Queen Ants Only Survive a Few Days in Test Tube

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Rak827
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Joined: Wed Apr 14, 2021 8:32 am
Location: Tennessee, US

Queen Ants Only Survive a Few Days in Test Tube

Post: # 76650Post Rak827
Wed Apr 14, 2021 8:51 am

Help! All of our queens keep dying after a few days in the test tube. Any ideas what could be going wrong?

My family and I beginner ant hobbyists, attempting to start our own pet colony. We are located in Southeast US, currently Tennessee and previously Alabama. We have found aprox. 5-10 queens in the last year-long period. Some were at our previous home in AL last year and some were here in Tennessee this year. We put them in a test tube set-up closely following the instructions on AntsCanada channel, but none of the queens have survived more than a week- with one exception being a very small ant which survived for several months but never produced eggs ( who we tragically lost in a house fire last winter...). The other ants have all been of a larger variety, which may or may not have something to do with the problem.

Any ideas why our queens keep dying?

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AM1C39
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Location: Canada, ON
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Re: Queen Ants Only Survive a Few Days in Test Tube

Post: # 76651Post AM1C39
Wed Apr 14, 2021 9:06 am

There are many reasons for why your queens wont stop dyeing the most probable ones are they have not mated or there are not queens.
My current colonies:
-Miniature Military(formica neogagates)
-Black Hearts(crematogaster cerasi)
In search of new camponotus colony
[Have a look at antmaps.org]

Rak827
Posts: 2
Joined: Wed Apr 14, 2021 8:32 am
Location: Tennessee, US

Re: Queen Ants Only Survive a Few Days in Test Tube

Post: # 76657Post Rak827
Wed Apr 14, 2021 6:34 pm

That could be it. We are fairly positive that they are queens, just judging by their appearance, especially the massive mid section. But now I am wondering if they could have been unmated. A few had wings still and a few did not. Would this be the most likely possibility for a wingless queen? Can you give me any other advice on this? Thanks!

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