Queen ant won't dig founding chamber

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ghostghost5

Queen ant won't dig founding chamber

Post: # 25001Post ghostghost5
Sun Jul 16, 2017 12:52 am

Hello,last night I caught a Honeypot queen ant in my driveway.I am almost certain she is fertile because when I found her she had already shed her wings.So I put her in my dirt ant farm and checked it when I woke up.She hadn't dug or done anything.So I put her in a little container and emptied the soil out of the ant farm,cleaned it,and put new dirt in it.I then sprayed one side with water and put her back in.(I keep the ant farm in my garage in the dark)It has been about 5 hours and it doesn't even seem she has moved.All the other queens I have ever caught had usually begun digging shortly after I put them in.I later found out that she was a winter ant and so I put her in a cooler room.I begun to assume it was something wrong with her so I released her.The next day I caught a harvester ant queen and put her in the dirt formicarium.The next morning it was the same thing,she hadn't moved at all and just sat there.What is going on?!Please help me!Thank you!

Antsinohio

Re: Queen ant won't dig founding chamber

Post: # 25233Post Antsinohio
Sun Jul 16, 2017 10:40 pm

Some queen ants have to get used to the setup you put them in so they take longer to make a founding chamber. Sometimes it takes about 3 days or so and the queen should start making her chamber. I had a camponotus pennsyvanicus queen and i put her in a small container with some dirt and she didint do anything

JackPayne
Posts: 287
Joined: Mon Mar 27, 2017 2:28 am
Location: Australia,NSW

Re: Queen ant won't dig founding chamber

Post: # 25234Post JackPayne
Sun Jul 16, 2017 10:45 pm

I'd recommend buying Test tubes for your queens.
Hi I'm Jack, How are you?

Antsinohio

Re: Queen ant won't dig founding chamber

Post: # 25237Post Antsinohio
Sun Jul 16, 2017 10:53 pm

Yeah test tubes are the number one way to start an ant colony

Martialis
Posts: 1576
Joined: Mon Aug 08, 2016 5:30 pm
Location: Indiana

Re: Queen ant won't dig founding chamber

Post: # 25266Post Martialis
Mon Jul 17, 2017 5:48 am

I disagree. Test tubes do not work well for honeypots due to hanging space required by repletes. Make sure she can actually fit underground and that the soil is not just a loose silt.
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ghostghost5

Re: Queen ant won't dig founding chamber

Post: # 25290Post ghostghost5
Mon Jul 17, 2017 9:52 am

Thank you everyone I will leave her in the dirt setup for a few days and see what happens and I also just put a harvester queen ant in a test tube.Ill see what happens Thank u!

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