Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Nov 12, 2012 11:12:21 GMT 1
Hey Guys!
It turns out my darling Queenie (who is a small, black house ant) has a brood area that is slowly becoming a bit moldy. Small traces of mold are starting to worry me (likely caused by the accidental mixing of her sugar and her water).
I've temporarily changed her nest so it connects to a new, cleaner test tube. She's now exploring near the new tube, but I'm curious about whether she'll "take on" the new test tube at all.
Do queen ants tend to have the ability to detect mold, and if so, does anyone know if they ever seem to... "try" and avoid it?
Certainly hoping so! Don't like the idea of Queenie getting sick after all this time... Luckily, she's exploring the new place, perhaps only time will tell if she prefers it to the old one!
EDIT: Any tips at all for encouraging her into the new nest without stressing her out or losing eggs? At the moment, I've covered the "New" tube with foil + a handkerchief so it's darker and warmer than the other one. Hopefully it works, eh? ;D
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Nov 12, 2012 12:20:20 GMT 1
Update: SUCCESS!
What I did was I connected the tubes as explained above. I left the "old tube" that had mold in the open where light could get in, and covered the "new tube" with foil and a handkerchief to stop the light.
I kept temperature monitors on both of them. Strangely, the "new" one actually stayed half a degree colder than the one in the open, but Queenie still explored the new one.
It was barely an hour, and Queenie already scouted the new test tube twice, and eventually came back, grabbed her eggies and ran straight to the new test tube! Great news, hopefully this will work in future for people who want to move their queen safely without stress!
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Nov 14, 2012 19:25:09 GMT 1
Nice Account Charlie, Ill keep that in mind when I need to change any of my queens living quarters.
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Nov 15, 2012 3:14:27 GMT 1
Update: Well, she's moved out of the moldy nest, but hasn't moved INTO the new one yet. She enjoys the small tube too much! So she's spent her time living in the tube for the last few days. But this isn't a bad thing if you ask me. At least she left the moldy nest, that was the main priority. This is a photo of what I mean, she's sort of 'in' the new nest, where the old nest is on the left. . Hey, better than her staying in the moldy nest!!!
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Nov 15, 2012 3:47:57 GMT 1
That is perfectly fine. Plus now you can detach the moldy nest and add in a small foraging area when the workers hatch.
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Nov 15, 2012 4:16:53 GMT 1
Hi Charlie. I believe your queen to be Iridomyrmex.
The likely reason that she is living in the tubing is due to it's color. Most ant species (with the notable exception of some Lasius) cannot detect the color red and believe that red light is indeed darkness.
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Nov 15, 2012 13:15:31 GMT 1
There was actually a study done on that limes and it showed that red film did not really help an ant colony at all in terms of thinking they were in the dark.
I will try to find the PDF file.
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Nov 17, 2012 10:52:52 GMT 1
I always suspected it was an iridomyrmex species, albeit a very small one (iridomyrmex purperus workers are almost a centimetre long, this queen is only around 5mm long). Is always hard to tell for me Also, yes, I'm not sure about the red tube (although that's why it's red, the package I got it from said ants would think it's darkness. It may also be because it's a bit more enclosed than the container, and therefore a bit more comfortable? That's what I theorised anyway!
|
|