21 replies to this topic

[lucas3431]

Ok let's give this a bash.

 

Species: Lasius Niger (Black Garden Ant) . 

Length: 7mm.

Capture Date: 23/7/17, Wingless Single Queen(Fully Claustral).

Country/City: Ireland/Dublin/Ballymun, Home Garden pavement.

First Eggs Laid: Egg count 6, 25/7/17

 

Over the weekend I caught a Queen, I watched the nuptial flight for about five minutes, I waited a further forty minutes before capturing a queen. I thought it would be best to wait a while to increase the chances of capturing a fertilized queen. I do not fully know yet if she mated successfully, she has laid some eggs so I must wait and see if the eggs are fertilized.

 

During the first 24 hours I actually didn't put her directly into a test tube, instead I let her rest in a small container with some sugar water, now I know she didn't need it but I'm happy I did because she seemed rather happy to take advantage of my offering.   

 

So I let her rest another 24 hours, I didn't put her away into a dark spot, in fact she was rather happy enjoying her sugar water.

 

Now last night I decided it was time for the test tube, I done this at night because it is more peaceful also the humidity and temperature was rather high, so you could say the conditions were perfect, well I guess it must of been because when I arrived home from work I took a peek and noticed she had laid eggs.

 

As of now she is hidden away, I don't have any photos sorry about that, I will take a shot in a few days when I take another peek at her.

 

Fingers crossed for now.

Edited by lucas3431, August 1 2017 - 8:38 AM.

[lucas3431]

30/7/17

 

Queen is doing very well, over the past five days she has laid 20 eggs, more than I expected, I have been keeping her at room temperature that ranges from 24-27c.

 

She shows no signs of been nervous when I'm checking up on her, keeps her eggs close to the damp cotton wool.

 

So far so good .

[lucas3431]

Finally got some photos, not the best but doable.

 

2/8/17

 

I still have not yet named her, I'll wait until she has her first nanitic, as you can see she's a calm lady and doing rather well on her 8th day in the tube.

 

 

 

 

Sorry for the bad quality here, the test tube is plastic.

 

Edited by lucas3431, August 2 2017 - 10:53 AM.

[AndersT]

She looks good! They were swarming here the other day as well. Had queens everywhere in the garden (and i mean everywhere). 

 

Oh and don't worry. If a queen has shed her wings, you can be pretty certain that she's been fertilised. 

Edited by AndersT, August 2 2017 - 12:23 PM.

[lucas3431]

She looks good! They were swarming here the other day as well. Had queens everywhere in the garden (and i mean everywhere). 

 

Oh and don't worry. If a queen has shed her wings, you can be pretty certain that she's been fertilised. 

 

I took a closer look at the macro shots, I can see some form of life in the eggs due to the colour change, I should actually consider getting my hands on a magnifying glass.

 

Did you capture any of the Queens from your garden? Maybe you already have more than enough for now haha.

 

Thanks.

[AndersT]

 

She looks good! They were swarming here the other day as well. Had queens everywhere in the garden (and i mean everywhere). 

 

Oh and don't worry. If a queen has shed her wings, you can be pretty certain that she's been fertilised. 

 

I took a closer look at the macro shots, I can see some form of life in the eggs due to the colour change, I should actually consider getting my hands on a magnifying glass.

 

Did you capture any of the Queens from your garden? Maybe you already have more than enough for now haha.

 

Thanks.

 

 

I ought to get a magnifying glass as well. My eyesight is awful when it comes to things up close. 

 

But yes, I did capture a few. 7 to be exact... 

 

I look forward to more updates. L. niger is the most rugged species I've ever kept, but I guess that's why you find them everywhere. They're also great a breaking out of stuff though, which is less than ideal.

[lucas3431]

7/8/2017

 

Larva starting to form, Queen is still doing well and becoming a little more active also more protective of her young. I'm not to sure if she has laid more eggs, I can't trust my eyes.

[Irishmate03112002]

Good stuff. Queen looks great. I always caught the red stinging (i assume european fire) ants when i grew up in Ireland. At the time, I thought there was only three types of ants in the world, yellow, black, and red.

[lucas3431]

Good stuff. Queen looks great. I always caught the red stinging (i assume european fire) ants when i grew up in Ireland. At the time, I thought there was only three types of ants in the world, yellow, black, and red.

 

Well hello there from The Emerald Isle, to be honest I thought there was only one sp of Ant in Ireland, then I meet my mother-in-law(kidding haha).

 

I couldn't find any Ant forums in Ireland, the only info I could find was "How to Kill Ants" you know how it's breaking news here on RTE "Invasion of the Ants", so I found Formiculture.com and decided this looks like a great nest.

 

Of course I'm going to ask, How's the weather?

[Irishmate03112002]

Its 29 degrees celsius today, way cooler than the past few weeks in my part of California. Its amazing the diversity of Ants here. At the moment I am raising 12 kinds. Yea, not much ant buzz in Ireland, that's for sure. I don't know about ant invasions, but there's some massive spiders when i visit home. Don't remember them growing up.

Edited by Irishmate03112002, August 8 2017 - 10:08 AM.

[lucas3431]

Its 29 degrees celsius today, way cooler than the past few weeks in my part of California. Its amazing the diversity of Ants here. At the moment I am raising 12 kinds. Yea, not much ant buzz in Ireland, that's for sure. I don't know about ant invasions, but there's some massive spiders when i visit home. Don't remember them growing up.

