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Whenever I have picked them up in their test tube to observe them they seem normal and whatnot. It seems they are unfazed by bright lights as well. I know all ants are susceptible to stress, but are these ants less susceptible?
The colony has 18 workers and 10 brood (larvae/pupae).
I still try to not disturb them though.

TheAura wrote: ↑

Sun Oct 07, 2018 9:33 pm

Whenever I have picked them up in their test tube to observe them they seem normal and whatnot. It seems they are unfazed by bright lights as well. I know all ants are susceptible to stress, but are these ants less susceptible?
The colony has 18 workers and 10 brood (larvae/pupae).
I still try to not disturb them though.

Tetramorium aren't very susceptible to stress, yet this is not an excuse to keep them uncovered.

I would say all ants are suceptible to stress, but some more than others. And even then different colonies react differently.

My tetramorium colony is pretty easy going. The only thing I noticed that they hate is vibration. But even then my colony is so big that even if some ants react to vibration they usually calm down before panic can spread throughout the entire nest. Oh and flooding their nest, they hate that.

My harvester ants used to be so annoying when it came to light or vibration. The smallest amount of vibration or light would cause a 5 min panic. However they love having their nest watered and would stop panicking to drink water. But I found that as the colony got bigger they reacted less and less to both light and vibration.

Now my Camponotus novaeboracensis do not care about anything at all. Which is weird because I’ve heard many people say this Camponotus is overly prone to stress. But I can tap on them, shine bright lights at them and they don’t react at all.

I have a Formica queen that basicly you can’t be in the same room with her without her freaking out. So ya I think each colony and species are different. Just depends on what they’re used to and how large the colony is. Basicly if they’re not panicking then you’re not bothering them.

Well, Camponotus pennsylvanicus always freak out when I check on them. Camponotus nearcticus just act a little nervous. So it really depends on species.

In my experience, camponotus, lasius, and crematogaster are pretty susceptible to stress. Although, with tetramorium immigrans, the only reason I've had a queen die is because my cat either killed them or they got sick somehow. I've transported tetramorium I. queens with brood from place to place before and they were almost completely unphased.