I have two colonies of Lasius niger from queens I caught this summer. My first ever colonies. One of them has about 7-8 workers at the moment. I have a question about their behavior though. Both the queen and the workers are kind of just sitting there, barely moving, pressed up against the moist cotton. Have been like that since the first workers arrived almost a week ago. Zero activity really. Is this normal for a young L niger colony or are they lacking something? I've put a drop of honey in there but they are not interested in it at all. I kind of want them to move into a test tube since all I had on hand when I caught them was a pair of empty pill bottles which is hard to observe them in. I've placed them in an "out world" with a covered test tube and I have a led spotlight shining straight at the colony. Zero reaction so far. More like a group of retired people soaking up sun at the beach stretched out on their sun beds.
