The new fire ant queen excavates a brood cell (chamber or room) about 1 or 2 inches (25 to 50 mm) underground. Often, more than one new queen will occupy the same cell, but only one will survive to establish a monogynous (single queen) colony. However, in some parts of the country, including Texas, most colonies are polygynous (many queens), and more than one queen may survive and occupy a cell.
A fire ant queen does not forage for food, but relies on fat reserves and the energy acquired from absorbing her wing muscles to survive until her first workers are ready to take on the task of colony maintenance. At first, the new queen will oviposit (lay) 10 to 15 eggs. These eggs hatch into larvae in 7 to 10 days and are fed by the queen through trophallaxis, which is the mouth-to-mouth exchange of foods, as when a mother bird feeds her babies. In 6 to 10 days, the larvae pupate, and 10 to 15 days later they emerge.
These newly emerged workers, called minims, are tiny because of the limited amount of energy the queen can devote to their development. These small workers open the brood cell to the outside world and begin foraging for food to feed the queen.
