2 replies to this topic

[Stubyvast]

Hello everyone! 

So about a year ago, I was on a vacation to Texada island. This is a smaller island, just off the coast of Vancouver island. While there, a bunch of nuptial flights happened and I managed to catch a few queens. Three of those were a Lasius species, and two Formica. However, both Formica were infertile, while the Lasius began laying eggs after overwintering this year. It was through this behaviour that I discovered they are likely Lasius neoniger, instead of Lasius niger like I originally suspected.

So, here we are! I hope I can keep this journal consistently updated, and witness the growth of this colony! Hope you enjoy as much as I do. 

As I'm still a relatively new ant keeper, any advice would be appreciated. 

 

This was a few days ago. The queen's gaster was looking pretty thin, and I was worried she might starve out before her workers arrive. I also noticed her test-tube was quite dirty and she still had one wing on. At this point, I hoped she would improve soon! 

 

 

Then, about three days later, the first worker arrived. I checked up on them, replaced the dirty test tube with a clean one, and put in a little bit of sugar-water, which the queen eagerly drank up. Man, I just love this stage of ant keeping!

 

 

In these two images, you can still see the queen and worker in their dirty set-up. the vinyl tubing connects it to another test-tube, which is were I placed the sugar-water. 

 

 

Anyways, I'll feed the colony a bit of solid food in a day or so, once they're ready for it, and hopefully we'll start seeing the first real worker pretty soon!

 

Tips, comments, suggestions? Confirmation about species would be nice as well. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited by Stubyvast, Yesterday, 3:35 PM.

[RushmoreAnts]

The queen pictured looks more like Lasius americanus to me. neoniger (and pallitarsis for that matter) are generally lighter in coloration and bulkier with more elongated gasters. Either way, it doesn't affect their care much.

 

It never hurts to feed a founding queen, although the fact she isn't eating her brood suggests she's got more reserves than it looks. americanus queens do appear skinnier than neoniger in general.

[Stubyvast]

Update 1!

Yes, thanks for the advice RushmoreAnts! Ok yes you may be right here, it could be americanus. I'll do some checks in a bit and confirm. 

 

Worker #2 has now arrived, healthy and strong, and more are on the way, judging by the state of the other pupae. I noticed today that the workers had been dumping some of their trash into the new test-tube I gave them instead of moving the brood in, so I removed it and cleaned it out, and fed them their first solid meal: a mealworm head and appendages. The queen was actually the first one to check it out, the nanitics still being somewhat sensitive to my presence. I hope to begin acclimating the entire colony to my continual presence. I'm not 100% sure if they're ready for solids yet, so I'll check again in a day or two and remove it if it hasn't been touched.

 

Here's the whole colony so far. As you can see, they haven't moved into the new test-tube yet. However, I'm not worried as there aren't any signs of invasive mold yet.

 

 

You can also see that the queen is looking much better now that she's had a little bit of sugar-water in her. Hopefully the protein will complement that. Here the queen is checking out the food supply.

 

 

And hopefully, my other two queens will have their workers soon!