39 replies to this topic

[OiledOlives]

Also Temnothorax cf. duloticus

The worker was attacking it so I removed the curvispinosus queen and the aggressive worker, leaving the cf duloticus queen with only 2 workers, 4 pupae, and 2 larvae.

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[OiledOlives]

Colony 1 response to an adult female cricket. They have eggs, pupae, and larvae of all instars.

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[OiledOlives]

Colony 2 got bio workers

Colony 1 is still doing great. They can easily take 8 mealworms a day and drain sugar water from their two feeders.

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[AntsCali098]

Its cool to have multi-colored workers in one colony until they become all bio workers. 

[Ants_Dakota]

What founding method did you use for these parasitic lasius queens?

[OiledOlives]

What founding method did you use for these parasitic lasius queens?

For the first queen, I added two or three workers, let her kill them, and then threw her and around 100 workers into a nest. I then boosted them with hundreds of americanus pupae throughout founding.

For the second queen, I just added around 200 pupae and 3 callows.

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[AntsCali098]

How long did it take you to find all those pupae?

Edited by AntsCali098, September 22 2022 - 6:23 PM.

[OiledOlives]

How long did it take you to find all those pupae?

Not long. Lasius americanus nests are pretty common under rocks, tiles, and in wood. I mostly stumbled across brood by accident.

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[OiledOlives]

Some old photos of colony 2 that I never uploaded here

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[OiledOlives]

Lasius interjectus died in the fridge

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[BDantsalberta]

Update?

[OiledOlives]

Update?

Nothing much has happened.

L. aphidicola colony 1 - still in diapause, only 2-300 workers have died so far

L. aphidicola colony 2 - has not started diapause yet, I am waiting for several pupae to eclose before I put them in

I have one L. aphidicola queen and two L. claviger queens without hosts that are also in diapause.

[BDantsalberta]

I wish you luck with claviger! Can't wait to see how the founding goes!

[OiledOlives]

Lasius aphidicola colony 1:
Once I took them out of diapause, the larvae remained the same size no matter how much I fed them and most of the workers died after I forgot to water them twice. I then froze the queen and the last couple workers.

Lasius aphidicola colony 2:
After I took this colony out of the fridge, somebody wanted it and I don't really like formicines so I got rid of them.

I had 5 parasite queens in the fridge and I finally decided to grab some americanus pupae. I introduced 4 aphidicola and 1 claviger and one aphidicola queen died.

The three aphidi queens and 1 claviger are all introduced now and I am just waiting for the americanus pupae to eclose, which will happen in about 2-3 weeks. Until then, I just have to remember to keep them alive.

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[Jonathan5608]

I’m gonna give parasitic lasius another shot next year

[BDantsalberta]

I currently have aphidicola, claviger, umbratus, and subumbratus all of which are doing decent. Love lasius parasites!

[ANTdrew]

I currently have aphidicola, claviger, umbratus, and subumbratus all of which are doing decent. Love lasius parasites!

We can tell that.

[OiledOlives]

I have no Lasius parasites right now (biggest aphidicola died out after diapause after the brood never grew + the queen never laid + I forgot to water their nest twice, I got scammed for the second one (other guy never shipped the ants that I traded him the aphidicola for), and the ones from this year were sold off/died while I was in Mississippi). 

I have some L. aphidicola queens that I found in claustral chambers now and are now in the fridge. I probably missed L. claviger flights this year but maybe I can get L. interjectus next week.

[Jonathan5608]

I have no Lasius parasites right now (biggest aphidicola died out after diapause after the brood never grew + the queen never laid + I forgot to water their nest twice, I got scammed for the second one (other guy never shipped the ants that I traded him the aphidicola for), and the ones from this year were sold off/died while I was in Mississippi).

I have some L. aphidicola queens that I found in claustral chambers now and are now in the fridge. I probably missed L. claviger flights this year but maybe I can get L. interjectus next week.

claviger was flying like crazy a few weeks ago. I probably caught 40+ queens. Hopefully I can raise a few to workers. I had a aphidicola but she ate her eggs and died.

Edited by Jonathan5608, October 22 2023 - 3:35 PM.

[ANTdrew]

I have no Lasius parasites right now (biggest aphidicola died out after diapause after the brood never grew + the queen never laid + I forgot to water their nest twice, I got scammed for the second one (other guy never shipped the ants that I traded him the aphidicola for), and the ones from this year were sold off/died while I was in Mississippi).

I have some L. aphidicola queens that I found in claustral chambers now and are now in the fridge. I probably missed L. claviger flights this year but maybe I can get L. interjectus next week.

Warm weather next weekend may trigger some claviger flights I found one on Halloween a few years ago.