How to Take Care of a Queen Ant
Ants can be a fun, easy way for people who don't have a lot of space to maintain pets. These little creatures are generally kept in commercial farms, or colonies, which are set up with sand or compost for nest building. For a colony to be truly long-lived and successful, though, it must have a queen. Take a couple steps to supply your colony with a healthy queen ant.
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Things You'll Need
- Ant farm
- Sand//Compost
- Cardboard/Dark paper
- Food (crickets, moths, bees, fruit)
- Water
Instructions
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Purchase your queen from an online retailer or specialty store. She will come packaged separately, and may have eggs with her. Handle the tube gently, as she will eat her eggs if she becomes stressed. It is best to set the queen up in a brand new ant farm, with just her eggs and the ants that hatch.
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Set up your ant farm. Fill it with sand or compost for the ants to burrow in, and put cardboard or dark paper on the side so that the ants can have a dark environment when you're not looking at them.
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Transfer your queen and her ants into the ant farm. Do not mix ants in from other farms, as they could kill the queen. To transfer them, turn the tube with the ants upside down over the ant farm and gently tap it until the ants fall out.
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Feed the ants with crickets, moths, bees and fruit. Keep the sand moist by misting it with water once a day. A healthy colony will take care of their queen on their own.
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Tips & Warnings
Queens that are adequately cared for by their nests can live up to 10 years.
Queens will not eat in a new environment until their first batch of eggs hatches.
Tapping on the side of your ant farm could cause the entire nest to collapse on itself.
References
- Photo Credit ant image by FttSniper from Fotolia.com
