Tetramorium queens

[AntsDakota]

I found a few flies crawling around the queen. I have a new theory - what if the queen had endoparasitic flies? I've had dead queens before and none of them attracted flies like that. I did leave the test tube open, but flies usually aren't attracted to dead ants in my experience. Also, the flies didn't seem interested in the queen's body.

[Hunter36o]

From what I read is less then a 50-50 chance they will accept more then one queen but is not unheard of.

How did the flooding happen? I am always curious by this because it just "happens" was the cotton pulled at or anything or was the test tube handled a little too long at one point?

Also I am sorry I did not fully catch it from the previous posts. Was the whole colony compromised or do you still have one queen?
I am sorry for your loss.

[Hunter36o]

Okay I just received ready my post and the seconds comes across as a little blame worthy which is not what I wanted. What I mean by it just "happens" is no one seems to get warning. One check they are good the next and unwelcome swimming pool has appeared. When this happens I always want to know in case there are any signs that mite help in the future. Like for example my new European red ant was pulling at the cotton but stopped and decided eating the grape was more worth her time and it was good because I was afraid she would pull too much at the cotton and let water in.

[AntsDakota]

There was a little puddle of water before the big flood, but I thought they would move into their outworld if it got too bad.

[AntsDakota]

And yes, there was one queen left, but I think she may have died of fly endoparasitism.

[AntsDakota]

From what I read is less then a 50-50 chance they will accept more then one queen but is not unheard of.

How did the flooding happen? I am always curious by this because it just "happens" was the cotton pulled at or anything or was the test tube handled a little too long at one point?

Also I am sorry I did not fully catch it from the previous posts. Was the whole colony compromised or do you still have one queen?
I am sorry for your loss.

I think they may have been a black species of Pheidole, which are a lot of times polygynous. But they beheaded one of three queens, and only tolerated two.

[Ltislander]

That sucks that they died.

[AntsDakota]

That sucks that they died.

Yeah, I guess I'll have to wait until next year.