Does anyone have any Colony life saving stories to share? I'll start.
In the time it took my Formica [pallidefulva group] queen to start a colony (less then 2 months) the water in their test tube changed from clear to red to yellow. There was probably something growing in the water but it didn't seem to harm them until now. With her first batch of 7 workers I began to feed them; first a dab of honey, and then with a thorax of a cricket. This morning I found them all somewhat dead and piled on top of each other near the cork of the test tube. After noticing some movement I simply placed them in another container on top a damp tissue and they are all now revived.
The cricket I had fed them died from freezing and then me cutting it in two. Is there such a thing as over feeding or did their water supply become poisoned enough to almost kill them or perhaps something to do with the day old rotting cricket half?
In the time it took my Formica [pallidefulva group] queen to start a colony (less then 2 months) the water in their test tube changed from clear to red to yellow. There was probably something growing in the water but it didn't seem to harm them until now. With her first batch of 7 workers I began to feed them; first a dab of honey, and then with a thorax of a cricket. This morning I found them all somewhat dead and piled on top of each other near the cork of the test tube. After noticing some movement I simply placed them in another container on top a damp tissue and they are all now revived.
The cricket I had fed them died from freezing and then me cutting it in two. Is there such a thing as over feeding or did their water supply become poisoned enough to almost kill them or perhaps something to do with the day old rotting cricket half?
