RIP Jessie

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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Alaydia
Posts: 96
Joined: Sun Jun 28, 2020 6:23 pm
Location: PA

RIP Jessie

Post: # 72853Post Alaydia
Fri Aug 07, 2020 1:41 pm

I had what I believed to be three C. Penn queens. That's the type of ant I am most interested in, due to them being the most common and friendliest I encountered growing up. It was hard to find them, as the area I live in now is mostly C. Novae. So imagine my surprise when I finally saw my most productive queen under better light and realized my girl, whom I'd named Jessie, was a corky New Yorkie! Well, Jessie was well on her way to having her first of what I'd planned to call Jessie's Girls, because I'm a dork. I was keeping all three queens in AC test tubes with clean cotton balls and distilled water, because I'd read that chlorinated tap water could kill ants. They were all in an AC test tube rack in a warm, dark, draft-free drawer in my desk. Since they're fully claustral, I never put food in the tubes, and I only checked on them once a week. All three were doing fine. Then, to my horror, I opened my drawer to check my queens and found all three tubes had sprouted a nasty crop of mold!

I immediately took all three tubes out and connected them to AC test tube portals with new tubes. I didn't want to just dump them out because 1) they were already stressed and 2) I didn't want to introduce mold to the new tubes. They were all in bad shape, but Jessie was the worst. All of her brood was covered with mold. The next day, I saw Jessie had wandered out alone and was in the portal. She did eventually go into the new tube, leaving her moldy brood behind. And today, I found her on her back in the new tube. No idea what had caused the mold in the first place, but my other two queens seem to be recovering. Can only hope. RIP, Jessie.
Si hoc legere scis nimium eruditiones habes

Main interest is C. Pennsylvanicus, interested in most native ants to my area.

ArizonanAnts
Posts: 309
Joined: Fri Aug 30, 2019 8:16 pm
Location: Arizona

Re: RIP Jessie

Post: # 72856Post ArizonanAnts
Fri Aug 07, 2020 2:11 pm

First of all, a moment of silence..................................

I know how it feels to lose a queen :cry: :cry: Just know that we are all here to support each other in any questions. I know a great forum that you can join. Its called the Campo Crew here in ACAF. Again Im sorry for your loss.

P.S. We all name our queens and their offspring lol
Keeper of

Nothing right now :cry:

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

Re: RIP Jessie

Post: # 72884Post TherealIABAST
Sat Aug 08, 2020 3:07 am

We all name our queens and their offspring lol
I don’t, because whenever I do they die. Not even joking I named two queens and they both died the next day. So yeah, I’ll wait till they have a decent colony to take care of them. Anyway Sfyl, RIP Jessie, may she find a better song in heavant.

Alaydia
Posts: 96
Joined: Sun Jun 28, 2020 6:23 pm
Location: PA

Re: RIP Jessie

Post: # 72900Post Alaydia
Sat Aug 08, 2020 9:08 am

TherealIABAST wrote:
Sat Aug 08, 2020 3:07 am
We all name our queens and their offspring lol
I don’t, because whenever I do they die. Not even joking I named two queens and they both died the next day. So yeah, I’ll wait till they have a decent colony to take care of them. Anyway Sfyl, RIP Jessie, may she find a better song in heavant.
First, nicely done with "Heavant," and may you be forgiven for wanting a "better" song. I'm sorry for your poor taste in music ;)
Second? Gah, now you've got me paranoid! I tried not to name them, just because I knew the death rate in this stage is high, but they have such personalities it was inevitable that the poor things would end up with some terrible name. I named my turtle Yukon Cornelius Turtle, for pity's sake. Poor dears.

Ninja Edit - I saw Camp Crew, happy to join!
Si hoc legere scis nimium eruditiones habes

Main interest is C. Pennsylvanicus, interested in most native ants to my area.

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