New from Alberta, Canada

[odchan]

I've recently revisited the idea of ant keeping and it just so happens a few days into refreshing my memory, I spotted a queen so I captured her. Remembering a vague general idea of the initial queen keeping process, I found a clean salt shaker with water held at the bottom by cotton and placed on its side so she make have room to hopefully lay eggs, then I placed her in a card board box with shredded paper to prevent the shaker from moving and then placed the whole box into an empty aquarium. I grabbed an old 25w heating cable and lined the perimeter of the tank on one side so there would be a hot/cold balance. Unfortunately I forgot to snap a photo of her before placing her in. How long should I wait before I could disturb her to identify her? Did I miss any other important steps? The temperature from end to end of the box falls between 23.9 to 25.5 degrees Celsius. Obviously the lid is on the shaker and the finer holes are too narrow for her to escape. She's about 1.25-1.5cm, from memory, mostly black, legs and antennae are have a red band strips, couldn't notice too many hairs, but didn't intently look for them either. I'm in Edmonton and its more than likely the same ants as my yards given the location it was found. They appear to nest under the lawn up against any barrier that goes into the ground like fences and pavement. Small unnoticeable mandibles.

My other concern with not identifying her sooner is also the worry if she would be claustral or semi-claustral? It's been two days... should I wait before attempting to identify her? I'm also unconfident in my retention of her details, the uncertainty is unsettling and tempting me to peek though I know its best to leave her undisturbed and in the dark right?

[AntsDakota]

I've recently revisited the idea of ant keeping and it just so happens a few days into refreshing my memory, I spotted a queen so I captured her. Remembering a vague general idea of the initial queen keeping process, I found a clean salt shaker with water held at the bottom by cotton and placed on its side so she make have room to hopefully lay eggs, then I placed her in a card board box with shredded paper to prevent the shaker from moving and then placed the whole box into an empty aquarium. I grabbed an old 25w heating cable and lined the perimeter of the tank on one side so there would be a hot/cold balance. Unfortunately I forgot to snap a photo of her before placing her in. How long should I wait before I could disturb her to identify her? Did I miss any other important steps? The temperature from end to end of the box falls between 23.9 to 25.5 degrees Celsius. Obviously the lid is on the shaker and the finer holes are too narrow for her to escape. She's about 1.25-1.5cm, from memory, mostly black, legs and antennae are have a red band strips, couldn't notice too many hairs, but didn't intently look for them either. I'm in Edmonton and its more than likely the same ants as my yards given the location it was found. They appear to nest under the lawn up against any barrier that goes into the ground like fences and pavement. Small unnoticeable mandibles.

My other concern with not identifying her sooner is also the worry if she would be claustral or semi-claustral? It's been two days... should I wait before attempting to identify her? I'm also unconfident in my retention of her details, the uncertainty is unsettling and tempting me to peek though I know its best to leave her undisturbed and in the dark right?

You would need to post some photos of the queen in order to get an accurate identity, however your queen sounds like that from the genus Formica, which are fully claustral.