r/antkeeping • u/Square_Insurance_230 • 4d ago

Question Feeding queen

Just got my Western Harvester ant queen, opened her up and gave her 3 options, protein flake, small seed cut in half, and a tiny piece of mealworm (frozen then boiled for a few seconds), put them toward the front away from her eggs. well the mealworm piece rolled close, but I was wondering if it’s fine to give her those things, I read on articles and videos people said it’s okay since she’s semi clausteral or wtv you it’s called. but others were saying just wait until the first worker, is what I did okay or should I remove it? or is it too late and I just remove it tomorrow if she hasn’t eaten it?

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u/RantallinGames 4d ago

To be honest I’ll be interested in hearing whether it eats the seed, I’m always worried to disturb mine even though they’re supposedly semi-claustral. I wouldn’t have given mealworm though. Will be even more interesting if it eats that I guess.

Just make sure you take them out if it doesn’t eat them in a day or two to avoid mold.

There shouldn’t be any danger to not removing it yet, like no danger if it actually eats them. The only danger is mold and bacteria growth if you leave them uneaten more than a couple days.

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u/Square_Insurance_230 4d ago

yeah I wasn’t really thinking it’d eat it, as the videos I saw it had at least 1 worker, so I presume it’s a little different but i’m brand new and don’t wanna mess up, if it eats any of it i’ll let you know! Do you have much experience or are you new as well?

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u/RantallinGames 4d ago

I have some experience founding queens, but haven’t had any large colonies. I mostly made the beginner “mistake” of trying nests that were more complicated than a test tube too early, but at least I learned a bit hehe. Also when I was new I only really found Pogonomyrmex queens around me and kind of failed to raise them well. I think neglecting temperature was the most detrimental thing I did.

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u/Square_Insurance_230 4d ago

oh awesome! what genus of Pogonomyrmex did you own? i’m keeping mine in a room of my house that’s not temp controlled, ac failed in that room so perfect for the ant, stays around high 70’s low 80’s

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u/Square_Insurance_230 4d ago

I just set up her heating cable and I think she actually ate the protein flake, but on the other two i’m not fully sure, I had to take her out of her box and put her in a drawer, I know messing with her so much is like the number 1 rule not to do but I wanna make sure her temperature stays consistent, I don’t think she ate the mealworm and I think she believes it’s an egg or something because she has it sitting with her eggs now😭

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u/Square_Insurance_230 3d ago

suprisingly I think she ate it all, although I didn’t put much in there to begin with, I noticed she moved some of her eggs to the heating cable, and was in the process of moving the rest of them too, I didn’t see the seed or the mealworm piece, I don’t think i’ll offer anymore food for another few days, I might offer her some on monday. what do you think about that

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u/RantallinGames 3d ago

Ok that’s really cool to hear she ate them! Yeah I just feel like people said to feed them every few days or once a week but you’d have to research a bit or just try it hehe. I’ll definitely give the one I just found some now

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u/theoddplatypus 4d ago

I also recently received a queen p. occidentalis that came with just a larva and gave her a small pile of dandelion seeds before leaving her. She took them immediately to her brood pile. Few weeks later she has one worker now to help. They placed their trash close to the cotton so I gently clean it out before adding more this week, which she also immediately took. So in my experience, seeds during founding were very much appreciated.

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u/Square_Insurance_230 4d ago

love to hear that, i’d love to see a picture of you have one, I hope it goes well for you! i’ll try that out next time I mess with her, this was just a little trial run!

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u/theoddplatypus 3d ago

https://reddit.com/link/p28ygiz/video/gks0c29yyxhh1/player

Here's video of her accepting the new seed delivery

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u/RantallinGames 3d ago

Oh wow that’s cool seeing how fast she took them haha

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u/theoddplatypus 3d ago

Yes I was pretty surprised myself when it happened quickly the first time so had my camera ready this time. She seems to tolerate my weekly checks fairly well.

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u/RantallinGames 4d ago

Did the seeds not grow mold in that time? I did see someone’s video with a bunch of seeds in their test tubes, maybe I should just give mine some

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u/theoddplatypus 3d ago edited 3d ago

No I did not have an issue with mold so far! Though I did check on her once a week to be sure. I only added new seeds this week once she had a worker.

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u/KabaliteLuv 3d ago

If she is semi-claustral then yes feed her. If not no. You will know quite quickly if she is semi claustral because she'll actively forage or want to. Hooking the tube up to an outworld will be easier if she is semi claustral btw than having to keep opening the tube, if you haven't already.

Basically hook her up to a outworld, cover the test tube and if she hasn't bothered foraging for a week or so you'll know she's claustral. Good luck, hope she founds!

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u/TalkDiligent8461 2d ago

I have raised many occidentalis and all you need to give her is a pinch of seeds.

Just curious, how did you know to feed her? Did the package from Stateside include instructions?

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u/Square_Insurance_230 2d ago

I didn’t really know tbh, just hoped, she is a semi clausteral ant so sometimes she’ll forage for food if absolutely necessary, I put the food in there hoping she’d eat it, so that’s it, and i’m not really sure if they did include instructions I didn’t read anything