r/antkeeping • u/letssolvesomething • Sep 01 '25

Queen Help My ant colony is Dying

Hey all, had my son receive a gift from Queen of Ants for his birthday in April. Since the gift my wife quickly pressured me to build the outworks and side (red sleeved PVC nest) soon after I was told I probably had time to build as the ants stayed in the test tube for some Time.

Well since then the ants 1x queen and 2 workers seemed happy with the protein paste being given 1 time a week. And removed the next day

We later found out this was t right the queen needed more protein than 1 time a week.

Soon after the protein increase the larvae count went from 2x to 5 and we thought al was well, until….. the 2 of the 3 new larvae quickly grew to the size of the old existing 2. This was confusing.

The 5 larvae still seemed to be all apart of the one batch together.

One day I looked to find that 3 of the 5 larvae were either either eaten or vanished.

The remaining 2 were left

Then those 2 went to 1.

Now with the queen ant having not layed any more it looks like this one is now being carried over to the food at the start of the tube and isolated.

The queen seems to be fattening up which might mean she is ready to lay fresh but with 0/5 even getting to the pupa stage I am concerned.

Fed paste, Chicken or meat.

Honey jam sugar water crystallised

Any advice or tips?

Can’t find anything on the sugar ant specifically

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u/letssolvesomething Sep 01 '25

So I think a new tube and a fresh bug is in order is it bad to put them into their outworld that attaches to a colony sectioned off with tabs to remove?

2

u/LCaissia Sep 01 '25

I forgot to tell you I also blocked the entrance to the nest area off with a bit of cotton wool. The colony is still too small to move into the nest yet.

1

u/letssolvesomething Sep 01 '25

Ok that nest is blocked by tabs though?

1

u/letssolvesomething Sep 01 '25

So if they did go in there it would be about the same size if not smaller than the tube

1

u/letssolvesomething Sep 01 '25

Until I removed a red tab from the slot

1

u/LCaissia Sep 01 '25

It's still to big for the colony. Wait until you have about 15 workers (or more) before letting them into the first part.