Need help: Our queen just died - Messor Barbarus

[anamarin00]

My daughter had her fisrt Messor Barbarus colony for a few months, but today our queen ant sadly died. It is a small colony yet, with about 30 ants and a few eggs and pupae. Is it possible to REPLACE a queen? Can we buy another qeen and introduce it to the colony? As begginners, any help will be more than appreciated...thanks in advance

[Wardword]

My daughter had her fisrt Messor Barbarus colony for a few months, but today our queen ant sadly died. It is a small colony yet, with about 30 ants and a few eggs and pupae. Is it possible to REPLACE a queen? Can we buy another qeen and introduce it to the colony? As begginners, any help will be more than appreciated...thanks in advance

No you can't just replace a queen, but if you get a new queen fast enough of the same species, you can transfer any remaining pupae, (not sure about eggs but probably). But the pupae at least are typically accepted because they tend to have little or none of the distinct sent from the other colony in that pupae state. Queens will normally accept other pupae, even from other species in some cases.
When the fully formed ant emerges it tunes itself to it's colony pheromone sent for life. This is why if you intro, a new queen the workers will likely kill it. It won't smell like their Queen.
Messor are Polygyny, which means they accept multiple queens within a nest and those queens also tolerate each other and will have colonies with multiple Queens, but I think the Queens need to be all introduced prior to the founding stage, and even that in captivity does not always go well. They typically co=operate till some workers show up and then the queens fight to the death, till one or none are left.
Hope this helps at least some

[LowlandAnts]

Wardword, aren't Messor Barbarus Monogyn? Where I obtained my Messor colony they were labeled as such.

[idahoantgirl]

My daughter had her fisrt Messor Barbarus colony for a few months, but today our queen ant sadly died. It is a small colony yet, with about 30 ants and a few eggs and pupae. Is it possible to REPLACE a queen? Can we buy another qeen and introduce it to the colony? As begginners, any help will be more than appreciated...thanks in advance

No you can't just replace a queen, but if you get a new queen fast enough of the same species, you can transfer any remaining pupae, (not sure about eggs but probably). But the pupae at least are typically accepted because they tend to have little or none of the distinct sent from the other colony in that pupae state. Queens will normally accept other pupae, even from other species in some cases.
When the fully formed ant emerges it tunes itself to it's colony pheromone sent for life. This is why if you intro, a new queen the workers will likely kill it. It won't smell like their Queen.
Messor are Polygyny, which means they accept multiple queens within a nest and those queens also tolerate each other and will have colonies with multiple Queens, but I think the Queens need to be all introduced prior to the founding stage, and even that in captivity does not always go well. They typically co=operate till some workers show up and then the queens fight to the death, till one or none are left.
Hope this helps at least some

I think that may be backwards... I seem to remember that the eggs and larvae are more often accepted than the pupae.