Our Queen is Infertile...now what?

[Fantastic]

We have a sad issue we need help resolving.

After 9 months of trying EVERYTHING, we have concluded our Messor Queen cannot produce the goods. The few workers dwindle and we cannot go on. This was our first antkeeping attempt...so bit sad.

We are going to try again with the more straightforward Flavus.

But what to do? We can't bring ourselves to kill the Queen and her remaining loyal supporters and we can't release them either. Is there a humane solution?

Any advice welcome.

[cheetawolf]

just freeze them as a humane way to kill them, then you can safely throw them out

[SkeleAnt]

I’m a bit confused, if she laid eggs that became workers, she’s not infertile. If you don’t want to kill her and her workers, why not just release her instead? It’s not inhumane to do so. Captive ants don’t know they’re pets, so if you release them, they will just go out and do exactly what they would in the wild, find a new home, settle in, and look for food.

[Fantastic]

I’m a bit confused, if she laid eggs that became workers, she’s not infertile. If you don’t want to kill her and her workers, why not just release her instead? It’s not inhumane to do so. Captive ants don’t know they’re pets, so if you release them, they will just go out and do exactly what they would in the wild, find a new home, settle in, and look for food.

She came with some workers and if she has laid any eggs she has only managed a few new workers in 9 months. We can't release as they are not a native species here.

[Fantastic]

just freeze them as a humane way to kill them, then you can safely throw them out

Thank you. I think that is the way to go. Sad, bit the tiny colony will collapse entirely soon anyway.

[AntsLuxembourg]

Hello there,

I hope I am not too late to the boat. I keep Messor Barbarus myself and I was so far lucky with my third attempt where the colony didn't loose their queen due to me checking on them all the time etc.

Let me ask you some questions and I do hope you haven't yet frozen her. First. Workers can live up to 2 years or more. A test of mine showed that. Second what are the current conditiones? Do they have enough seeds? What did you try to feed them with? Do you have some dandelion seeds lying around that you can offer? How often do you check on the ants per month, week or days? Where do you leave them? In a dark place? For example a ward robe. How warm is it in general where you live? Did you hibernate them over the months from early November to late February or early March?

Please let me know if you like as I love Messor Barbarus and would love to help you before you resort to put them down.