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One Queen dead. Can I merge with other founding colony?

Posted: Thu Oct 26, 2017 6:36 pm
by LazarusAC
Help!

I have two Lasius founding colonies in separate test tubes and the queen died in one of them.

Both queens were caught the same day and the same general location. They were caught mid August.

If I bridge the two test tubes will the workers with the dead queen join the living queen and her brood? Will they bring along the eggs, larvae and pupa?

Or will trying to join them result in conflict or just plain futile to try it all? I'm unsure why the queen died but it was a queen that retained her wings and has them even now. I have been giving all my founding colonies the same food at the same time. Could I risk bringing a disease to the other colony?

If it matters, the one that the queen died has 16 workers and the one which is still alive has 12 workers.
I think they are neonigers but unsure of that.

Should I wait a while first? If so, how long?

I just hate to think that without their queen I now have to wait and watch that founding colony die.

Re: One Queen dead. Can I merge with other founding colony?

Posted: Sun Oct 29, 2017 10:02 am
by AntsSA
nope they will fight, what you could do is chill the ants in a fridge for 4 minutes then carefully take out the dead queen and her workers, you can release the workers into the wild. now it should only be the brood left. put the test tube with the brood next the live queened colony's in an outworld. the workers should find this brood and bring it inside their nest .

Re: One Queen dead. Can I merge with other founding colony?

Posted: Sun Oct 29, 2017 4:58 pm
by antsRlife
That's probably your best shot

Re: One Queen dead. Can I merge with other founding colony?

Posted: Mon Nov 27, 2017 9:47 pm
by NoahNorman
You can put both colonies in the fridge for day, the take the dead queen out and combine the colonies and keep them in the fridge for another day or untile you are comfortable to take them out, they should get along and take onto the new queen and workers, this worked with my camponotus chromaiodes colony. I know they are different genera, but it should be the same concept, the cold masks their scent and calms them down so when they meet they might be a little aggressive at first but will get used to each other.

Re: One Queen dead. Can I merge with other founding colony?

Posted: Tue Nov 28, 2017 9:12 pm
by LazarusAC
I ended up boosting the brood, which the colony with the Queen quickly took up the brood. I still have the queenless ants in a tube and have been feeding them.

Perhaps I should try to introduce one ant and see if they accept it. If it works I could inrtoduce one at a time.

But most sites and information available says it won't work.

What I don't want to do is disrupt the Queen that is still alive since she is the only Lasius I now have.

Re: One Queen dead. Can I merge with other founding colony?

Posted: Tue Nov 28, 2017 10:38 pm
by idahoantgirl
LazarusAC wrote:
Tue Nov 28, 2017 9:12 pm
I ended up boosting the brood, which the colony with the Queen quickly took up the brood. I still have the queenless ants in a tube and have been feeding them.

Perhaps I should try to introduce one ant and see if they accept it. If it works I could inrtoduce one at a time.

But most sites and information available says it won't work.

What I don't want to do is disrupt the Queen that is still alive since she is the only Lasius I now have.
Yeah don't introduce the worker. That would most likely be very bad.