The AntsCanada Ant Forum's

Hi I live in Washington state and just caught a camponotous queen she’s in my testube set up and looks like she wants to leave she’s pulling at the cotton and trying to push herself through the side of the cotton.mIs this normal?

Although it can be Normal, I find that this behavior is more common in workers that are mistaken for queens and put into test tube set ups (yes, this is from personal experience, and no, I don’t want to talk about it). So just make Shute that it is a queen, and if it is, then just put al little more cotton in there, just to be safe. Good luck!

Like Labast said, this is more common for workers, but also normal for newly caught queens. She doesn’t recognize what she’s in and probably feels trapped at first, not secure, so she’s trying to escape. If she is a queen and not a worker, ensure there’s enough cotton so she can’t escape but not too much cotton that she suffocates, and leave her somewhere quiet and dark for a while, a week or more at least. Only check on her once a week, the less disturbed she is the more calm she will be and the higher chance of success you will have.