How to keep my ant colony alive (Anyone who can, please answer)?

I have no idea why I bother to ask this. I doubt anyone will answer, this section is too diverse, but what do I have to loss : /

I recently started a colony of Argentine Ants. There are no native ants left in my area; they have all been driven out by the hoard. I have two queens and approximately 30 workers and one larva. I need to know how to keep them alive. I know the procedure for keeping alate queens, but I am lost when it comes to this species. I can find almost no information online except ways to poison, drown and otherwise eradicate them. I have no idea how many workers they should have and where I should house them. I can not find any ant forums that tell how to keep colonies dug up from the ground. Basically I am on my own. Does anyone know where I can find information?

This is my sixth attempt to start a colony with this species. My first two queens died. My third queen disappeared. My fourth, fifth, and sixth, queens were abandon by their workers and starved. I have been trying to keep them in a plaster formicarium, but the workers always leave their queens and just huddle around the food. I did have success when I kept a queen in a test tube, but the eggs were not fertilized so I released her. I tried more test tube attempts, but the cotton balls always molded and the ants would not move into a test tube.

I can not indefinitely keep setting up colonies; my queen finding methods are draining on the colonies. Because Argentines do not have nuptial flites, I must flood them out of their colony. I pour 5 to six test tubes of water into the colony and stop when I see the larva being moved out. The queens come out soon after and I catch as many as possible. Only after I have queens do I begin catching workers. I only have about five viable colonies I can flood and they take about four months to be recolonized.

For this colony, there were well over thirty queens and thousands of eggs, lava, and pupa, far more then my other attempts. There were few males in the colony. I only caught three queens; too many ants and too much confusion. I got one larva and the workers just aimlessly carry it around (they may be feeding it). I have one test tube setup connected to a dry test tube with a bit of pinapple and pork chop. I can not keep them with an outworld; they always abondon the test tube when connected to it. Prior to this they were in the formicarium. I had to relocate them because they just bunched in a corner of the outworld while a few workers starved in the nest and tubing. I do not know if the queens are fertilized; they have only been in the tube for a few days. Should I flood a second colony to catch alate males?

My parents will not let me bring my ants in the house so I keep them in a plastic drawer outside with white paper taped to the walls to reflect heat. I fear that temperature swings may be the cause of failure. Are there any ways I can stabilize the temperature? Is my idea a lost cause; maybe I should wait until I can get my own house an can bring ants inside.

Please help. I wish yahoo answers would make and insect section as a subsection of pets. Ow well I guess.