She is such a good mother. I’m still in shock that she was going to try and live under my keyboard.

When I found her she was “hiding” but like most queens she wasn’t aware of how big she is and her gaster was visible giving her away.

She is now in a luxury NYC ant condo. #antqueen

Quick update on my new queen carpenter ant: she seems to be doing well living in her glass test tube inside of my pen drawer. I checked on her today and gave her a drop of water which she accepted and drank. Her eggs are slowly developing.

(How to keep people from taking your fancy pens.) #antqueen

Queen update! Her eggs have hatched and are now larvae. She will feed them “trophic eggs” which are special eggs that cannot hatch. This is an ant food storage hack. Young ants need protein but she cannot leave the nest to raise this first generation.

While I was bugging her with a photo today I also gave her a drink of water which she seemed to like. #antqueen

@futurebird long live queen ants!