Back in August of last year, I found this Formica sp. queen. After placing her in a test tube nest, I noticed a parasitic mite on one of her legs, so she was placed well away from the rest of my ants just in case the mite attempted to parasitize my other colonies. However, a week later, I discovered the mite, or whatever it was, had disappeared, and the queen was still in excellent condition. Several weeks later, the first nanitics arrived, and the colony was doing well. Today she has sixteen nanitics, but it doesn’t look like more are on the way this year due to insufficient time to raise another generation of workers. Some of their favorite foods are honey, mealworms, and Sunburst Ant Nectar.
