199 replies to this topic

[NickAnter]

Queen 4 is in hibernation, and soon Queen 1 & 2's colonies will be too.

 

The Trio's eggs have all hatched, so once 2 pupae eclose, I will probably put them in hibernation. They no longer forage, which I take to mean they are ready.

And I also put two dealate queens I found this summer in hibernation weeks ago, I plan to sell them next year.

[NickAnter]

These will be taken out of hibernation on March 24th.

[TennesseeAnts]

These will be taken out of hibernation on March 24th.

Looking forward to it!

[NickAnter]

Well, yesterday I realized that I had left the single queens in there for over 5 months...

 

I took the remaining one out(one died a few weeks ago).

 

I also took the first colony I put in out, since it had been in for well over a month. I transferred the colony to a petri-dish esq setup, and just dumped them in, thinking the workers would be slow waking up. NOPE! They were their usual rocket-selves and half of them got out. I got half of those back in, the rest ended up accidentally squished. Lesson learned there: Cold doesn't slow down Lasius.

 

The single queen, I put into a smaller hydrostone formicarium in a 2x2x0.5 inch amac box. She is doing very well! Already she is somewhat bloated from eggs, so it seems as though she will be a very productive queen. Just 5 more days until the other colonies are taken out. I believe I will dump the large colony into a fortress, as I really want to be able to take better pictures and video of them. I also think they will like the more natural feel. When I do that, however, I will most certainly use a fluon barrier in the outworld, so that there won't be any more disasters. I also tested that formicarium escape-ability with e thin piece of paper. If I can't fit the corner of the paper between the glass and the hydrostone, I would say that its good. And it was, it passed the test perfectly, with no noticeable gaps.

[NickAnter]

 

 

As you can see, they have been dumped into an outworld...

 

I dumped the large colony into a fortress, in what has to be the best moving experience yet. Only 2 escapees, and one death(drowned in cotton), and they moved in fast, and they couldn't climb the fluon barrier! They moved in quickly, and I have also made a video on them relocating their larva pile. I will post that when it uploads to youtube.

 

Later today, I will take all the other colonies out.

[NickAnter]

The video of them moving brood:

 

[Kaelwizard]

At first glance I thought the sand was brood too and I was like 

[NickAnter]

Haha. The brood pile is a bit bigger than that still, I only got the idea to record a bit late.

[NickAnter]

All colonies are out, and doing well!

 

Colony A(I forgot which numbers went in first ): 15 workers, 10 brood. Least active of all the colonies; test tube.

 

Colony B(old colony 1): 20 workers, 10 brood, test tube.

 

Colony C: 20 workers, 20 brood(15 larvae, 5 eggs); this colony is in a petri dish style formicarium, using this old makeup container thing that my grandma insisted I take to use for projects. Well at least it has come in handy.

 

Lone Queen: 10 eggs, in a hydrostone formicarium inside the 2x2x0.5" amac box.

 

Last but not least....

 

The Trio: 80 workers or so, give or take a few, over 100 larvae, and no eggs yet. The queens are getting fatter, so hopefully eggs are to come. I really love how in this species the workers rarely eat any proteins themselves, but instead just tear the food apart(flies and termites are their favorites) and place it on the larvae piles, and allow the larvae to eat for them, and then receive the liquids the larvae produce. A rather poor quality video coming out on this colony later today(was not filmed with a macro lens).

[NickAnter]

Here is a new video I took, of considerably better quality than the one I originally planned to upload here:

 

Edited by NickAnter, March 31 2021 - 11:44 AM.

[NickAnter]

And the Trio colony just laid eggs!! There are about 8 of them in a pile, I imagine many more are to come. Also just fed them three mosquito larvae

 

I hate mosquitoes, and this is the best use I have found for them.

 

Also fed Colony A some as well.

Edited by NickAnter, March 31 2021 - 12:58 PM.

