What's The Importance of Wet Cotton Positioning?

[RuggedRanger]

Hey all! I'm pretty new to the ant keeping and I have a question: I have my colony (Camponotus Pennsylvanicus) in a test tube with the water dam on the far end, like usual. The queen lives against that wall of cotton, rarely venturing farther out. So I'm left to wonder...

...is she there because she wants the moisture (I've read that they aren't huge on needing it?) or is it because it's the farthest place away from the opening where I annoy her/them with food delivery?

I was going to move the water dam to the open side but I don't want her to be really digging that wet wall and I move her to a place where that wet wall is constantly being changed when the new food arrives. I was hoping someone might be able to chime in before I go experimenting.

Any help you can provide would be appreciated!!

Cheers!

RR

[JoeHostile1]

It’s a combination of high humidity at the cotton the moisture and it being farthest away from the test tube opening. Also the wet cotton might actually be warmer than sitting on the cold glass test tube. Im not really sure what you think the problem is? She is fine hanging out on the wet cotton, there is no need to change anything.

Now you said you’re bothering her and her workers by opening the test tube to feed them. That is correct, what you can do is attach a straw/tube from the test tube into a container (outworld) than just put the food in the container and let the worker ants come out to forage.

[RuggedRanger]

Sir Hostile! Thanks for the reply

There are only 7 right now and what I've read here suggests not adding an outworld till about 20 are marching around? Though they're sitting right now on quite the pile of larva. My next step was going to be connecting a second, slightly larger test tube to allow for a bit more growth before adding a small outworld. And I wouldn't be doing that quite yet except their water & cotton is pretty brown and it's running out. I've never changed a tube before so I just don't want to fudge it up.

I can certainly provide a small outworld if that's the best choice at this stage. But I will keep the cotton at the back of the new tube, just for the sake of continuity for them and their desire for that moisture based on your feedback.

Again, thanks for taking the time!

Cheers!

(PS: Love your ant room )

[Hunter36o]

Actually you should have done what Joe said when one or two workers are walking around. The wait for 20 plus workers is for when you are moving them from a test tube to an actual nest. Many prefer to wait until there is 50 workers as they are less skittish and more open to moving to a more suitable nest.

The outworld is important at this point as it causes less stress over putting food into their current nest. It would be like the milk man opening your door and putting milk in your face. You would not be impressed.

[harvesterant]

So it is recommended to give ants an outworld when they have their first workers? I have never heard of that before, then it is probably worth giving my new Lasius niger colony an outworld too, the colony has grown to 12 workers.

[JoeHostile1]

So it is recommended to give ants an outworld when they have their first workers? I have never heard of that before, then it is probably worth giving my new Lasius niger colony an outworld too, the colony has grown to 12 workers.

If there’s one thing I hate (and ants hate) is trying to feed colonies in test tubes. The moment you take the cotton plug out the entire colony starts freaking out. The queen starts spinning in circles trampling the brood, you may have a dozen workers rush the test tube opening, it’s a nightmare. Putting sugar water/honey makes a mess, causes the cotton plug to stick to the test tube. And then all the leftover food you put in there needs to be taken out in a couple days. Causing more panic. So you end up opening their tube every couple days and the queen thinks she picked the worst spot for a colony ever.

Then you could have the workers spending all their time tugging on the cotton trying to get out to forage anyway. So you may as well just let them forage and be able to take garbage out of their nest.

Most Lasius aren’t very aggressive so they may not be rushing the test tube opening for you, but it’s only a matter of time. It’s not so bad when your dealing with only 1 test tube, but if you have a few or a dozen it quickly becomes a huge task to try and feed them in the test tube and deal with all the problems from that.

[harvesterant]

That makes more sense, I should probably give them an outworld then.

[310Ants]

I'm new here too so hope I'm giving decent advise: when I purchased my test tubes from AC, I also purchased an AC Test Tube Portal (link below). Once the nest has it's first 1-3 first workers I will attach their test tube to the portal (and seal the other 3 portal holes). I will feed them in there and let them go back to the nest to share etc.

https://www.AntsCanada.com/shop/ac-test-tube-portal/

[Acutus3399]

I love the AC Test tube portals as well. They add a nice area for the workers to get food and allow expansion later.