[AllALohn]

Hey all, I have 2 colonies of Carebara diversa. Both have 2 queens. I know this is a polygynous species, but I don't know how well they warm up to new queens being introduced. Basically, out of my colonies, 1 of the colonies is doing terribly. They cannot get brood past the larval stage, and numbers are dropping, quickly. Rather than just letting the queens die due to no workers able to care for them, I thought about introducing them to the more successful colony. I do not plan to try and mix any workers. What are your thoughts? Becsuse in my eyes, this can only end in positive ways. Either A. I have a kick-ass 4 queen colony!! Or B. The near-death queens become a solid protein source for a day. Please share ideas!

[AllALohn]

I'll reply to myself, lol. I have been told by multiple sources that this species will reafily accept new queens on the spot. It's a go!

[AllALohn]

Readily**

[Zoron]

Should probrobly chill both colonies and add a small wire mesh between the two colonies before introducing them to each other. After a few days chill them again and put two workers from the two colonies together in a test tube. If there's a fight then keep colonies separate. If not remove the barrier.

Hope this helps

Edit: Be sure to watch how the workers treat the small steel mesh. Are they biting it? Feeling and running away? Ignoring it?

[AllALohn]

Before this event I didn't know how accepting of new colonies this species is. I just added them together, and they all got along immediately!

[Adam.ant]

Awesome, good to know! How do you keep this species, any pics of setup? I have seen so many different ways with varying degrees of success

[AllALohn]

Hey, I just got back to this. It turns out, the colony not doing well was being destroyed by mites. I never noticed or heard about mites beforehand, and suddenly I introduced the mites to the large colony. *facepalm*
All ants but 1 queen, covered in mites, have been wiped out.

[AllALohn]

I do not have any photos, but it was a soil nest. The humidity was kept perfectly for them in there

[milant]

This species is hard to keep in captivity. even decade long experienced keeper like antscanada managed to kill them off.

[AllALohn]

Yes, but ant keepers are able to fine tune and learn from their experience :)
I am in contact with two keepers of tgis species with colonies years old, with worker counts in the hundreds of thousands!

[AllALohn]

this*