12 replies to this topic

[Ants4fun]

August- Found this Lasius cf. alienus queen around May in my garden bed. Probably disturbed her founding chamber. I estimate she has about 20 workers.



Found a couple small camponotus colonies.


September- Collected many Lasius queens, a few Solenopsis molesta, and a couple Brachymermex queens.

Edited by Ants4fun, February 6 2020 - 9:56 AM.

[Ants4fun]

Ladius c.f. alienus

This colony went out of hibernation yesterday. Due to some hydration issues late last year, half the colony died. So they have about 25 workers, and a group of larvae they hibernated with. With workers pulling on the cotton, I gave them an outworld lined with an olive oil barrier.






Camponotus colonies didn't do too well in hibernation. Their down to two workers each, along with a few larvae.

Edited by Ants4fun, January 30 2019 - 11:57 AM.

[Ants4fun]

Lasius alienus - This colony is doing well. Their larvae are growing like crazy and the largest are just starting to pupate. The queen just laid a brand new batch of eggs as well.  Although they are a little ways away from needing a formicarium; when they do I'll most likely move them into a homemade firebrick nest. 

 

 

 

 

Lasius flavus? I'm excited about these guys. Found them last August. Over a dozen of these queens. These seemed to do well together. Now, they have a whole bunch of eggs. Hopefully, they will grow exponentially. This might easily become my largest colony since I had to rehouse all my adult colonies when I moved.

 

 

 

Other Lasius neoniger? queens: I have a couple single queens and a double queen test tube. Double queen has a lot of brood.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Camponotus pennsylvanicus - Unfortunately one queen, and a worker from her colony died. So, I gave the remaining worker and larvae to the other colony. This colony now has three workers. The queen just laid six eggs. I think I startled them into eating their smaller larvae one time, so I'll try to be more careful with these guys. Hopefully, I can get some more of these guys. We have plenty of firewood waiting to get burnt to a crisp that I know has some carpenter ant colonies as well as some Aephenogaster colonies I will collect come spring time.

 

 

 

Solenopsis molesta - This 4 queen colony has quite a bit of brood. Never had a colony of these guys so, hopefully, they will do good.

 

 

 

 

Brachymyrmex - found this queen last fall. She has a couple eggs. She is super tiny, so we'll see how well she does.

 

Edited by Ants4fun, February 9 2019 - 2:28 PM.

[Ants4fun]

Brachymermex - This queen laid more eggs. She seems to be doing good.

Solenopsis molesta - trying to move these queens to a test tube with water in it, but they don't want to budge. I noticed they have some larvae.

Lasius flavus? More likely nearcticus. A few queens have died. The rest seem lethargic and uninterested in eggs and larvae. They all seem just sit there until they die. No changes have been made, so I'm unsure why this is happening. They were doing pretty well until a day or two ago. Not ruling out a possible disease or fungus.

Lasius alienus- this colony should be getting a new batch of workers in a week's time. Plenty of eggs as well.

Camponotus pennsylvanicus - moving this colony into a different setup.

Edited by Ants4fun, February 20 2019 - 9:13 AM.

[Ants4fun]

First - got a new ant cabinet.

 

 

 

Also, I have a shipment from THA coming in, with a bunch of formicariums I don't need yet, but will when summer time hits. 

 

 

Lasius alienus - If you haven't checked out my formicarium build thread - I moved this colony into a homemade formicarium.

 

 

Their test tube was getting pretty moldy, so I just dumped them right in. This colony lost a couple older workers, and are hovering around 15 or so. They should double or triple their size in a couple weeks time, however. They have plenty of eggs, larvae, and pupae.

 

 

This funny little worker has a brood pile of his own just outside the nest. The other ants seem to let her be, but she has her own little thing going on. 

 

 

 

 

These guys can't get enough of Byformica Ant Nectar. I highly recommend it, as well as their galileo feeders. They seem to work really well. 

 

 

 

Lasius cf. neoniger queens - The two queen setup and single queen are doing well. They should have workers in a week or two. I believe they are neoniger, but the single queen could be alienus or americanus.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Camponotus pennsylvanicus - These guys ended up moving into a test tube.

 

 

They ate their larvae a week or two ago, but laid nearly two dozen eggs, which are just now turning into larvae.

