>> |
Anonymous
I'd tried a jar of dirt before; I found one that had gotten in under the door. That one dug a tunnel, laid a couple eggs and died. That was when I was a child.
A few years back I found one that had got in my apartment and was wandering lost on my bathroom floor. I placed her in an ant farm. She laid eggs and eventually I walked by one day to 100 ants running around my bookshelf (they were so small they fit right through the sides). After I sealed the edges mold formed, acting like glue when the queen touched it. She died shortly after.
I have no idea what this one is. Only thing I've ever seen in my hometown are black and red ants, and recently giant black ones that dig in trees. This one is brown.
Housing has been a test tube. Filled with water, then sealed in with a cotton ball. This acts as a barrier that provides water but doesn't flood through. As for food, I had not fed her until yesterday.
She always refused to eat, and I later read that queens remove their wings to dig, and for a while their body consumes their old wing muscles to survive.
She went for months without laying or eating, and I just kept her with water and hoping she'd eventually decide the time was right. She seems to have timed it so that she'll have a group of workers around the time of year I caught her.
Soon as I saw the worker I knew it would need to eat, so I offered her honey on a q-tip. The worker ignored it, but the queen fed on it for several hours.
Currently I've enlarged the space granted to a simple enclosure surrounded by petroleum jelly and a water moat to keep them in. The worker, however, has not left the nest and I assume it knows to stay with her and help take care of her sisters.
|