Tips on encouraging Pogonomyrmex to move to a new formicarium?

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AmaryllisEnergy
Posts: 3
Joined: Wed Oct 14, 2020 1:51 pm
Location: Florida

Tips on encouraging Pogonomyrmex to move to a new formicarium?

Post: # 74253Post AmaryllisEnergy
Thu Oct 15, 2020 12:26 pm

So, ant keeping was thrust on me when my very young son was given some ants and a gel ant farm. I didn't realize how bad gel ant farms are at first so I quickly bought the small cylinder formicarium and some test tube supplies to facilitate a move. I have a queen Pogonomyrmex sp. A small pile of brood, and approximately 20 workers. My problem now is I can't seem to isolate the queen as she has set up shop with her brood in the bottom of the gel habitat. My first thought was to get a tube set up and attempt to lure the ants to move into it but that isn't working so I went ahead and attached then new formicarium to the gel one to see if they would move on their own thinking that a regular formicarium would be better than staying in the gel. The workers have gone to town digging tunnels and rearranging the decorations in it and have moved food from the gel farm into the new one but the queen and brood remain in the gel farm. Do I continue to wait it out to see if they eventually move the queen and brood or is there some way I can encourage the move without causing any undue stress. I'd rather not risk physically move her. Thank you so much for the help and I am so sorry for putting them there in the first place I'm doing my best to fix my wrongs and have been learning so much about ant keeping I was just ignorant when this whole thing started so please try to be kind. I tried getting some help from the ants reddit thread but that was less than helpful..

wyldfyre1
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Joined: Fri Oct 09, 2020 6:22 pm
Location: Long Beach CA 90815
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Re: Tips on encouraging Pogonomyrmex to move to a new formicarium?

Post: # 74262Post wyldfyre1
Fri Oct 16, 2020 8:40 pm

I would suggest you shine a bright lamp on the gel farm and somehow cover up the formicarium. The light will encourage the ants to move to the darker spot. This may take 1-2 weeks to happen if the ants don't want to move. If they don't move after a while, you should try to physically move her gently.

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