39 replies to this topic

[Becky]

Hello everybody,

 

yesterday I observed them caring for their brood - and they have a lot.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ants kissing!

 

 

 

 

Over the night they put some substrate from the outworld into the tube, probably to support the larvae with spinning the cocoons.

Another reason might be to cover the remnants of the sugar water they got earlier.

 

 

 

 

I'm looking for some ants.

 

 

There! A little black spot!

 

 

 

 

That's the first time I have seen a worker outside of the tube!

 

Edited by Becky, August 9 2022 - 2:08 PM.

[ZTYguy]

So cute!! Keep up the great work.

[RushmoreAnts]

I love Lasius niger. While our Lasius over here are quite cute and quirky imo, Lasius niger seems to have almost every advantage on them. They're faster growing, more aggressive, and seem to be a tougher and hardier species overall. Afterall, they naturally compete with Tetramorium for resources, so they have to be pretty resilient. 

[Becky]

Hello,

 

yesterday the cricket looked like this:

 

 

 

 

Today it looked like this. They didn't leave much left.

 

 

 

 

 

In this picture we can see 11 workers but one was in the outworld, so there should be a total of 12 workers.

 

 

 

They put some sand into the straw and made a little wall.

 

 

[Becky]

Hey folks,

 

they´ve built a little cave that makes it difficult to have a good look at them. 

They put some sand to the cotton. 

 

 

I took a picture of the bottom of the tube, so you can see the whole brood they have.    
 

[AntsCali098]

Awesome descriptive journal! Left a follow 

[Becky]

Hello everyone,

 

today I caught a fly and gave it to my ants.

I'm curious how they will deal with it.

 

They are very tiny and similar in color to the fly, so it's difficult to take good pictures while they are climbing on it.

 

 

[Becky]

Hello,

 

the colony is doing great!

 

 

 

Some of the ants got a bit nervous and tried to hide pupae when I took these pictures.

 

 

 

 

The tube is getting more and more dirty because they carry their food into it.

 

 

 

 

 

I've got a little suprise for you!

I made a short video of my colony when they got a little moth.

 

Edited by Becky, August 20 2022 - 2:51 PM.

[Becky]

Hello,

 

as you can see they have a big pile of pupae.

They like it to drag their food onto the brood pile.

The cotton is pretty dirty, if it gets worse then I will prepare a new tube for them.

 

 

 

 

Here the queen taps her workers to see if everything is okay.

 

 

 

They hide the larvae under the pile of cocoons.

 

 

[Becky]

Hello,

 

the queen has laid new piles of eggs.

You can see one in the middle and one on the right near the cotton.

 

 

 

The queen got pretty thick.

On the right side you can also see a third pile of eggs which wasn't visible on the previous picture.

 

 

 

 

The cotton looks very disgusting and I should prepare a new tube.

 

 

 

Just for fun, a close-up of some workers.

 

[Becky]

Hello,

 

the ants are doing well. Here you can see two workers that just hatched, they are still white.

Some of them are now always outside to look for food.

 

 

 

 

The amount of pupae has not changed much but there are a lot of new eggs and some new workers.

In the first and third picture you can see a naked pupa.

 

 

 

 

 

The queen has become super thick!

 

 

Edited by Becky, September 6 2022 - 2:10 PM.

[T.C.]

When the queens get fat, that's a good sign.

[Ants_Dakota]

Ahh how lucky to have a lasius species that is so easy to keep. I love lasius, and am currently trying to raise some here, but they lay eggs, then eat them, then need to hibernate, then they don't like test tubes very well, and it is just a huge hassle. so glad yours is doing so well!

Edited by Ants_Dakota, September 7 2022 - 5:25 AM.

[Becky]

Hello,

 

the amount of workers has almost doubled since the last time.

 

They seem to dig into the cotton on the right side. It looks much cleaner there.

No signs of them moving to the fresh tube though.

 

 

 

 

 

The eggs hatched! There are lots of new larvae!

The pile of pupae has been reduced by the new ants hatching.

 

Edited by Becky, September 15 2022 - 3:55 PM.

[Becky]

Hello,

 

they started to cuddle together so they maybe will go into hibernation soon.

 

The workers have partially chewed off the wings of the queen. I didn't recognize this in my last post but you can see it if you look carefully.

 

 

 

When the last pupae have hatched I will try to move them to a fresh tube and then send them to hibernation.

 

Edited by Becky, September 22 2022 - 1:39 PM.

[Becky]

Hello,

 

nothing new. They are still growing.

They have not moved to the new tube yet, so they will be moved soon(ish).

 

 

 

 

 

They still have a lot of pupae and larvae.

 

Edited by Becky, October 7 2022 - 7:34 AM.

[Becky]

Hello everyone! Due to personal issues I wasn't able to update this journal.

In the following I'm going to give you a short summary of what happened over the last months.

Let's go! :-)

 

 

December 25

 

Those are the last pictures before my ants went into hibernation.

 

 

 

I tried to get them to move into a new tube but they didn't want to move.....

 

 

so I had to dump them into the new tube..;-)

It didn't go to plan and I had ants running over my hands and dropping into the outworld.

In the end they all found into their new home.

 

 

 

March 11

 

This is the first picture after hibernation. They were still cuttled together.

 

 

The brood of last year was still there.

 

 

March 18

 

They got a small fly to eat as the first meal of the new year.

I also gave them red sugar water so I could see when they started feeding the larvae.

 

 

The hibernation bubble dissolved slowly.

 

 

 

 

March 25

 

The queen was still fine.

 

 

The first pupa of the year! Here you can guess the red shimmer of the stomachs of some larvae.

 

 

They got a little roach and they really liked it!

 

 

 

 

April 01

 

More pupae and the first eggs of the year! Now you can see the red stomachs clearly.

 

 

 

April 08

 

A lot more eggs.

 

 

A lot more pupae.

 

 

 

April 13

 

Yummy - cricket.

 

 

 

April 18

 

They were still doing great.

 

 

The four naked pupae already have eyes, so it should take a week until they become workers.

 

 

[AntsCali098]

Nice colony, the future looks bright for them. Keep it up!

Edited by AntsCali098, April 21 2023 - 6:51 PM.

[Becky]

Hello,

 

here are some pictures of my ants sitting in their tube.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The next pictures show the bottom side of the tube.

 

 

The red arrow shows a cocoon where you can see the shape of a future ant. The green arrow shows a white new worker.

 

 

 

It's almost an ant trail.

 

 

 

 

 

[Hiromilovesmealworms]

Update?