 Yeah we have these new False Widow spiders now, been around for a few years, one person was bitten and had a bad reaction just a little swelling so they're deemed as beasts now. I caught one about two years ago and brought it back home to see what the fuss was all about, little did I know she was pregnant, I still kept her until the eggs hatched. There was no form of defence from her while I watered and feed her, she made a fantastic web that covered the whole enclosure I  couldn't even open the lid without taking some webbing with it.

 

12 sp of Ants there must be one at every corner, we only have 3 types over here haha.

 

29'c huh that's just almost the same here except it lasts for only two days as you know , it actually makes it easier to predict nuptial flights. That one day Ireland becomes an orgy for Ants  .

[Irishmate03112002]

Lasius appear to be flying today in Kilkenny. Caught a queen alate. Its hot and muggy after rain.

[lucas3431]

Lasius appear to be flying today in Kilkenny. Caught a queen alate. Its hot and muggy after rain.

Just took a peek out the window and funny enough a queen just flew past. 

 

Thanks for the heads up.

[Irishmate03112002]

And i caught a fire ant delate.

[lucas3431]

And i caught a fire ant delate.

Myrmica ruginodis?

[lucas3431]

Anyways back to my girl.

 

22/8/17

 

She is doing very well, I can see more Larvae now, stage 1(slowly moving onto stage 2). She has also laid more eggs, I have noticed she keeps older eggs and Larvae separate from her new batch of eggs.

 

Larvae and older eggs are positioned closer to the damp cotton wool while new eggs are kept at a distance stuck to the side of the tube.

 

The Queen shows no sign of stress or bad health.....she's still fat .

 

I will say this, it is taking a long time waiting for her first nanitic   .

 

Oh I've just realized she is a month old tomorrow .

[lucas3431]

A quick photo update and a new Lasius Queen that I caught for my daughter, she named her Victoria, I actually was not intending on having another Queen but then it crossed my mind that observing Ants is relaxing, this to me seems like a good idea for my daughter because she is in her last year of school so plenty of exams ahead for the year (stress for us both), while studying she can relax with her hope to be colony in the near future.....she was actually delighted with the surprise. 

 

Species: Lasius Niger (Black Garden Ant) . 

Length: 8mm.

Capture Date: 21/8/17, Wingless Single Queen(Fully Claustral).

Country/City: Ireland/Dublin/ Met Eireann Headquaters

First Eggs Laid: Egg count 2, 23/8/17

 

Queen Victoria with two eggs.

 

 

 

And now for my own first Lasius Queen as you know I have her in a plastic tube so the images are bad.

 

You can clearly see the Larvae and how she keeps new eggs and Larvae separate. I still don't have a name for her  .

 

Her she is organizing her brood last night.

 

 

So fingers crossed everything seems to be planning out rather well.

 

I have recently bought a mini fridge for hibernation, so maybe this weekend or next I will be modifying it.

 

 

 

 

[Irishmate03112002]

Massive flights today from all the ant types around here (Kilkenny). Queens everywhere.

[lucas3431]

Massive flights today from all the ant types around here (Kilkenny). Queens everywhere.

 

Thanks, I'm all good now with what I have, If I were to have more queens then maybe next summer I might gather more. I'm only new to the hobby so I don't want to jump right in with an overload of different species.

 

 

25/8/17

I caught a Gnat, actually I killed it instantly with my hand (annoying little things) I popped it into the freezer for a while. Then decided to feed my first Queen as a treat for her hard work the past month, now I know she is Fully Claustral but I thought as sure give it a shot, I left it in with her overnight, came home from work and checked up on her, well it disappeared, she ate it and feed some to the larvae, the only problem is she put the remains into the cotton...oops.

 

26/8/17

This time I got my hands on a fruit fly, again I froze it, popped it into the test tube left it overnight and again gone   , I can see the larvae stomachs filled with both Gnat and fruit fly.

 

I believe this might have an advantage for the queen and larvae, I can already see the larvae growth has changed over the past two days since feeding protein. It may be beneficial for the larvae when they mature into pupa.

 

Now as for queen No2 (Victoria) she is a nervous queen so I think it's early days yet to give her any form of food as a treat, she has about 6 eggs at the moment. I'll let her be in peace for another few weeks.

[lucas3431]

4/9/17

 

So after a sticky situation with my queen over the weekend becoming tangled in cotton wool also transferring her to a new test-tube (physically) I woke up this morning to see a pupa....hoorah, after the ordeal we both went through it was a good sign.

 

I would've left her alone dealing with moving her brood into the new test-tube but I thought after the cotton wool situation it was best to help her out, actually we both helped each other, as she was in the new test-tube I was picking up her brood from the old test-tube with a damp cotton swab, as I put the cotton swab into the new test-tube she would take her brood from of the swab, it was amazing to watch, I wouldn't recommend doing this if you don't have steady hands or a defencive stinging Queen. I can't tell if she has laid any more eggs because she is sitting ontop of her brood defending and cleaning them. Hopefully soon she will have her first helper .

 

As for the second queen(Victoria) she has about 8 eggs, not very active, I have a feeling she might be less active because Autumn has already started in Ireland so a late start for her.

 

Apart from that everything seems good.

 

Photos will come, I just want both queens to rest for a while.

Edited by lucas3431, September 4 2017 - 10:41 AM.