Why haven’t eggs hatched

[Leahcampbell]

Hi, I was hoping you might be able to help me. I have recently caught what I think might be a carpenter ant queen, I placed her in a jar with some sand and a little bit of wood. She instantly started to tunnel and lay eggs and after a quick google search I set myself a reminder for the 6 week point that the eggs were due to hatch which was the 21st of October. I’ve been keeping a close eye on her however it seems that none of the eggs have hatched. She is very much still alive and if anything I think there might even be more eggs then there was to begin with. Any help or advice would be very much appreciated

[AusAnts]

Hi, I was hoping you might be able to help me. I have recently caught what I think might be a carpenter ant queen, I placed her in a jar with some sand and a little bit of wood. She instantly started to tunnel and lay eggs and after a quick google search I set myself a reminder for the 6 week point that the eggs were due to hatch which was the 21st of October. I’ve been keeping a close eye on her however it seems that none of the eggs have hatched. She is very much still alive and if anything I think there might even be more eggs then there was to begin with. Any help or advice would be very much appreciated

Hey
some species of ants especially carpenter/camponotus can take a long time to go from egg to worker (generally larger the ant longer it takes). If the eggs have gotten bigger or have gone cloudy it is likely that they have hatched into larva or pupa which mean they have gotten closer to hatching. I feel a test tube setup would have been better but a jar method would still work, don't look at her to often and keep her in a dark area with little vibrations.

Also nice to meet another Aussie.