I am really excited about getting an ant queen but am not sure if my ant farm would work. I live in New York and am waiting for ant swarms and hope to get a black ant queen. They build dirt mounds and my kit is plaster and has no dirt would they mind? My ant farm is 10 inches wide and 7 inches tall and is part of a brand called ecosystem its called ant mines and is attached to another colony called Mayan ant invasion. Would my hive work? Sincerely, Worried Mike
Dear Mike,
I checked what your ant farm sets look like (see below to make sure I got the right ones.) They seem fine to get you started. The plaster is a system that ant scientists developed for studying ant colonies. Many ant species get along just fine without soil. In fact, adding soil makes it more likely that your ant farm will develop a mold or parasites that could make the ants sick, so they will do better without it.
At first the queen will not move around much, so you don’t need a big space. In fact, you will probably just need one of those kits at first. Once you have ants in the kits, be sure to check them often. Workers ants may chew at any weak spot in the plastic and try to escape. Where tubes join are favorite places to attack. Also, be sure to read all the instructions that come with your kits.
In New York you probably have a few weeks before you need to worry too much about catching a queen. Ants usually swarm once the weather gets warm enough to produce spring or summer thundershowers.
Hope this helps you worry less 🙂
-The Consult-Ant
(Note: As I mentioned previously, I have been the “Consult-Ant” on the Leaping from the Box website. I answer questions about ants and ant farms. From now on I will post the answers here, and when Karen has time she will also post the answers on her site.)
When I am acting as the “Consult-Ant” and answering questions about ant farms, people are generally interested in finding out more about ant queens.
When an ant colony is ready to branch out, the current queen lays eggs that develop into males or new queens instead of workers. Adult male ants are winged, and have small heads and slender bodies. They can easily be mistaken for wasps.
Newly emerged queens are larger than both males and workers, and have four wings.
When conditions are just right, such as after a summer thundershower, the males and new queens fly from the nest. The whole colony is in a tizzy when this happens. Worker ants gush from the nest entrance and mill around. Winged males and queens climb up on grass stalks, trees, or anything tall in the area.
In many species, the winged queens and males fly to meet with males and queens of the same species of ant from other nests. They enter what is called a mating swarm, a swirling cloud of flying and mating insects.
After mating, the males drop to the ground and soon die. The new queens, the ones that escape being eaten that is, also drop to the ground. The queens quickly pull off their wings by rubbing them between the back of their body and their hind legs, twisting and tugging. Once the wings are off, they quickly hide themselves. Ground-nesting ant queens tunnel into the soil while other types of queens may slip into cracks in the bark of logs or creep under nearby rocks. There a queen makes a safe chamber to start her new colony.
You can tell she’s a queen because of the scars on her trunk (middle section) where her wings were.
The queen will lay eggs that develop into tiny worker ants, and a new colony is born.
Have you ever seen swarming ants?
The theme today for Life Photo Meme at Adventures of a Free Range Urban Primate blog is “reproduction.”
I have an ant question! We just got an ant farm and I think they are soldier ants and they just sit on the surface of the sand all day. What should I feed them and water them? Will they ever tunnel?
Thank you,
Heather
If you got a standard commercial ant farm, the ants you have are worker ants. This just means that you don’t have a queen ant. Soldiers are extra big workers, which often perform special tasks.
Usually the type of ants sold with commercial ant farms are harvester ants, because their large size and tendency to tunnel makes them fun to watch. They are also relatively easy to collect.
Have you ever made a sand castle? If so, you have probably found out that if the sand is too dry it simply falls down when you try to build with it. If the sand is too wet, it is like mud and you can’t shape it properly. The sand has to have the right amount of water in it to build a good castle.
Ants have the same requirements. They prefer their sand to be a bit moist. If your sand is too dry or too wet, however, they won’t be able to tunnel in it.
Try adding some water to the farm with an eye dropper. Add a small amount at a time to dampen the sand a bit. Be careful, because too much water and food can make it moldy.
Another reason that ants won’t move around much is if they are too cold. Do you have your ant farm indoors? Is it warm enough for you to visit them without a sweater? If not, you might try moving them to somewhere a bit warmer.
As for food, adult worker ants mostly drink liquids. Mix a bit of honey or sugar with about the same amount of water in a small container. Soak the sweet-water mixture into a bit of paper towel rolled up into a ball or a piece of cotton ball. Make sure it is small enough so it will fit into the opening of the ant farm. Place it on the surface of the sand near the ants. Be sure to change the food often, as it might get moldy and/or dry out.
(Note: As I mentioned previously, I have been the “Consult-Ant” on the Leaping from the Box website. I answer questions about ants and ant farms. From now on I will post the answers here, and when Karen has time she will also post the answers on her site.)
(Note: As I mentioned previously, I have been the “Consult-Ant” on the Leaping from the Box website. I answer questions about ants and ant farms. From now on I will post the answers here, and when Karen has time she will also post the answers on her site.)
Question: Hi, I am a reading teacher in an elementary school. We are reading a book about ants. My students wanted to know what would happen to an ant colony if their queen died. I was able to find the answers. One of the answers was that the workers would choose a larva or larvae to feed a special diet to enable it (them) to become a queen(s). What does that special diet consist of?
Is there any other way for an existing worker to become a queen if the colony’s queen dies? Can she eat a special diet to stimulate hormones that would change her into a queen?
First of all, thank you for being willing to look for answers to your students’ questions. I’m sure they appreciate your effort.
These are actually difficult questions, and scientists are still finding out some of the answers. The information you found about workers being able to rear a new queen is definitely true for honey bees. The worker honey bees feed the larvae (young grubs) destined to become queens a formula called “royal jelly.” Larvae fed regular food turn into workers. The composition of royal jelly has been studied extensively, and you can buy it over the Internet.
Because there are over 12,000 different kinds of ants, however, how an egg becomes a queen varies considerably between species. Ants were long assumed to have the same food-based system as the honey bees, but now that research techniques are more advanced, it seems that at least in some kinds of ants the eggs laid by the queen are predestined to be either workers or queens. No matter how much food it is given, queen egg becomes a queen ant and a worker egg becomes a worker ant. This is found to be the case in harvester ants and big-headed ants (See references below.) When food makes a difference, such as determining whether a worker becomes a big worker (major) or not, it seems to be the amount of food rather than the quality.
In ant species with a single queen, generally the workers will not accept a new queen and the colony dies out when the queen dies. In ant species with many queens per colony, however, such as the Argentine ant, the workers may accept new queens. How many queens a colony will accept may be influenced by how highly related the workers are, as well as environmental factors.
As for a worker being able to become a queen, once again it depends on what kind of ant you study. In ants with a separate queen “caste,” with a queen that is bigger and structurally different, a worker can never become a queen. Once a worker ant becomes an adult, it can not change its form. A worker ant does not have wings necessary for going on a mating flight, for example, and can not grow them. When the queen dies, because the workers are females they may be able to lay eggs, but the eggs are unfertilized and result in male ants.
Other ants are more like wasps. All the ants within a single colony look pretty much alike with no physically different queen, and one worker acts as a queen (it has a special name, called a “gamergate”). In this case, when the queen-worker dies, another worker can assume her role. The queen-workers’ hormone levels do change and her sisters can detect the changes. One species with this type of queen-worker is the jumping ant, Harpegnathos saltator.
(Photo: Harpegnathos saltator from the BR hills, November 2006, Author=L. Shyamal WikiMedia Commons)
