Ants suddenly dying

[Carlevan2840]

I have raised a colony of Solenopsis Invicta from a single queen for about 3 months or so to the point that I had roughly about 75 ants and a nice pile of eggs/ larvae/ pupae. It got to be difficult to open to feed them without any escaping so I added an extension tube of 1/2" clear plastic/rubber tubing. Everything seemed fine so I eventually added a brass "T" joint and then added a sugar water feeder (new bottled water and new white sugar) made from the plastic tubing and a brass plug at the end to one side of the "T" and an empty piece of tubing with cotton in the end where I can introduce solid foods. Shortly after this the ants started dying a few per day (the queen and larvae seem ok). I have a secondary colony started at the same time which I have been feeding the same sugar water (from a bottle I mixed up) and same insect species from the same property. This colony seems unaffected. The only thing I've noticed is the sugar water in the attached feeder of the first colony is turning a yellowish color while what remains in the bottle remains clear. What is happening? Can brass interact with sugar to make a poison? Or did I maybe have poison on my hands (flea spray from my dog.... although I try to always wash my hands before feeding and nothing has affected the second colony)? Any help would be high appreciated!

[SolenopsisKeeper]

I have raised a colony of Solenopsis Invicta from a single queen for about 3 months or so to the point that I had roughly about 75 ants and a nice pile of eggs/ larvae/ pupae. It got to be difficult to open to feed them without any escaping so I added an extension tube of 1/2" clear plastic/rubber tubing. Everything seemed fine so I eventually added a brass "T" joint and then added a sugar water feeder (new bottled water and new white sugar) made from the plastic tubing and a brass plug at the end to one side of the "T" and an empty piece of tubing with cotton in the end where I can introduce solid foods. Shortly after this the ants started dying a few per day (the queen and larvae seem ok). I have a secondary colony started at the same time which I have been feeding the same sugar water (from a bottle I mixed up) and same insect species from the same property. This colony seems unaffected. The only thing I've noticed is the sugar water in the attached feeder of the first colony is turning a yellowish color while what remains in the bottle remains clear. What is happening? Can brass interact with sugar to make a poison? Or did I maybe have poison on my hands (flea spray from my dog.... although I try to always wash my hands before feeding and nothing has affected the second colony)? Any help would be high appreciated!

Which colony had more nantics? The more nantics raised on a limited supply of food, the less they live.

[Carlevan2840]

I couldn't give you an exact count but they looked to be roughly equal in the number of nanitics (before they started dying). I have since removed the extra tubing and sugar water feeder and went back to just a test tube setup and they don't seem to be dying anymore. I'm not an expert at this but how far will nanitics travel to get food? I can't imagine less than 10 inches or so (roughly the length of the tube to acquire protein and sugar) or they would never make it in the wild. What I'm getting at is: it's not a possibility the food is too far away for enough nanitics to find it, is it? I saw them going to get food from both locations (protein and sugar) so I can't imagine that's an issue. Thank you so much for responding!

[SolenopsisKeeper]

I couldn't give you an exact count but they looked to be roughly equal in the number of nanitics (before they started dying). I have since removed the extra tubing and sugar water feeder and went back to just a test tube setup and they don't seem to be dying anymore. I'm not an expert at this but how far will nanitics travel to get food? I can't imagine less than 10 inches or so (roughly the length of the tube to acquire protein and sugar) or they would never make it in the wild. What I'm getting at is: it's not a possibility the food is too far away for enough nanitics to find it, is it? I saw them going to get food from both locations (protein and sugar) so I can't imagine that's an issue. Thank you so much for responding!

They don’t travel more than 2 feet I think. In the wild, what colonies usually do is “merge” with other colonies, and sometimes workers go around with the guns shooting random queens until there is one left. This creates a colony with 1000+ workers, meaning they can forage further with more workers.

[Carlevan2840]

You think it's possible they weren't getting enough food? I mean I saw some of them on the solid food and getting sugar water. Again, both the protein and sugar were no more than a foot MAX away from the queen, maybe less. And it was odd how suddenly it happened. Just all of the sudden there were 5 or 6 dead and the next day maybe 10 more. I just can't imagine seeing them actually on the food sources but starving to death. I could be wrong though.

[SolenopsisKeeper]

You think it's possible they weren't getting enough food? I mean I saw some of them on the solid food and getting sugar water. Again, both the protein and sugar were no more than a foot MAX away from the queen, maybe less. And it was odd how suddenly it happened. Just all of the sudden there were 5 or 6 dead and the next day maybe 10 more. I just can't imagine seeing them actually on the food sources but starving to death. I could be wrong though.

What it could be is that the amount of nectar they consumed was wasted on the journey back, so they were at a loss.

[Carlevan2840]

Can you clarify what you mean? Wasted how?

[SolenopsisKeeper]

Can you clarify what you mean? Wasted how?

Using more energy to get carbs than the carbs actually give

[Carlevan2840]

Using more energy to get carbs than the carbs provide from walking only 12 inches or less away from the queen and nest? I find that difficult to believe. I mean I could be wrong, as stated, I'm no expert, but if they can't even walk 12 inches or less, a food supply would literally have to land on their heads constantly, until they merged with more, which would also have to have food land right on top of them. This seems a little difficult to believe that they starved to death when ample food was provided nearly right in front of them.

[SolenopsisKeeper]

Using more energy to get carbs than the carbs provide from walking only 12 inches or less away from the queen and nest? I find that difficult to believe. I mean I could be wrong, as stated, I'm no expert, but if they can't even walk 12 inches or less, a food supply would literally have to land on their heads constantly, until they merged with more, which would also have to have food land right on top of them. This seems a little difficult to believe that they starved to death when ample food was provided nearly right in front of them.

Idk just an idea… I am 5% sure it was that

It could be that they found it more dangerous than it should be, so it wasn’t worth it. I am just throwing things out there