The AntsCanada Ant Forum's

back in June i found 4 solenopisis invicta queens. I read they are polygenous so i connected all 4 test tubes via a test tube portal. they started laying eggs waited around 3 weeks for them to develop into adults. When they had around 10 workers i fed them some honey on a piece of toilet paper (Ants Australia did a video saying this method of putting the honey in the toilet paper was a easy way of clean up. i placed the honey but no ant drank it. they could have drank the honey after i put the away but it seems very unlikely as the honey puddle didn't shrink in size. but one of the queens died recently and i was wondering if she died because she didn't eat. (i couldn't feed then crushed insects because my local pet store was out of meal worms and crickets, and the dead ones were frozen and dried). I hope someone could give me advise on why the small colony ins't eating honey. (also, they have 30 to 40 workers now and still growing).

Thanks for your help!

Maybe your colony drank too little for you to notice

thanks for the response!

maybe they have drank too little, as i only leave the food about 2 days. I am fairly new to this and this is my first time feeding a colony.

They could just be at a stage of development when they just don't need as much food, but it's highly likely that they drank an unnoticeable amount. Supply them with protein. Even if it has to be moist dog food for now or shreds of chicken.

Do you guys think they are ready for a formicarium?

The reccomended number is 25-50 so yeah I think they'd be fine

Try soaking a cotton ball or piece of a cotton ball in sugar water. Most of my colonies never ever touch honey even though I always provide it for them. But they all eat the sugar water. Honey can be dangerous for workers as well especially the smaller ones.

Thanks y'all for the answers!

By the way here's an update: the colony hasn't grown much but they did start to eat honey, and my local pet store provided some superworms. their size is about 65, but i noticed one other thing. My workers keep vibrating their gasters. Can anyone tell me why?
They also have trouble moving. I placed a hair dryer so it would generate some discomfort, but it didn't work. I also placed lighting there, but they didn't seem to bother. But again, they are solenopsis invicta, so that might have to do with the species.

Thank a'll for the support!

The vibrating of gasters is probably them communicating