13 replies to this topic

[TBsupra33]

Welcome 

I'm writing this journal to help keep track of my colony's progress, and to hopefully help anybody that may come across it. On 5/21/21 i found this this Lasius Neoniger queen deep in a forested park (first picture), while tearing open some rotten wood logs. Confused, i had consulted some more experienced ant keepers, since neoniger flights don't happen until right before fall. It was determined that she had flown last year, and that i had found her right before she had come out of hibernation   so with no eggs or brood to be found, i scooped her up and put her in a test tube, and by the time I'm writing this she has had several eggs (two of them are visible in the second photo, at the end of her second foot). Over the course of the next 24 hours i thought i had found 5 more, two of which were in the same log i found the first (i had gone back the next day), and three were later that evening in a different park, and just strolled past me on the sidewalk. Sfter the first one had started laying eggs, and the others werent, i had come to find out the last 5 were actually Lasius Aphidicola Parasite queens, and i released them today since I'm not ready to take on a parasitic colony just yet. Thank for reading this far, i will update about every two weeks so there's real development to report on.

Attached Images

• 
• 

[Antkeeper01]

Lasius neoniger is only native to North America but Messor barbarus isn't or invasive(except for the small population in like Indiana which may or may not still exist), my guess is you bought the Messor off eBay or Etsy which is illegal unless they are in the same state as you or you have a permit and I doubt you do. If you are in Europe or anywhere else that it isn't illegal to buy queens without a permit I'm sorry for saying that because it isn't illegal there, and if you are it can't be Neoniger, and if you are in North America make sure the Messor don't escape. A piece of advice: if you are in North America, don't buy queens or colonies off eBay or Etsy unless you have a permit.

[TBsupra33]

Lasius neoniger is only native to North America but Messor barbarus isn't or invasive(except for the small population in like Indiana which may or may not still exist), my guess is you bought the Messor off eBay or Etsy which is illegal unless they are in the same state as you or you have a permit and I doubt you do. If you are in Europe or anywhere else that it isn't illegal to buy queens without a permit I'm sorry for saying that because it isn't illegal there, and if you are it can't be Neoniger, and if you are in North America make sure the Messor don't escape. A piece of advice: if you are in North America, don't buy queens or colonies off eBay or Etsy unless you have a permit.

Read my messor journal, it will explain what happened

[TacticalHandleGaming]

You'll really enjoy the Lasius neonigers once the Queen starts laying. I love how active mine are. 

[TBsupra33]

You'll really enjoy the Lasius neonigers once the Queen starts laying. I love how active mine are. 

oh yea I'm super excited! they seemed like a boring species at first, but after reading what other keepers think about them i am super impatient lol

[TacticalHandleGaming]

Mine would only send a worker or two to forage until about 40ish workers. Now they send at least 3-4 to forage, and once they find something there's normally about 6 that collect things. Super fun to watch pull fruit flies around that are at least their size or bigger. (I freeze the flies of course, no need to stress out the young colony.) 

[Chickalo]

IIRC, the Lasius genus as a whole generally grows fast, though for some species the beginning is slow (I'm looking at those species who overwinter it, only to clutch in spring and last-minute lay eggs [which luckily for you means she's probably going to lay soon, saving you the 9 month wait I went through]).  Generally, as far as I've seen, in most species it's around 1 month for wait period.  Even though they're subterranean, they still almost always raise aphids in the wild, which is pretty cool!  Lasius is my favourite genus (next to Psuedolasius, oh how I wish Lasius was polymorphic!), IMO they look amazing with their stunning yellow colours along with the queens.  I don't know about other ant keepers, but a perfect, thick, Lasius queen is my ideal queen.  Plus, have you seen Lasius latipes queens?!  They're so beautiful!  Anyways, about now I'm realizing I'm raving on and on about Lasius, so I guess in summary, I hope your neoniger does well!

Edited by Chickalo, June 1 2021 - 9:42 AM.

[TBsupra33]

IIRC, the Lasius genus as a whole generally grows fast, though for some species the beginning is slow (I'm looking at those species who overwinter it, only to clutch in spring and last-minute lay eggs [which luckily for you means she's probably going to lay soon, saving you the 9 month wait I went through]).  Generally, as far as I've seen, in most species it's around 1 month for wait period.  Even though they're subterranean, they still almost always raise aphids in the wild, which is pretty cool!  Lasius is my favourite genus (next to Psuedolasius, oh how I wish Lasius was polymorphic!), IMO they look amazing with their stunning yellow colours along with the queens.  I don't know about other ant keepers, but a perfect, thick, Lasius queen is my ideal queen.  Plus, have you seen Lasius latipes queens?!  They're so beautiful!  Anyways, about now I'm realizing I'm raving on and on about Lasius, so I guess in summary, I hope your neoniger does well!

Thanks man! so when they get to a good size with a nice outworld setup, should i find aphids to throw in so they can farm them?

[ANTdrew]

You can’t really replicate aphid farming in a captive setup.

[Chickalo]

You can’t really replicate aphid farming in a captive setup.

I've heard of people placing plant roots into the outworld for the aphids, could that work?

[TBsupra33]

You can’t really replicate aphid farming in a captive setup.

i know that one of AC's colonies on youtube was farming captive mealybugs, was that just a rare occurrence or are mealybugs in a captive setup different then aphids?

[Kaelwizard]

 

You can’t really replicate aphid farming in a captive setup.

i know that one of AC's colonies on youtube was farming captive mealybugs, was that just a rare occurrence or are mealybugs in a captive setup different then aphids?

 

Keep in mind that that setup (the Pheidole right?) is open air. They were not introduced into the setup by AC. You might be able to do it, but don't be surprised if it doesn't work out how you want it to.

[TBsupra33]

Update: so a friend found a ton of neoniger brood last week so i could start up one of those parasite queens i ended up letting go  lol there were about 8 workers in there, on top of that a good majority of the pupae were alate cocoons... no worries tho as there was still worker pupae in there (and two larvae too!) so i found a big enough tupperware, lined it with two bands of fluon, put a band of fluon around the outside of the tube so the workers wouldn't crawl back up it, and dumped the contents into the container. with a wet q-tip i got out everything that wasnt an alate or adult worker and put it in with my neoniger queen. she got super excited, flailed around with excitement and begun licking the cocoons!  i was lost on what to do with all the alate pupae and workers, so I've given them a water tube to drink, a few dabs of honey (cause i can't find anywhere on what kind of mixture i should use to make a honey water tube) and pieces of cutup mealworm for the alates when they come out of the cocoons. my friend has gone out of town since, so i have no idea where the colony is that he pulled these from. it might be too late anyways and the colony might not accept them back, so imma hold onto them till all the alates develop and probably release them once their nuptial flight season comes around, as long as the tending workers don't die by then...

[TBsupra33]

Update: So turns out those smaller cocoons were male alates    theyve been coming out of their cocoons and have been dying since the queen can't properly feed them. While out anting today i split open a log to find a lasius colony with more cocoons. There were no big ones this time so I'm pretty sure I've nabbed workers, i didn't take them all tho and i trid to put the log back together for that colony so they can resume operation. There were so many cocoons that i didn't even make a dent with how many i took, and i realized i still grabbed alot... lol oh well it'll make for a mighty fine boost. I have also already purchased a THA mini hearth for them when they're ready to move, it was ready to ship so i got a glow one for a decent price!

sorry guys I'm not sure why the photos came out like that

Attached Images

• 
•