41 replies to this topic

[ANTdrew]

Beginning 3-24-2020

 

I have a lot of time on my hands all of sudden and, thankfully, several new colonies. Among these are my first Lasius species colonies, so I will be starting up this journal to document their progress. For whatever reason, Lasius ants interest me a lot even though they are quite common. I've had a heck of a time finding non-parasitic Lasius, though, but that all changed last October. Whilst at a Halloween event at a local university with my kids, I finally found a Lasius neoniger queen scuttling about on the ground. As I had no collection containers on hand, I had to think quick and eat a box of Nerds candy to put her in. I've been calling her Nerdbox Neoniger ever since.

 

 

I hibernated her from late October until late January. Then I put her test tube in a heated box along with several other new queens I was founding. The box was kept in the 80s in complete darkness. This particular queen did nothing for several weeks, so I was worried she may be a dud. She did finally lay a good clump of eggs, though, which she is tending now, so I am optimistic to finally have a non-parasitic Lasius colony! I'll either put her in a mini-hearth or one of Dspdrew's dirt shacks once she gets enough workers.

 

Parasites! Lasius claviger

 

I've found maybe 50-60 of these parasitic queens this year - even one on January 1st! They are hands down the most common queens of all in my area. I finally decided to try my hand at founding two of them following the techniques in the Much Ado guide on the forum.

 

After hibernating the queens, I managed to find about 15 host Lasius claviger workers under a rotten stump last week. I chilled these workers in my fridge and have been adding them to the queens' tubes two at a time. All went fine at first, but one of the queens got aggressive and killed one of the workers. I decided to just give up on that one and put her back in my yard.

 

A second queen, however, has been very peaceful with the hosts. Downright lovey-dovey. I've slowly continued adding new workers, and she currently has 11 in there with no signs of aggression. I'll add the last three tomorrow and start waiting for eggs. I've given them drops of nectar and a mealworm piece in their tube. I love the look of the L. claviger workers!

 

 

Edited by ANTdrew, March 24 2020 - 10:40 AM.

[Da_NewAntOnTheBlock]

Looks wonderful! The most common Lasius parasite in my area seems to be L. Aphicola, which looks like the dangerous edgy cousin of L. Americanus, but with hints of red and orange...

[Ants_Dakota]

It is beautiful. I have always wished I could get a colony like that. This year...

[RushmoreAnts]

Look around for the next couple months. Dealates should be waking up and beginning to search for host colonies.

[AnthonyP163]

How is the parasitic colony doing?

[ANTdrew]

They're just huddled in the back of the tube doing nothing, basically. I give them a few drops of Sunburst every few days and a piece of mealworm. No change really since my last post.

Same goes for my L. neoniger. I've never seen such a tiny ant take so long during the egg stage. Good grief.

[ANTdrew]

Update 4-27-2020

Nothing to report with these ants, really. The parasitic queen still hasn't laid any eggs and is just huddled up in the back of the tube with her hosts. She still has her wings, so I wonder if she's even mated?

 

My neoniger queen is still tending her large brood pile. Her eggs were laid in early March, so it's been quite a long time for them to develop even though her incubator box is in the upper 80s. I'll just have to keep waiting on her, I guess.

[RushmoreAnts]

Social parasites often wait a couple weeks before laying.

[ANTdrew]

Update 5-12-2020

 

Well, my career as a Lasius keeper isn't off to a very good start. Neither my L. claviger, nor my L. neoniger queen has made any progress since last update. On advice from NickAnter, I took my Nerdbox neoniger off heat yesterday. She was being kept in the same plastic box incubator I raise all my queens in, but maybe it was too hot? I guess a founding chamber deep in the soil would rarely reach the upper 80s, so maybe there is some sense to that. I'm willing to try anything at this point.

 

I moved my parasite queen and her hosts to a new tube today. The old one had become very moldy. She still hasn't laid any eggs, and one of her hosts died at some point. If she doesn't lay eggs pretty soon, I'm going to give up on this project. I never really had any interest in raising "tricky" ants. The instant gratification of easy ants is more my style.

[RushmoreAnts]

Perhaps you could find more hosts for the parasitic queen?

[ANTdrew]

I don't think it's worth the effort at this point. I'm doubtful she's mated.

[AnthonyP163]

None of my claviger queens have laid either. I wonder if it is something wrong we're doing?

[RushmoreAnts]

It seems that Lasius claviger isn't quite as hardy as some other common parasites.

[ANTdrew]

Update 1-26-2021

 

I am reactivating this journal because I started up a lovely new Lasius neoniger queen this morning. I found this queen on 9/28/2020 at the same location where I usualy find all my Crematogaster queens. I have been hibernating her in my refrigerator since mid-October and just started heating her today. After a peaceful transfer of test tubes, I fed her a drop of Sunburst nectar and placed her in my incubator box along with the three Crematogaster queens I am starting up. I put some sandy clay substrate in her tube to help her as well. I really love her root beer color and fat gASSter. I hope to have more luck this time around!

 

 

[KitsAntVa]

this makes me quite sad that my queen never woke up

[Kaelwizard]

Well, good luck!

[NickAnter]

Good luck! I find that queens that are so bloated in the early stages tend to do very well.

[Kaelwizard]

They are my favorite looking queens for sure.

[NickAnter]

Can't wait until I can take mine out of hibernation.

[ANTdrew]

Update 2-8-2021

 

Good news, my friends! My Lasius neoniger queen has laid a good pile of eggs! She is also getting pleasantly thiccc! I'm staying cautiously optimistic for a better Lasius year. I still love the look of these queens. They basically seem like the archetypal, perfect queen image to me.

 

Edited by ANTdrew, February 8 2021 - 7:55 AM.