26 replies to this topic

[StayLoki]

I recently caught a L.umbratus queen.
In an attempt to host her, I took 7 l.niger workers and 3 larvae(all I could manage) and placed them in a tt.
They were all frantic the first day, but are fine now and tending to the larvae.

Should I wait to see if they get the larvae to callows and put only the 3 in with the queen, or attempt to chill and introduce them all earlier????
(Probably a 2-3weeks until they fully callow)


Just looking for any advice.
I read the 'much-ado social parasite founding' post and it was beautiful (@Batspiderfish)!!!
She's my first parasitic lasius and I'm wondering how to best approach this

[rbarreto]

What I found has worked found has worked for me is I introduce the larvae first, then wait a whole day. I then introduce one worker at a time. If the queen kills the first worker I leave her with the dead worker for another day then introduce the rest of the workers. This has worked 4/4 times so far (obviously requires more data).

[sericultivist]

I'm pretty sure there's a whole page here about social parasite Lasius queens, I will go look for it.

 

Edit: Yep, it was the first topic in the "General Antkeeping" subforum, pinned. Sometimes a quick little search is all it takes :^) http://www.formicult...cial-parasites/

Edited by sericultivist, May 20 2018 - 12:12 AM.

[StayLoki]

^yea I read it front to back a few times and credited Batspiderfish in my orig post lol. There's SO MUCH helpful info in there 💓

rbarreto thanks! I've been going back on forth on what to do, but I'm gonna try it soon here..ill have to let you guys know what happens.. Thank you for the advice!!

[rbarreto]

No problem, I basically just did what you did and read a ton of people's journals then tried what I thought was most effective. Hopefully someone with more experience can help you out more.

[StayLoki]

I just checked on the host batch tt and one worker has died, which they had set away from the larvae and themselves.
I took a toothpick and removed it, and put in with the L.umbratus 👑 She went up to it once and then started thumping adound. I don't know if it's coincidental or not, but she started grooming and rubbing herself all over and picking at the cotton, although she seems to have lost interest in the deceased worker..
I'm going to let her be for a bit and work on trying to get those pupae in with her too..

Edited by StayLoki, May 20 2018 - 8:23 AM.

[StayLoki]

@rbarreto
I've seen quite a few of your posts in the social parasitic posts..you did a great job with you queens and I found a lot of your info very helpful! 👍
What happened with your parasitic queens tho? They ultimately died??

[rbarreto]

No they are all still alive. Two of my claviger queens dies right off the bat (before I even introduced host) but the one that is left has just laid some eggs. My two L. umbratus queens are sitting peacefully with their host workers. Finally, my Lasius c.f. speculiventris was sitting peacefully with host workers and brood but when I last checked up on them she had killed all the workers. She is still caring for the brood however so I am hoping that maybe she doesn't need workers.

[mallonje]

I'm not having much luck with mine either.

As I'm literally starting out, I don't have a host colony to introduce. So I had to raid a wild nest.

I could not find any brood, so I have been introducing workers but the queens keep killing them all.

[StayLoki]

O ok! I read something somewhere (can't remember if it was the social parasitic post or somewhere else) that parasitic queens didn't make a year or something, even with workers.
There's still hope!! Lol

[StayLoki]

@mallonje
I fear she's going to massacre all the workers too, even if I introduce them one-by-one, and it'll just be her with some larvae. lmao

[StayLoki]

**NO, i don't wannaa....
..take care of those larvaa

Edited by StayLoki, May 20 2018 - 12:09 PM.

[StayLoki]

Got 2 larvae in with her.
I think the 3rd got damaged in moving before, as it shriveled and turned brown and the workers were ignoring it until the 2 larvae were moved out..
The 6workers are huddled together with it now..going to try to introduced 1 worker tomorrow and see what happens. 🕙

[StayLoki]

So.
I couldn't wait.
By chance I grabbed 1 worker & the '3rd larvae' shriveled up thing on the end of a q-tip. And stuck them in with her!
The worker went straight to the larvae and started rearranging them.
The queen kept her calm but knew right away someone was there and became extremely interested in the worker ant. Every time it ran into her however, it freaked and ran off. At which point she switched her interest to the dead ant and even picked it up and carried it around a bit.



She also goes up the dead thing a lot and grooms herself. I have no doubt she's masking her odor, I just hope it's not to kill the other ant!



It seems calmer now and I will check on them 2mar morning and see what has happened...


Sidenote: I decided to offer both parties food in the hopes the other worker ants won't be hungry when they go in, and so the new single worker ant can feed the larvae and hopefully her. Also hoping the same 'smell/food' source will bring familiarity when they're all brought together.
I also witnessed her 'rearing up' as if telling the other ant to calm down or bow down. lmao it seemed hypnotized by her - it was pretty cool!!

Edited by StayLoki, May 20 2018 - 3:29 PM.

[StayLoki]

I can't believe it but the host worker is still alive overnight! (I honestly expected it to be dead) It was huddled up with her, and I think I even saw it feeding her.
So I added 2 more . lmao, hope I'm not rushing it..
The 3rd and last worker added seems the most suspicious so far, and is thumping it's abdomen around. The queen keeps climbing over it and thumping back. It's gonna get it's butt kicked if it doesn't calm down lol the other 2 workers seem to be trying to calm it down and checking on the queen.
Going to leave them be before I add the last 3 workers left..make sure nothing goes wrong before my queen is 'outnumbered'.

Sidenote: one larvae seems to be flooded? It's soaked in water although it's not touching the water-cotton. I'm not sure if that's how they wanted it, or if it's drowning. Tho I suppose I don't really care what happens to these larvae - I just want the workers to convince Mrs. Umbratus to start laying. lol


....can this really be going this smoothly?! I better keep an eye for aggression over the next few hours..

[Canadian anter]

Those are awfully large larvae

[StayLoki]

^so don't judge me, but I kidnapped the host colony. I wasn't going to sacrifice my L.flavus queen, and from what I've read, umbratus doesn't prefer them anyway.
So I flipped a rock that went rather far down, like 6in-12in and there was a brood chamber right there and the workers started carting these off.
I have no idea; do u think they could be maggots of sorts or something??!
The queen and her workers are all fine.
If there still ok this evening I was going to add the last 3 and make her numbers 6.
I could just remove them at that time, if you really think they could be something funky Canadian anter?

Edited by StayLoki, May 21 2018 - 7:03 AM.

[StayLoki]

That brown/black shriveled thing next to the workers gaster is what became of one of them/what ever was inside it? It almost looks like a little ant? ?

edited: ...in my one horrible pic above with the blue background...

Edited by StayLoki, May 21 2018 - 7:06 AM.

[Canadian anter]

I have no idea. Lasius interjectus have alates at this time. Perhaps there could have been an invader in the nest?

[StayLoki]

I know right.. I'm going to take better ones this afternoon, and also post them in id, for the workers! I'm almost wondering if I put l.umbratus with umbratus? or another lasius. I just assumed they were L.niger, but up close I don't think they are at all.. .oops!