ant queen

[amigo06]

dears
i want to have an ant queen , i get duzy when come near the hole , whats the best way to get the ant queen whithout harming the others ?
please help
[email protected]

[Khaiy]

I don't know how you could capture a queen from an ant colony near you, but you can order commercial ant farms from the internet, and those will come with a queen. They aren't too expensive either, if I remember correctly.

[BioChemistrySoldier]

What would you do with ants anyway?

[madnewt]

I would advise to never remove the queen from an ant colony. The queen is essentially the brain of the colony and it's her job to produce new workers, soldiers etc. Without her, the rest of the ants would have no coordination in their work and would be unable to repopulate after an attack.

[beluga fiction]

You have to be patient, remove one by one the ants and... finally, you will have the queen.

[i_r_e_d]

You'd have to be really really patient to remove ants one by one....

[mmiaosmiling]

some purfume may attract it...

[helpmyqueen]

I have a queen! She was strolling on my garden path and I commandeered her to put in a plastic tub. Now I am wondering what to do next.

I have filled a moderately small square clear plastic ex-cookie tub a third of the way with moist dirt, put in a shell and a curvy piece of coral, and some shredded cabbage.

Now what! Have I acted correctly? Am I torturing the poor creature? Please lend your advice!

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It's been a day, and I don't want to make too many new posts-- therefore I'm adding on to this one.
Her Majesty has stopped frantically trying to climb the walls of her new domain, and has spent some time on the highest peak of the coral I placed there. Recently I have seen (and heard) Her Highness burrowing... please tell me that's a good sign!

I did some research and I belive she is a Formica Fusca. I'm not certain.
It is possible, actually, that she may be a Camponotus Pennsylvanicus (carpenter ant), on account of her large-ish size.
She is roughly half an inch long, three segments, jointed antennae, and the color of ebony.

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She is a carpenter ant! I found a chunk of partially rotted wood, soaked it in water briefly (because I read that carpenter ants really need moisture), and partially submerged it in the dirt. She began tunnelling in it immediately.
I might add that she was much more efficient tunneling through the wood than her previous attempts in the dirt. Carpenter ants don't eat wood (so I read), but do like to live in it. I feel that I have done right by my queen so far!

[helpmyqueen]

some purfume may attract it...

I would try honey or jelly if I were you.
By the way, is it futile, do you think, to put half a cherry in my Queen's enclosure? I think I read somewhere that queens do not eat until their babies bring food to them. My poor sovereign... I hope the cherry doesn't mold. Do you think I ought to remove it?

Oh well-- I have, and replaced it with a tiny shell of granulated sugar. Do you think this was the correct course of action? I would hate to unknowingly torture Her Majesty.

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I've seen her eating the sugar daintily out of her limpet shell-- but I scared her away. nurge

[+R@cY]

I'd just buy one off of the net

[helpmyqueen]

Why should I buy a queen off the net when one simply walked into my hands? She's doing very well so far. I think.

Does anyone have any suggestions as to how to lower the temperature of my little terrarium to ~75 degrees F? Or does it really matter that much?

I've read that warmer climates encourage a queen to begin laying.
Suggestions?

Also-- I've not put the lid on my terrarium on account of Her Majesty not being able to climb the sides-- at least, not on my watch. Is this, do you think, wise?[/i]

[helpmyqueen]

This is a great forum on keeping ants-- check it out!

http://p211.ezboard.com/bantfarm