19 replies to this topic

[Joehostile85]

Hey guys, I finally got Lasius claviger setups to produce workers so I thought I’d start a journal now even those these setups are now 12 months old. I kept detailed notes for myself so I’ll just transfer the jist of it here.

Oct 06, 2017
Acquired 20 claviger queens. Swarming activity witnessed around my car. Car was covered in hundreds of ant wings. Hundreds of ants were walking around without wings. I kept the 10 largest least aggressive queens.

Oct 07, 2017
Set up 10 test tubes with 1 neoniger each plus a couple larvae or eggs. (I had very few Neoniger workers at the beginning of the season otherwise I would have givin each queen more workers)

Nov 07, 2017
Placed all 10 into hibernation. Most have about 3 workers.

April 03, 2018
8 survived hibernation.

April 15, 2018
2 queens have died leaving 6 total.

May 01 2018
One of the queens have laid eggs.

May 07, 2018
4 out of 6 queens have laid eggs.

June 10, 2018
5 out of 6 currently have eggs. 2 have larvae. The other 3 have eggs off and on; it appears they are eating them before they turn into larvae.

June 21, 2018
4 out of 6 have eggs currently. Only two have larvae still.

June 25, 2018
The queen that never laid any eggs laid eggs after I gave it 6 pupae.

July 07, 2018
The first queen to lay eggs now has two claviger workers born. However she has no eggs or larvae. Two other queens have a pile of larvae. 1 seems to have nothing and the other two have eggs.

July 13, 2018
Another Queen has a worker born

August 01, 2018
All queens have eggs. 5 out of 6 have larvae.
2 out of 6 have one worker born.

August 12, 2018
A queen has two workers born now.

Sept 14, 2018
3 out of 6 have workers born.
1 queen has 6 workers born.
1 queen has 1 worker born.
1 queen has 3 workers born.
1 queen has no workers born, but has a pile of larvae and eggs.
1 queen has a pile of larvae and no eggs
1 queen has no workers, no eggs and only two larvae

Setup 1:



Setup 2:



Setup 3:



Setup 4:



Setup 5:



Setup 6:

Edited by Joehostile85, October 5 2018 - 8:32 AM.

[Canadian anter]

Very nice!

[Antsinmycloset]

I was really expecting the queens to need way more brood than you gave them. This makes it look fairly achievable.

Anything special about how you kept the queens? Full darkness? Any supplementary heating or unusual feeding routines?

[Joehostile85]

I was really expecting the queens to need way more brood than you gave them. This makes it look fairly achievable.

Anything special about how you kept the queens? Full darkness? Any supplementary heating or unusual feeding routines?

Interesting thing about the host brood is that I don’t believe any of the queens laid any eggs while host brood was present. Only after all host workers enclosed did any of them lay eggs. So I’m starting to think that the presence of host brood is actually a signal to the queen not to lay eggs. This is speculation of course, but could be why others have had problems founding a colony. They may have kept introducing a steady stream of larvae/Pupae in hopes that it would cause the queen to lay eggs.

Nope, nothing special. Kept the test tube covered with a cloth. Added no heat, although that may have sped things up a bit if I had. Fed them unlimited amount of sugar water and fruit flies and occasional crickets.

Edited by Joehostile85, October 4 2018 - 7:36 AM.

[rbarreto]

I have found the opposite to be true, my queens have played eggs immediatly while brood was present. Then, when all brood had eclosed, they ate the eggs. I decided to add more brood and my the queen immediatly layed more eggs

[Joehostile85]

I have found the opposite to be true, my queens have played eggs immediatly while brood was present. Then, when all brood had eclosed, they ate the eggs. I decided to add more brood and my the queen immediatly layed more eggs

Hmm interesting. It’s hard to figure out what makes these guys tick.

[Canadian anter]

Strange. I think it might depend on the size of the colony. My old one laid eggs 10 days approx after introduction but it had brood of all sizes

[AnthonyP163]

I had two queens with workers and one never laid eggs, the other laid one egg after 4 months and then died.

[Joehostile85]

When I said they didn’t lay eggs while brood was present I meant to say they didn’t lay eggs that turned into larvae while brood was present. Because they did lay eggs, they just kept eating them. I only got larvae out of them that ended up turning into ants after the host brood eclosed.

[Joehostile85]

Moved these guys into fresh test tubes to prepare for hibernation. I used a light bulb resting against the testube and set a timer to check on them every 14 minutes. They all moved easily and quickly, usually within the first 14 minutes. Except for the colony with the most claviger workers. I think that queen is bit daft and claviger workers do nothing to help move. The claviger workers seems so useless at everything that come spring or whenever I need to move the colonies I might have to add more Neoniger workers just to get the move done. Not sure how long Neoniger workers live for, but all the ones I have in the Claviger Colonies are now over 1 year old. Once they come out of hibernation they will be about 18 months old.

Edited by Joehostile85, October 16 2018 - 5:29 AM.

[Joehostile85]

Anyway back to the queen that refused to move. Literally reminded me why I hate ants. Spent 4h checking on her every 14 minutes. First the claviger workers outnumber the Neoniger workers 6-3 in this set up. And the claviger workers won’t do anything to help and in fact do everything they can think of to prevent the move from happening. Also the claviger workers seem to tolerate extreme heat and the Neoniger workers do not.

