A Queen found me, I made a preference tester. Is this wierd?

[Amysmos]

We were out having a BBQ and a queen ant came walking along in the middle of our business. I did get some plastic test tubes, but was in no way prepared to hunt for my first ant. I have never kept ants before, this is a new interest for me.

After some hours looking at native ant species and comparing, I think she is a Crematogaster Cerasi Queen. There is a colony of them nearby that tend aphids on my plants. Overnight she nearly escaped by pulling and wedging herself into the cotton on two seperate occasions... so this morning I created a cotton free containment cup with some different tubes that she might like better?

Can someone more experienced with antkeeping tell me what flaws this has, as it seems she needs to hibernate before she will lay eggs, so this needs to be suitable for a long period of time. Apologies for the poor photo quality.

of note:
-i added airholes poked with a pin in the lid
-the soil is from the area she was found
-the "wood" is also local, but finely shaved so as not to tip over and hurt her
-both substrate options were moistened and excess water dabbed away with a Q-tip. they are not soggy.
-the unmarked tube is just water
-a thin layer of hot glue holds the tubes steady. it peels away easily for cleaning unused tubes.

The Cup
https://s15.postimg.cc/e8u3qbgbv/IMG_0295.jpg

The Ant
https://s15.postimg.cc/hfona35yj/IMG_0289.jpg

[idahoantgirl]

You really should move her to a clean test tube set up. Don't worry if she looks "uncomfortable". remember she was just abducted, so she is going to be confused anywhere she goes. put her in a testube, make it dark, and leave her completely alone for a week. Put her in a clean tube so that mold doesn't start growing, and so you can moniter her progress. Even if she did pick on with the setup you created, she would be stressed from the openings. The sooner you get her into a clean, dark test tube with both ends sealed off, the less stressed she will be in the long run.

[Amysmos]

Yes, I tried this first, but within hours she had burrowed through more than half of the cotton ball plugging the exit. I know enough that fixing the cotton 4 times a day will be entirely unacceptable.

She seems to be preferring the soil tube at the moment. Perhaps I can figure some burrow-proof cap for a lone tube, if multiple openings are not good.