I placed two random majors with a caught queen..

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Swedishpeaches
Posts: 3
Joined: Thu Aug 23, 2018 1:29 pm
Location: Sweden

I placed two random majors with a caught queen..

Post: # 48396Post Swedishpeaches
Thu Aug 23, 2018 1:41 pm

Hi!

Earlier this spring I was on my balcony, watering the plants when I found a winged, large but not giant, ant queen. Near it were two majors. I had never seen ants on my balcony before and thus I came to the conclusion that these were her pals. Sent out from the colony to aid the princess in her journeys. I placed all three in a jar with soil and have for a couple months now battled mold and white mites to the point where I finally found a balance.

I haven't seen the queen ant a single time since I placed them in the jar. But I've seen the two majors a bunch of times, tending the eggs. A couple ant minors hatched last week and are now doing their thang.

Should I really have placed the majors with the queen ant? Did they kill her? Were they really her pals originally? Did they adopt her as their new queen?

I've been able to figure most ant related stuff on my own but these are some of the questions I battle!

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idahoantgirl
Posts: 1521
Joined: Sat Sep 12, 2015 11:52 am
Location: Idaho, USA

Re: I placed two random majors with a caught queen..

Post: # 48405Post idahoantgirl
Thu Aug 23, 2018 3:04 pm

It would be great if you could get an ID on them, but assuming she is fully clasustral.. no, the workers were not there to aid her. Yeah she should have been alone. I can't say why or if the workers tolerated her for so long.
Proverbs 6:6-8

Go to the ant, you sluggard;
consider its ways and be wise!
It has no commander,
no overseer or ruler,
yet it stores its provisions in summer
and gathers its food at harvest.

Keeping Tetramorium immigrans, Tapinoma Sessile

Swedishpeaches
Posts: 3
Joined: Thu Aug 23, 2018 1:29 pm
Location: Sweden

Re: I placed two random majors with a caught queen..

Post: # 48472Post Swedishpeaches
Fri Aug 24, 2018 7:12 pm

I'll see if I can upload images and get them ID'd! Looking at the newly hatched ants, I've started suspecting them to be the common Lasius niger. The two workers I added were however most definitely camponotus herculeanus. I've spent the past two months looking rigorously at images of them and feel sort of comfortable in that asumption. Could it be possible two ant workers of a completely different species aided my queen in tending to the eggs?

Strange start to my colony but they truly seem to be thriving.

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antnest8
Posts: 1438
Joined: Tue Jan 02, 2018 2:11 pm
Location: Detroit, MI

Re: I placed two random majors with a caught queen..

Post: # 48915Post antnest8
Thu Aug 30, 2018 5:43 pm

really it was a really risky thing you did but i guess you were lucky and the majors were a part of here species and were willing to accept her
Some of My Informative Sheets
https://forum.AntsCanada.com/viewtopic.php?f=37&t=19099
Includes :
  • Ant Care Sheets
    Queen Hunting
    How To Identify Ants
Goal is to become #2 poster on the forum

Swedishpeaches
Posts: 3
Joined: Thu Aug 23, 2018 1:29 pm
Location: Sweden

Re: I placed two random majors with a caught queen..

Post: # 49605Post Swedishpeaches
Thu Sep 06, 2018 12:51 pm

Seems like it! I think the hatched workers have killed the two majors now.

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