 

 

Hopefully this colony can grow quickly. I try not to observe them as much, as they get easily disturbed, but they seem pretty fat and happy, especially the queen. They also love Byformica Ant Nectar. 

 

 

Brachymyrmex cf. depilis

 

Surprised how well this queen is doing. Didn't have high hopes, but she now has developing larvae. She is swollen from sugar water I gave her when I first took her out of hibernation. This is my first queen of this genus I have ever kept.

 

 

 

Zoomed out to show just how tiny she is.

 

 

Solenopsis molesta - Eggs finally hatched, and grew pretty quickly. I expect to see some pupae any day now. These pictures show just how different each queen looks from each other.

 

 

[Ants4fun]

Camponotus pennsylvanicus - This colony has been growing pretty good. Moved them to a THA nest. They have about a dozen workers as well as a good amount of brood. Expecting my first small major/median.





Lasius neoniger - These guys have been doing great. Largest colony should have around 100 workers soon. They love small crickets, and will hunt down pinheads with ease. Both these colonies live sunburst nectar and Dubai roaches. They are both heated, but Camponotus appreciate it more.

[Ants4fun]

Camponotus pennsylvanicus: Colony has been doing good. Recently got its first small major. They are being fed fruit flies and ant nectar with a heating cable. Kept in a dark cabinet. No complaints about this colony, except that they are putting garbage back in their nest instead of the outworks like they used to. Not too worried about it though. They have at least 30 workers and a good bit of brood.






Lasius neoniger: Left with two colonies. The largest mentioned before, and the former two queen colony (Dominant queen killed other as soon as workers were born). The larger colony is still in the Tar Heel Ants inception chamber. Smaller colony is in a Mini Hearth. Larger has roughly 200 workers and an insane amount of brood. Wouldn’t be surprised if they have close to 1,000 workers by winter. Edit: Didn’t realize that this colony is about 1 year old. Considering they almost died out last year, I’m pretty satisfied with their growth.







Although the 2 queens didn’t last, the extra queen gave the colony a good start. They have about 50 workers and plenty of brood. Both colonies are loving fruit flies and ant nectar, and the occasional waxworm.

Edited by Ants4fun, May 22 2019 - 8:53 AM.

[ANTdrew]

Any tips for finding L. neoniger queens? This species intrigues me, but all I ever find are parasitic ones

[Ants4fun]

Any tips for finding L. neoniger queens? This species intrigues me, but all I ever find are parasitic ones

Just keep an eye out around Labor Day. It depends how common they are in your area. Lasius neoniger account from probably 30-40% of the ant colonies where I live, so you can collect hundreds. No special tips, just gotta get the timing right.

[RushmoreAnts]

 

Any tips for finding L. neoniger queens? This species intrigues me, but all I ever find are parasitic ones

 Lasius neoniger account from probably 30-40% of the ant colonies where I live, so you can collect hundreds.

 

Yeah, their nuptial flights are a little hard to miss around here. You basically have thousands of queens and males flying above your head. Sometimes I just like to take an old butterfly net and catch some right out of the air (and some are still mating, which is a great way of telling if your queen is mated or not  ) My friend also finds them congregating on decor grass.

[RushmoreAnts]

And also, Solenopsis molesta fly on the exact same time every year. Here they are equally as abundant as Lasius neoniger.

[ANTdrew]

Dang! They’re not that abundant here at all. I found a bunch more parasitic ones on Saturday, though.

[Ants4fun]

Lasius colony took a hit. Unfortunately that formicarium can't go very long without water. So, I moved them back into a test tube setup and boosted them with a couple hundred pupae from a wild colony to get their population back up.

 

 

Largest Camponotus colony dealt with the same thing.

To solve their problem, I put the formicarium in a large outworld, poured hydrostone, and set it up like an all in one.

 

Now It can retain more water, and I can put a test tube of water in the outworld.

Also brood boosted them with maybe a hundred wild pupae, so their population should skyrocket.

 

 

 

Around the end of may I caught 8 or so Camponotus pennsylvanicus queens. They all have workers now, about 10 each. Moved most of them into formicariums.

 

 

I will say that the genesis test tube system works wonders for Camponotus. They loved that so much better than a normal test tube.

 

Edited by Ants4fun, July 31 2019 - 12:04 PM.