Vote! Release, or keep?

[idahoantgirl]

Hi guys! I have a really healthy colony of Tetramorium (filling 3/4 of my hybrid ) and I will soon be faced with a dilemma. I am not interested in keeping a colony larger than one nest full, so I think that I could release them come this spring when they get too large for my hybrid. I could then reuse my hybrid for another species. I could release them in my backyard near a rock, and watch and feed them to see how it turns out. But, at the same time, They are my first successful colony, and I was thinking... Wouldn't it be cool to keep the queen for 15 + years? I could thin out the workers, and even at some point take the colony size down to just her in a tube again, and I could have her years from now!
Please take the time to vote! Thanks!

[Jadeninja9]

Why don't you just lower the temperature and feed them less? Get the birthrate to match the deathrate ya know?

[idahoantgirl]

Why don't you just lower the temperature and feed them less? Get the birthrate to match the deathrate ya know?

I keep them in my room, and I like my room's warmness, so... yeah. No go.

[Jadeninja9]

Why don't you just lower the temperature and feed them less? Get the birthrate to match the deathrate ya know?

I keep them in my room, and I like my room's warmness, so... yeah. No go.

Can you still do it with just feeding less?

[Batspiderfish]

Much better to find somebody else to give them to, since releasing colonies can be a vector for spreading disease to wild populations (as has been the case with other kinds of pet).

Also, queens become dependent on their workers after a time, both behaviorally and physiologically. Your Tetramorium queen will be producing many eggs a week at some point, and she can't exactly slow this process down to meet the resource-scarce periods of colony founding (which she will already have lost her wing muscle reserves to complete).

[idahoantgirl]

Much better to find somebody else to give them to, since releasing colonies can be a vector for spreading disease to wild populations (as has been the case with other kinds of pet).

Also, queens become dependent on their workers after a time, both behaviorally and physiologically. Your Tetramorium queen will be producing many eggs a week at some point, and she can't exactly slow this process down to meet the resource-scarce periods of colony founding (which she will already have lost her wing muscle reserves to complete).

Yeah... in Idaho where I live ant keepers are few and far between.( and all my freinds think I'm nuts so none of them will take them.) Also I intend on keeping my hybrid. I'll think about what I should do.

[Cartil]

Why don't you just lower the temperature and feed them less? Get the birthrate to match the deathrate ya know?

I keep them in my room, and I like my room's warmness, so... yeah. No go.

I wonder if they would be a way for you to lower the temperature of the colony without lowering the temperature of your entire room. Place them near the window in the winter, blow the fan on the formicarium (not the outworld) in the summer. You could even put some ice near the formicarium to reduce the temperature!

[idahoantgirl]

Why don't you just lower the temperature and feed them less? Get the birthrate to match the deathrate ya know?

I keep them in my room, and I like my room's warmness, so... yeah. No go.

I wonder if they would be a way for you to lower the temperature of the colony without lowering the temperature of your entire room. Place them near the window in the winter, blow the fan on the formicarium (not the outworld) in the summer. You could even put some ice near the formicarium to reduce the temperature!

hmmm. I will have to think about it. I think if it got to be that much work I would just rather release them. Good ideas though!

[Cartil]

I keep them in my room, and I like my room's warmness, so... yeah. No go.

I wonder if they would be a way for you to lower the temperature of the colony without lowering the temperature of your entire room. Place them near the window in the winter, blow the fan on the formicarium (not the outworld) in the summer. You could even put some ice near the formicarium to reduce the temperature!

hmmm. I will have to think about it. I think if it got to be that much work I would just rather release them. Good ideas though!

Otherwise, the temperature on the floor of your room is probably one or even two degrees lower than on top of a desk (if that is where you have them at the moment).