So what happens almost immediately is the Neoniger workers are like it’s too hot we’re outa here. They start grabbing the claviger workers like they’re larvae and dragging them out of the test tube. But the claviger workers have legs and as soon as the Neoniger worker lets go the claviger worker just walks back into the test tube. Then after a few times of playing that game with the claviger workers the Neoniger workers are like ok let’s try to move the larvae that don’t have legs. Well the claviger workers started piling the brood against the top of the test tube because they seemed to love the heat. So the Neoniger workers and claviger are now fighting over where to put the brood. The Neoniger worker peels the brood off the top of the glass a claviger worker takes it away and puts it back. The whole time I’m yelling at the claviger workers to stop interfering with the move.

So now it’s been at least a couple hours, every 14 minutes I remove the light to let the test tube cool down, but it’s still really hot in there. So the 3 Neoniger workers now gave up on the move and are sitting in the new test tube by them selves (the old one I guess is too hot). The queen walked half way down the old test tube and the claviger workers are sunbathing with the brood. I was thinking maybe the claviger workers will move the brood if the queen goes into the new test tube. So I tipped the test tube and tried tapping her into the old one, I got her to the end of the old test tube, but she was hanging on for dear life.

The 3 Neoniger workers took the opertunity to try and drag the queen into the new test tube. They were grabbing her by the tip of her gastor, but she was fighting them the whole time. One grabbed her by the leg and actully flipped the queen onto her back she was pulling so hard. Now I’m worried they're going to damage the queen so I separated the test tubes and just banged the queen and her workers out of there. Now I start the delicate task of trying to move all the brood myself with a tooth pick. I got most of it, but there is still quite a bit of brood on the cotton that I can’t get. So I attach the test tubes back together, thinking that now that I got everybody in the new test tube the Neoniger workers will go get the rest of the brood. The light is completely removed I set my timer for 14 minutes, I go back and the queen all the workers and all the brood is back in the old dirty disgusting test tube that’s running out of water! No way I’m going through another 4 hours of that so I guess that test tube is their forever home.

Edited by Joehostile85, October 16 2018 - 5:34 AM.

[Joehostile85]

October 16, 2018

Claviger set ups have all laid eggs and had larvae at some point. Although 1 now has no eggs or larvae for at least a couple of months now.

Setup 1: 6 Claviger workers born and a large pile of brood. 3 Neoniger host workers.

Setup 2: 3 claviger workers born and a decent pile of brood. 8 Neoniger workers.

Setup 3: 4 claviger workers born and a decent pile of brood. 6 Neoniger workers.

Setup 4: No claviger workers born, but a huge pile of brood. 6 Neoniger workers.

Setup 5: No claviger workers born. Only a few larvae. 3 Neoniger workers. Since this colony is underperforming I decided to add 4 Neoniger pupae to the setup in hopes it encourage the queen to lay more eggs.

Setup 6: No claviger workers, no brood. It had 3 Neoniger workers, but 1 escaped during test tube change. Since this colony is underperforming I added 8 Neoniger pupae to encourage the queen to lay more eggs.

SETUP 1



SETUP 2



SETUP 3



SETUP 4



SET UP 5



SETUP 6

[CamponotusLover]

Aw damn! I also had a Lasius Claviger major flight recently, I could of easily caught 100's of queens if I wanted to, if only I knew this, but then again I don't have the Lasius Neoniger colonies needed for supplying brood and workers. And I can't catch any wild as I am not the best at identifying on my own just yet. Well, whatever! Great post, atleast I know I can catch these in future flights.

[Joehostile85]

Aw damn! I also had a Lasius Claviger major flight recently, I could of easily caught 100's of queens if I wanted to, if only I knew this, but then again I don't have the Lasius Neoniger colonies needed for supplying brood and workers. And I can't catch any wild as I am not the best at identifying on my own just yet. Well, whatever! Great post, atleast I know I can catch these in future flights.

Ya you should have grabbed some! These guys hibernate before laying eggs so you could grab them and then potentially buy or find a Lasius colony in the spring. Also I don’t believe that you need Lasius neoniger workers specifically. Just need a Lasius species in general.

[Joehostile85]

APRIL 01, 2019
I have 5 of these colonies left after selling one before hibernation last year. Lost a significant amount of larvae
From each colony that had larvae during diapause. Probably lost 90% of the larvae, to the point where these queens are almost starting from scratch. Also lost one claviger worker. Interestingly all of the Neoniger workers escaped from one of the claviger test tubes, not sure how that happened. Which left that queen sitting all by herself in her test tube.

APRIL 17, 2019
two queens have laid a batch of eggs, including a queen that had no larvae or claviger workers. Which suggests they may not even need brood to begin laying eggs. Although the queen was given the Neoniger pupae last year....

APRIL 25, 2019
4 out of 5 queens have eggs. The one without eggs is the one that had no workers. I gave her one Neoniger worker and 4 pupae.

[Joehostile85]

Looks like the colonies are worse now than they were at the end of season last year because so much larvae died during hibernation, but I’m expecting the colonies to really take off this year during their second year growing season.

Edited by Joehostile85, May 7 2019 - 4:44 AM.

[Manitobant]

Update?

[BDantsalberta]

Update?

[LowQualityAnts]

This thread is three years old.

[BDantsalberta]

I know, just wanting to know how they ended up. That's all.