Caught 3 Lasius umbratus Queens June 17, Nova Scotia, Canada.
June 18 2016 - One queen died, but caught two more on a hike.
June 19 2016 - I went on a hike to find some wild Lasius sp. colonies to get some brood and callow ants for the Lasius umbratus queen. After I found a few, I put one of the queens in with a pile of brood and some workers from the wild Lasius neoniger colony, the workers immediately attacked the queen pulling her legs. But after a little while they calmed down and began to accept the her. I gave them some honey water and a meal worm. I have them in a small nest.
July 4 2016 - I found the queen dead today. It looks like it was natural, doesn't look like the workers killed her. I took one of the other Lasius umbratus queens and put her in with no problems at all, she was immediately taken in by the neoniger workers, although she was a little timid at first.
July 10 2016 - The workers and queen seem to be moving away from each other due to there being to much space so I moved them to a test tube. At first there was some fighting but after an hour or so they all calmed down. I see there is a small pile of eggs the workers are caring for.
July 13 2016 - Almost all the neoniger workers have eclosed, and they are feeding the queen and all is well.
I fed them today.
These guys seemed to have some trouble due to the first setup I had, I would recommend putting them all together in a test tube, and leaving them. This worked well with the other two colonies of Lasius umbratus I have. I put them all together and within a week they were feeding the queen and had nice piles of eggs.
Edited by AntsMAN, June 15 2018 - 4:53 AM.
Answered