[NickAnter]

Had some serious larval growth overnight!! My guess is that there will be some pupae next week. Of course, I won't be able to update next week, as I will be camping, but still something to look forward to.

 

But that is not all!! There is a clump of at least 20 eggs!! I can see which queen laid the eggs, judging by the fact that her gaster suddenly got rather small. I'm assuming these eggs will hatch in around 2 weeks time, if last year is anything to go by.

 

Pictures will come when I get back from school later today.

[NickAnter]

Well being a worrywort and having a sometimes stupid short term memory while on a camping trip doesnt mix well. You see, I had convinced myself that there was somehow a likely chance the trio would dehydrate since I didn't fill their water tower right before I left. Well, naturally, I worried for naught, and came back to this awesome sight:

As you can see, the queens pumped out an insane number of eggs! Also, they have several pupae. The other colonies are all doing well, with Colony A laying a bunch of eggs, as well as the colony C. Colony B has no change, and neither does the lone queen, unless I missed a larva. More pictures coming soon!

[NickAnter]

Here is a video I made showcasing the colony:   

 

They have ten pupae now, and all the queens are getting fatter again. More eggs coming soon...

[NickAnter]

The colony is still doing exceedingly well! They never refuse protein, and it is soon devoured by the larvae. Termites seem to be their new favorite for that, since I imagine it is quite easy for the larvae to get through their exoskeleton. Also, they have a couple exerate pupae, and, from what I can tell, the workers will be considerably larger than their current generation, though still not as large as in the wild. The workers in the wild are around 4-4.5mm, while these are currently at about 2.5mm.

Sorry for the low quality of the images, it is quite hard to get good lighting, and, as the chambers are quite deep, to get my macro lens to focus.

But as you can(hopefully) see by the images, they have a very large number of pupae, and still that massive egg pile. Sadly they moved the exerate pupae behind the egg pile, so I was not able to get a picture of them. They still have many more larvae that need to pupate, so I am hopeful that with continued heavy feeding I can get them to produce larger workers.

[NickAnter]

The Trio has gotten the first worker of the year!!! They also have had many of their eggs hatch, and so there is a pile of about 100 small larvae, along with 15 large ones. And the egg pile is still well over 100! Here are some pictures:

I'm hoping that they do not completely outgrow their fortress this year, but with this level of growth, I think they may. In case of this, I have made a formicarium that is just a single, large chamber, that is a little over 2x the size of a mini hearth.

[NickAnter]

Well, over a month since the last update, and this colony is doing fantastic!

They have probably somewhere over 130 workers, and still massive piles of brood.

 

 

 

They have around 150 pupae, well over 100 larvae(in chamber with sand on glass, along with all 3 queens), and somewhere around 100 eggs(also in sandy chamber).

I have been feeding them quite a decent amount of food(mealworms, crickets, the occasional fly), and lots of Nylanderia workers(about 10 escape every time the lid is opened   .)

[TacticalHandleGaming]

Love the colony growth! Seriously thinking I may need to order a Fortress soon. I think my Lasius are going to outgrow their XL mini hearth pretty quickly.

[NickAnter]

This colony is doing fantastic! They have large feeding responses, and are well over 150 workers now, with hundreds of eggs, many larvae, and over a hundred pupae. Most assuredly one of my favorite colonies, they are just so well behaved(so far) and grow at a fast rate now as well.

 

Might get pictures, and write a more detailed update tomorrow.

[NickAnter]

This journal is now solely focused on the polygynous colony.

 

Which is doing absolutely amazing!

 

They likely have well over 250 workers, and they still have truckloads of brood. I'm still very thankful that they do not seem to have a need to consume tons of food, and rarely have many foragers in the outworld.

 

Pictures showing full size of the colony, or any brood are difficult as they hang out on the ceilings of the chambers, and they have plastered sand on the glass, and, that, along with the condensation does not lend itself to being a bristol photography environment.