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 That’s a very cool way to feed larvae!
What is the queen eating? Are you feeding her nectar of some kind?
She is able to fast for half a year during this stage in development. When I first found her I gave her a cricket leg and some sugar water.
Now I just give her a drop of water so she stays hydrated.
In a month I may offer some sugar or insect again.
Right now I think she'd reject it. She is using her fat to do all of this, and dissolving her wing muscles which are not needed now.
Can you make a person to help you with your fat? Amazing isn't it!
It's very tempting to try feeding her again, but from experience unless she eats the food the residue can cause problems with the eggs.
So better to just let her fast, as that's how it works in the wild.
@futurebird It’s wild that she can do all this with stored energy.
And yeah, I’d love to be able to produce trophic eggs as a way to lose weight.
myrmepropagandist
Michael Gemar
suzanne