The AntsCanada Ant Forum's

So I have multiple queens with wings in separate test tubes, but since I don't know if they're fertilized or not. I just captured a bunch of male alates and put them in the same test tubes with them. Is this a viable way to "force" fertilize a queen. I did this a while back but only having one large container (about the size of those medicine pill bottles.) I kept about 20 queens in there and added about 15 male alates. I noticed some of the queens became fertile and started laying eggs and I did see some dead male alates. I'm not sure if this works or not but can someone tell me if this is a viable method to ensure a colony? Note: all pheidole

Even queens that have not mated are normally fertile, but eggs would only develop into workers if she had mated at some point since her flight.

It's honestly easier to look for a dealate than mess with time-consuming and risky procedures.

Batspiderfish wrote: ↑

Mon Jun 04, 2018 12:51 am

Even queens that have not mated are normally fertile, but eggs would only develop into workers if she had mated at some point since her flight.

i think what he is trying to say is that fertility is not the same thing as mated queens.

update! out of the 15 test tubes with male elates, 2 of them were successful and started laying eggs. the rest of the male elates probably died of natural causes .

When I catch Lasius queens every year out of the air and put them all in a temporary container while getting test tubes ready, I put males inside with them and I saw a queen with no wings mate with a male. My theory is that queens will not mate unless it is in those few short hours of nuptial flight, and in those few short hours they will mate no matter what the circumstances.

UPDATE #2 so I checked the my queens and apparently 10 of them actually started laying eggs. SHOCKER! so I still think this is a viable method to insuring a fertile queen or just lucky I guess. Will most likely release some queens because I can't care for all 10

Again, unfertilized queens shed their wings and lay eggs too, they just can't produce workers. We also don't know how many of these mated before you caught them.