Few problems with Messor Capitatus

[Craig1020]

Evening everyone, just a few quick queries to find some more information about this colony I have, I've done some research but been mostly applying information Re: Messor Barbarus to the colony as information to the Capitatus genus is a bit harder to come by;

So basically I've a new colony, started with a queen and she's now up to 6 works with plenty of brood. They're currently housed in an acrylic/3d printed nest from a supplier of such in the EU. Now, there's a chamber that allows the addition of water to create humidity and this is where they've made their little nest, there's also a medium sized outworld with seeds which they've had no problem bringing some into their nest,

I realise now with hindsight that maybe I should have kept the queen in the test tube for a lot longer, the main problem is at the moment I think I over hydrated the nest the other day, removing the water would have been particularly difficult and probably stressed the ants beyond belief so I left them and hoped for the best, they moved their brood accordingly and sort of lived on the walls for a day or two but it was fine,

The issue now is one or two of their seeds are germinating in the nest, and these are not accessible for me to remove without seriously disrupting the nest, which is at an early stage.

My question is will the ants recognise they are dangerous and remove them? will they ignore them? Etc. And I know they've survived so far by themselves but did I go abit overboard with their setup?

Temperature is approximately 23 Degrees Celsius in the setup, with humidity being 50%, nest humidity around 70/80%

Thanks in advance guys! Huge fan of the AC community having just crept around on the forums and youtube channel for ages!

[Hawkeye]

So basically I've a new colony, started with a queen and she's now up to 6 works with plenty of brood. They're currently housed in an acrylic/3d printed nest from a supplier of such in the EU. Now, there's a chamber that allows the addition of water to create humidity and this is where they've made their little nest, there's also a medium sized outworld with seeds which they've had no problem bringing some into their nest,

So just to be clear, are the ants in the 3d printed nest? Or in the hydration chamber? If it's the latter, it sounds like that nest was poorly designed, the ants shouldn't be able to get there at all.

I realise now with hindsight that maybe I should have kept the queen in the test tube for a lot longer,

Yes I agree, but what's done is done. You could always attach a standard test tube setup (darkened) to the nest and see if your queen and her nanitics prefer that over the nest?

The main problem is at the moment I think I over hydrated the nest the other day, removing the water would have been particularly difficult and probably stressed the ants beyond belief so I left them and hoped for the best, they moved their brood accordingly and sort of lived on the walls for a day or two but it was fine.

This makes me guess the ants were in the nest at a different location than the hydration chamber? I mean I assume you wouldn't squirt water into the chamber that houses your ants?

The issue now is one or two of their seeds are germinating in the nest, and these are not accessible for me to remove without seriously disrupting the nest, which is at an early stage.

My question is will the ants recognise they are dangerous and remove them? will they ignore them? Etc. And I know they've survived so far by themselves but did I go abit overboard with their setup?

I don't think it will be a great problem really. The ants will recognise that the seeds are no longer a source of food and likely transport it back to the arena. If not, the seedlings will need a high level of humidity to prosper. So if you attach a testtube and let the nest dry out, the seedlings should wither.