5 replies to this topic

[AntsMAN]

I have two of these Lasius sp. that won't move to a new tube. I've tried heat and light but they stay in the dry tubes. They also seem to be growing very slow, they've been in there for over a year and still have very low numbers. I've been feeding them in the test tube. They moved once quite easy but now they won't budge. Like I said I'm also having trouble getting them to grow in numbers. any suggestions would be great.

 

 

[AntsMAN]

Also I'm not 100% sure on the exact sp. they are about half the size of a neoniger queen.

[AntsMAN]

With what I've been told so far they are Lasius umbratus?

[dermy]

With what I've been told so far they are Lasius umbratus?

Lasius umbratus is a parasitic species, and it's workers are  orange coloured.

 

As far as I can tell this looks like a Lasius niger Colony to me.

 

 

It doesn't look like the tube is very moldy/icky so I wouldn't be too worried about them at the moment, unless the water has run dry. Did you hibernate the Colony during the winter?

Edited by dermy, June 6 2016 - 12:23 PM.

[Crystals]

Lasius are stubborn to move.  Keep that in mind in future formicariums, the ability to open it is needed.

With test tubes, use a long pair of tweezers to pull the cotton closer to the entrance where their nest scent if fainter, they tend to move quite readily then.  All else fails, just put the cotton ball and ants all into the new outworld.

 

Dermy, in Nova Scotia he is like looking at Lasius neoniger, not Lasius niger as that is a European species (Occasionally found in the US as a hitch hiker).

 

When did you collect her?

When and for how long did they go through hibernation?

 

I am seeing a lot of condensation on the side of the test tube in the first picture, use a bit less cotton to plug the entrance so it dries out a little bit more.

I found putting a small piece of silicone tubing under hte cotton and letting the ants forage in a small setup seems to cause faster growth.  Offer things like sugar water 24/7.  I usually drop in live fruit flies to act as a living food source and my colonies take off quickly.

[AntsMAN]

They were hibernated early December to late Feb. I found these close to where I work and there is a lot of foreign traffic.

They are so much smaller than the previous neoniger's I've kept and seen. That bit of moisture is the last bit left in the tube.

I'm going to try to put them in a small dish and open the test tube to another one.