The AntsCanada Ant Forum's

Hi
A new ant keeper question and a greatly appreciate any advice

My first Lasius Niger queen who I have had in a test tube set up for approximately one month has lots of eggs at different stages
I have noticed today that there are 2 grey nanitics ( I hope I'm right in my spelling ) that are alive and moving around a lot, I put a small drop of slightly watered down natural honey in there but they nor the queen have been near it
Should I leave them alone or should I try some protein jelly instead of honey

Thanks Gaz.

You could give them an outworld and put the test tube in the outworld . Put some honey in the outworld on some tinfoil or something and maybe give them a cricket leg . When they're hungry they will eat . Just don't let the food get moldy ! Also the best way to let the ants inter and exit the test tube is to not pull the cotton out of the test tube but put a straw ( that the ants can crawl through ) through the cotton and make sure the test tube is covered up that way the ants can have some privacy .

Thanks for your help and advice and I have an out world set up and will see if they move soon.

Success on the move from test tube to Formicarium. The queen now has 9 Nanitics and lots of eggs that I can watch constantly due to red acetate covering the nest. I have a tube running from the nest to the out world and in the out world I have a water/cotton wool test tube for their water and a plastic tray with honey, protein jelly and a piece of fruit on but they haven't moved from the nest to the out world for food or water and it's been about 4 days now, should I be worried?

Gazman73 wrote: ↑

Sat Aug 26, 2017 2:03 am

Success on the move from test tube to Formicarium. The queen now has 9 Nanitics and lots of eggs that I can watch constantly due to red acetate covering the nest. I have a tube running from the nest to the out world and in the out world I have a water/cotton wool test tube for their water and a plastic tray with honey, protein jelly and a piece of fruit on but they haven't moved from the nest to the out world for food or water and it's been about 4 days now, should I be worried?

You are jumping way ahead, and no one said move them to formicarium.

You could give them an outworld and put the test tube in the outworld

You jumped from step 1 and went to 3. Normally, test tube setups are perfect until there are (depending on species) ~10-20 workers, not nanitics. Giving them too much room too fast may and can cause issues. This is all from the information I have collected from other posts, and may not be 100% accurate.

And no one said don't move them to a Formicarium!
I did what I thought best and for your information they are doing splendidly.

Gazman73 wrote: ↑

Tue Aug 29, 2017 4:38 am

And no one said don't move them to a Formicarium!
I did what I thought best and for your information they are doing splendidly.

The issue is that when a formicarium is too large for a colony, they use the extra unused space to store their rubbish. This can lead to outbreaks of mould and harmful bacteria which is potentially lethal to your ants.