Hardest Queen Loss

Let us know of your ant colonies or queens that have passed away. We will grieve together but will also learn why your ants may not have succeeded.

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TherealIABAST
Posts: 55
Joined: Sun May 31, 2020 3:58 pm
Location: Rockville MD

Hardest Queen Loss

Post: # 71488Post TherealIABAST
Sun Jun 14, 2020 3:03 pm

Because I’m a kid who is in the hobby by himself, I’ve had a lot of trial and error. This means I’ve had a lot of dead queens. But my queen yesterday was the hardest by far.
About a year ago, I was at my friend’s pool and I saw something hit the water. I immediately recognized it as a camponotus Pennsylvanicus queen. My friends mom was there and started splashing water over the ant (she’s not a big bug fan) I managed to get her into a snap cap vial and out of the pool, where I cleaned the chlorinated water off of her. When I gat home, I put her in a test tube set up and waited. It took a couple of MONTHS for her to start producing, and then a couple more for them to hatch, but a couple of weeks ago, she had two workers helping her out. I decided since she had plenty of brood and her worker ants, that I would put her in the nest. She didn’t go. She was waiting in the test tube for a week before I realized that she needed heat. I didn’t have a heating cable so I used a heating mat... directly on the test tube. In the morning I checked on them and was horrified to see her workers dead and her, on her back twitching. I had packed the cotton too much and it was too hot. I had suffocated and baked them at the same time. I quickly got her out and started testing her reactions. After a few hours of tending to her, she was revived. Sort of. She could only move her front pair of legs and her head. I doubted she would make it but I put her back in a test tube settup and waited. And after a week, she was COMPLETELY mobile! She was doing great! She just seemed slightly stiff in her legs. I named he Phoenix, because of her recovery.After a few day’s of her at her prime, I noticed she was getting more sluggish. And then the back of her abdomen shrank, and yesterday, I found her, laying still in her settup. In death curl.
I guess a Phoenix can only rise once.
That is my hardest loss.

ellie5010ml
Posts: 17
Joined: Tue Jul 07, 2020 5:02 pm
Location: United States

Re: Hardest Queen Loss

Post: # 72184Post ellie5010ml
Thu Jul 09, 2020 7:15 pm

Hey! I'm actually a 16 year old in ant keeping. I recently caught a Camponotus pennslyvanicus queen and have her in a test tube set up. I initially put half of her test tube over a heating pad but have since removed it, as this is the second time I've read of them hurting the queens. Did you ever come up with a way to heat the queens without heating pads? Or a way to use heating pads without hurting them?

TherealIABAST
Posts: 55
Joined: Sun May 31, 2020 3:58 pm
Location: Rockville MD

Re: Hardest Queen Loss

Post: # 72185Post TherealIABAST
Thu Jul 09, 2020 7:40 pm

I don’t know, I think that it was suffocation that hurt them most and the fact that the whole tube was heated.

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