122 replies to this topic

[Ants_Dakota]

My garage is insulated, so it stays warm enough for their good health, and besides I have them in a cooler.

lucky. my garage gets really low in the winter. below freezing actually depending on the temp outside

[RushmoreAnts]

I'm fairly confident temperate ants can survive temps above 20 degrees, though. They have glycerol in their blood to keep it from freezing, indicating that they frequently hibernate below freezing in the wild. Thus I am not worried about their ability to survive.

[Wegmier]

Update 39: Hungry larvae (February 25 2021)

A week ago the colony was taken out of the fridge. The temperature was gradually increased and the ants were already very active when they were taken out

All nests hooked up again:
 


Unfortunately one of the Ytong nests had become moldy in the fridge. The towel that the nest was resting on (to muffle vibrations) had become soaked, and huge nasty spots of black mold formed on it. There was mold growing on the outside of the Ytong nest as well

I gave my room some good airflow and placed a heating cable on the nest, that should dry it out and kill most of the mold. Some black spots visible on the pic below. The smell was foul:
 

 

A few days after hibernation ended. Thousands of larvae that went through hibernation:
 

 

The larvae are voracious and very active. They're wriggling around in a way that I haven't seen them do before. I wonder if some of these larvae will try to become alates. Workers are feeding them non-stop:
  

 

I've ordered a Macro lens, will be posting better footage of the brood soon

Lots of larvae of smaller sizes too. It's fun to see them standing up almost vertically. A field of hungry mouths:
 

Edited by Wegmier, March 5 2021 - 7:59 AM.

[NickAnter]

This is such an incredible species. I sure do with their North American counterparts were somewhere near this prolific. For comparison, my colony with 3 queens only got to 80 workers in a year. I bet this colony will get alates this year, and I can only imagine what the outworld will look like when they try to fly. Good luck!

[ANTdrew]

Wow! I can’t wait to see what they do this year.

[gs5248]

I am really amazed . All this from only one queen?!

[Kaelwizard]

I can never get used to seeing this colony. It's incredible.

[antsandmore]

Awesome, very organized journal!! I wonder why I didn't find this for so long.

[Wegmier]

Update 40: Macro and fat brood! (March 5 2021)

 

The new clip-on macro lens for my phone arrived in the mail today! I still need to get better with the lighting and focusing, but so far I'm happy with the pictures

Some larvae are getting very big. I hope some of them are future alates

 

Shot with the macro lens. Hairy bunch:

 

 

Workers tending to smaller larvae:
 

 

Two weeks out of hibernation and the queen is starting to get physogastric again thanks to the amount of workers & sea of larvae that are processing food
The queen 10 days ago (left) vs the queen today (right)
 

[gs5248]

That queen is very physogastric! 

[NickAnter]

That is so insane! That almost rivals some of the North American parasitic species!

[gs5248]

Keep this journal up! This journal is great!   

[Canadant]

That's amazing. What a difference.

[Wegmier]

Update 41: First pupae, future alates & more physogastry (March 14 2021)

The first pupation wave has started

Similar to last spring, the first pupae of the year are tiny and will emerge as smaller-than-average workers. The hibernated larvae from last year are probably in a rush to pupate and they're not getting as many nutrients as they normally would

The workers are giving Ytong dust / grout to the larvae to aid them in spinning a cocoon:



A 2cm thick pile of pupae:



Macro shot:



Not all larvae are in a rush to pupate, though! The fat larvae that I mentioned in the last update just keep on growing. They are certainly becoming alates

I've counted up to 250 of these alate larvae

I'm wondering what I'll do with these young queens come summer. I might feed them to my Camponotus colonies



A room of alate larvae being tended to:



The queen has continued to swell up. The pile of eggs grows by the day

I don't think she'll become more physogastric than this:



Those little white blobs you can see through her gaster membrane - are they fats or are they her actual ovaries? I'm amazed anyhow!

Edited by Wegmier, March 15 2021 - 5:38 PM.

[NickAnter]

I think those are all eggs in there! I have never seen a niger group Lasius this distended. So incredible, and can't wait to see those alate!

[gs5248]

This is awesome. Also those y-tong nests are also really cool.

Edited by gs5248, March 14 2021 - 5:12 PM.

[Kaelwizard]

This is awesome. Also those y-tong nests are also really cool.

Yeah, Wegmier is very talented.

 

Those white blobs are probably her eggs.

[Wegmier]

 

This is awesome. Also those y-tong nests are also really cool.

Yeah, Wegmier is very talented.

 

Those white blobs are probably her eggs.

 

 
Thanks guys! I'm flattered

I've just today finished carving a new Ytong nest for this colony. Will hook it up soon along with a new outworld

Will cover how it went in the next update. Just hope there aren't too many escapes


 

 

 

Edited by Wegmier, March 15 2021 - 8:29 AM.

[antsandmore]

this makes me kind of jealous that we don't have lasius niger here... I want lasius, but they're rare, or at least uncommon in california. anyway, that's great growth! for the alates, you could feed them to your ants, but you could also let them fly during the nuptial season so that they will produce more colonies like yours. who knows? they could become the queens of a new antkeeper.

[SpaceX1193]

That’s really cool that you can see the eggs