont be able to power it properly.

Anyone have any ways I can go about doing this that I'm not seeing?

Any suggestions much appreciated!
Good luck this spring season AC fam!

[PwnerPie]

I wouldnt worry too much about it. a cooler with an icepack wrapped in a towel would be great. I recently moved, just kept them in their hibernation setup for the move (on a board and wrapped in a towel, they hibernate in the garage.
Biggest thing to worry about is making sure the setup doesnt fall during the move!

Good luck!

[Barfdog]

Sweet, thank you for the suggestion. I think I might end up doing that.

However, the other thing I'm worried about is putting them back into the fridge if they come out of the hibernation state, couldn't this cause significant damage to them going in and out of hibernation temperatures?

Luckily I have a laser thermometer and can try and get the cooler to an ideal temperature before putting them in there.

[TriumphAnt]

FYI I’m not an expert or anything..yet..! Lol
Only relating personal advice or what I believe. Take from it what you’d like, if anything.

I wouldn’t say it would cause damage as long as you don’t drastically change the temperature on them. Think of their natural environment. Just recently it was relatively nice for a while but then suddenly in 2 days time it went down to well below zero in many areas in the United States...and the temp in like 17 places/cities broke the all time low temp records..(a lot of places saw at least -20F). Then another 2 days later (today) it gets up to about 50F where I’m at. I think naturally they encounter temperature spikes and fluctuations much of which we still don’t fully know how they all work together.. It may even be possible that they experience less changes in captivity, depending on the care provided/temps kept. One problem is it can just be difficult to mimic the gradual cooldown of the weather(like when the sun sets). However I think as long as you’re careful not to expose them to anything extreme or drastically change their ambient temperature(personally I don’t think a temp range from 60 or 70F to hibernating at 40F in a few hours would damage your colony or be considered as extreme, especially since that may not be totally uncommon in certain environments) then I’d say they should be totally fine. Like mentioned already, securely transporting them during the move should probably be priority, wouldn’t want any escapees.. lol But Keep us posted, just check on them periodically if you are worried to be sure you don’t see any mass casualties or stragglers off on their own and hopefully all are huddling happily.

[Barfdog]

FYI I’m not an expert or anything..yet..! Lol
Only relating personal advice or what I believe. Take from it what you’d like, if anything.

I wouldn’t say it would cause damage as long as you don’t drastically change the temperature on them. Think of their natural environment. Just recently it was relatively nice for a while but then suddenly in 2 days time it went down to well below zero in many areas in the United States...and the temp in like 17 places/cities broke the all time low temp records..(a lot of places saw at least -20F). Then another 2 days later (today) it gets up to about 50F where I’m at. I think naturally they encounter temperature spikes and fluctuations much of which we still don’t fully know how they all work together.. It may even be possible that they experience less changes in captivity, depending on the care provided/temps kept. One problem is it can just be difficult to mimic the gradual cooldown of the weather(like when the sun sets). However I think as long as you’re careful not to expose them to anything extreme or drastically change their ambient temperature(personally I don’t think a temp range from 60 or 70F to hibernating at 40F in a few hours would damage your colony or be considered as extreme, especially since that may not be totally uncommon in certain environments) then I’d say they should be totally fine. Like mentioned already, securely transporting them during the move should probably be priority, wouldn’t want any escapees.. lol But Keep us posted, just check on them periodically if you are worried to be sure you don’t see any mass casualties or stragglers off on their own and hopefully all are huddling happily.

thank you for your input!
I Was thinking the same thing with the recent polar vortex the US was in this last week.

I decided to wait until March 1st to transport them and I will transport them and bring them out of hibernation in the same day.
So while they are getting readjusted I'll have finished transporting them ideally while they're still slow and sleepy.

Going to keep y'all updated when moving day comes.