Entomology

473 readers

1 users here now

A general community to post things about insects

For more specific communities:

Isopods and Myriapods: [email protected]

A community for our eight-legged friends: [email protected]

founded 2 years ago

MODERATORS

[email protected]

What happens to little black ants without a queen? (self.entomology)

submitted 8 months ago by CandleTiger to c/[email protected]

2 comments fedilink hide all child comments

I have some little black ants in my motorhome. I’m pretty sure I picked them up at my last stop in upstate New York but I’ve since driven far away from there. Wikipedia says little black ants nest in the soil so presumably I didn’t take their queen with me.

What’s going to happen to this group that hitched a ride? Are they likely to elect a new queen and go looking for a good nesting spot, or curl up and die, or what?

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] [email protected] 18 points 8 months ago

They'll probably just die. They can't "elect" a new queen. I think there's a few species where a normal worker can change into one, but normally they have to be specifically hatched that way. Or I'm the case of honey bees fed special food as a larva.