[HELP] My Camponotus barbaricus queen died less than 3 days after having her, what did I do wrong?

[Gaazy123]

My Camponotus barbaricus arrived 3 days ago and had a few eggs and one worker. This is my first time caring for a small colony as I've always had colonies that already have 50+ workers. I've always wanted these ants and I was very excited. I kept the test tube wrapped, out of direct sun and at the corner of my desk - out of sight.

I attached the test tube to a very small outworld (about the size of the bottom of a small mug), put some honey water in it to which the single worker quickly came to drink from before returning to the nest.

I was concerned about the heat as I read that the next temp should not be above 25-28 Degrees Celsius.
I was concerned about this as during the night the house can go to 17-19 degrees(sometimes lower), so I bought a heat mat labeled to be at 20 Degrees but after purchasing a thermostat, the temperature was 29 degrees.

Could I have accidentally killed the queen due to the heat? I'm just very unsure about how to keep the nest to a certain temperature otherwise. Can anyone help me?

[AntsDakota]

My Camponotus barbaricus arrived 3 days ago and had a few eggs and one worker. This is my first time caring for a small colony as I've always had colonies that already have 50+ workers. I've always wanted these ants and I was very excited. I kept the test tube wrapped, out of direct sun and at the corner of my desk - out of sight.

I attached the test tube to a very small outworld (about the size of the bottom of a small mug), put some honey water in it to which the single worker quickly came to drink from before returning to the nest.

I was concerned about the heat as I read that the next temp should not be above 25-28 Degrees Celsius.
I was concerned about this as during the night the house can go to 17-19 degrees(sometimes lower), so I bought a heat mat labeled to be at 20 Degrees but after purchasing a thermostat, the temperature was 29 degrees.

Could I have accidentally killed the queen due to the heat? I'm just very unsure about how to keep the nest to a certain temperature otherwise. Can anyone help me?

According to AntMaps, Camponotus barbaricus are native to the deserts of north Africa, where I would assume temperatures climb higher than 29 degrees C. She's probably fine.

[JoeHostile1]

Yup you probably cooked her. This is why I don’t mess with heat sources. It’s a bad idea to try and heat a test tube because there is no escape for the ants and the glass just gets hotter and hotter and hotter. It’s also a confined space where the warm air has no where to go with little to no ventilation.

The people I’ve talked to who heat test tubes say they wrap the test tube in a towel then heat the towel. Or they try and heat the air beside the test tube without actually applying heat directly to the test tube. Just never under any circumstances apply heat directly to the test tube.

Personally I just don’t use heat because I think the risk outweighs the positive gains. The risk is the entire colony dies the gain is that instead of a worker taking 6 weeks to develop it takes 4 weeks for example. Although like I said I’ve been told there is no risk if you heat it properly.

[PwnerPie]

If you heated the entire tube then yet you cooked her. With heating, you can only heat a small part of their home. I only use heating cables so I can be specific where I heat them, then I only heat the entrance of the test tube so the ants can move the brood closer or further away as needed