Mysterious Shower Ant

[Whispatchet]

We caught what we think is a queen in our shower this morning!! She's about a cm long, black, big gaster with kind of brownish thin stripes. Scared out of her poor wits when I turned the water on before noticing her, didn't bite when I scooped her up.

We weren't expecting to catch an ant!! We have her in a small jar with some holes in the lid for air, and we put a bit of cotton wool soaked in water in there, along with some bark, some grass, and a bit of bread with honey on it.

Can I give her like, beef mince or something? I'm not going to be able to get out to the pet shop until tomorrow to buy worms D:


Photo of her. Advice appreciated!!!

~Whis

[Whispatchet]

Sorry doesn't seem as though I can edit my post anymore... The area this ant was found was Canberra, Australia.

[AntnoobSG]

Lasius?

[idahoantgirl]

Not sure about the species, but it looks like a fully claustral queen. You should try to move her into a dark, proper test tube setup. If you can't get your hands on a test tube, try a local flower shop and ask for water piks. They are used for individual flowers and can work fine. Since she appears fully claustral, you do not need to feed her anything until the first worker arrives. Feeding her only stresses her and causes mold in the test tube. Good Luck!

[Whispatchet]

Not sure about the species, but it looks like a fully claustral queen. You should try to move her into a dark, proper test tube setup. If you can't get your hands on a test tube, try a local flower shop and ask for water piks. They are used for individual flowers and can work fine. Since she appears fully claustral, you do not need to feed her anything until the first worker arrives. Feeding her only stresses her and causes mold in the test tube. Good Luck!

Oh so I should take the bread out of the jar, then?

[TheRealAntMan]

Looks to be an Iridomyrmex queen.

[TheRealAntMan]

Lasius?

Lasius is absent in Australia.

[Whispatchet]

Looks to be an Iridomyrmex queen.

Is that hugely different from Lasius? I ordered one of the hybrid nests for smaller ants... I assume the workers wouldn't be any bigger than the queen generally?

Oh man am I out of my depth xD

[TheRealAntMan]

The Lasius hybrid nest is nest suited to keep your hopefully soon to be Iridomyrmex colony.

[Whispatchet]

Yay!!