2 replies to this topic

[Keymo]

Hi!

Figured since I was officially attempting to make a colony I'd start a journal to track what's going on....

 

If anyone has checked out my ID Request thread in the ID section Batspiderfish and I have managed to at lest narrow them down to a Lasius something. Haha! Seems like there's too many small, small differences to narrow down a specific species given my abilities and equipment - at least for the time being.

 

Queen and 6 workers caught:04-22-17

I was out rearranging landscaping bricks when I came across and HUGE colony - hundreds if not thousands under this large brick.. I couldn't find a queen and wasn't willing to dig up an existing colony,,, Until....

I lift up a brick about 3ft away and find a queen and a few workers - no brood - just hanging out! I debate for a bit and none of them seemed to notice or care that I'd removed the brick. I decide I'd leave them exposed and take my time getting something to catch them and if they were gone when I came back - they were gone. Well, they stayed.

 

Fast forward to Monday (04-24-17). I go out and move the same brick I took the queen from and there's TONS of workers running around! So as an experiment I grab a large mason jar, alcohol/baby powder the rim, throw some dirt in it and hold the brick over the jar and dust them into it. Leave them for a day and find they've made a crazy tunnel network already! (Today, 04-24-17)

 

Decided to bother my queen and check on her - glad I did - because the cotton ball I pushed in on top of the water appeared completely dry on the nest side... So I pull the "doorway" cotton out with three attached. As an experiment, I plucked one off and put her into the mason jar. She immediately went down into the tunnels, luckily, against the glass. She passed by workers and seemed to even do the social feeding and moving on until she turned down a tunnel that went away from the glass. (In the mean-time, I managed to soak some water through the cotton - but don't know how long that's going to last) Out of curiosity, I picked two more out and threw them in the mason jar - which they seemed to be accepted as well. I posted a question about it in my ID post as I didn't think it warranted its own topic... But ended up sticking the test tube into the mason jar - still enough room for the test tube to be below the baby powder barrier.

 

It is almost 715pm now and I placed the test tube in at roughly 5pm so a little over 2hrs have passed and all but one worker (***EDIT: this worker appears to be dead - I'm seeing no movement what-so-ever***) have left the queen and as far as I'm aware haven't comeback. I haven't seen any workers go into the tube at all - I've been mildly watching like a hawk to see what happens, though will need to go to bed in an hour or so... One thing I HAVE noticed has been a significant mound growth around the opening of the tube - which I placed next to one of the seemingly most traveled exit tunnels. Do you think they're making room to move the queen in? Perhaps a chamber is forming where I can't see? They do seem to like digging out the bottom....

 

When I placed the test tube in the jar I also crushed up a pistachio and put three small chunks in, in addition to putting one half of the shell on the dirt and filling it with honey. The smallest of the pistachio chunks has gone missing - but I can still see two of them. No one seems interested in the honey...?

 

Debating about going back out to the brick and adding more tomorrow... Is this a bad idea? It's only been a few days so I can't imagine the colony's scent has changed enough - YET...

I THINK that's all there is to report up to now...

Bedtime soon - I guess we'll just see what happens over night!

Edited by Keymo, April 25 2017 - 4:24 PM.

[Keymo]

Today I woke up for work (4AM) and they had mounded dirt up over the entrance of the tube housing the queen. She was no where to be seen - I pulled the tube out of the dirt and she was gone. Didn't get a chance to look for long - but she was no where to be seen on the surface, either. Took the time to definitely confirm at least that. I pulled the cotton wad and replaced it with a MUCH less packed cotton ball so they could use the tube as a water source again and placed back into the jar.

 

Something to note - this mason jar is one of the tall jars - roughly 7" in height. Initial dirt height in the jar was probably roughly 4"

 

Came home today - about 10hrs later - to find they had mounded the dirt back over the tube. This time they've managed to build it up to almost the entire tube (roughly 1" from the top of the jar - about 1/2" if the top lip has the baby powder/alcohol mixture pasted onto it) leaving the very end exposed and the dirt maintains the same angle that the water tube (original nest) was placed at. Oddly, the queen is roaming around the surface with a couple workers seeming to just follow her around. I got home at 4pm and have been watching them walk around for at least 30minutes without going back into the colony.. The workers aren't picking on her or anything - they appear to be literally following her around...?

Shouldn't she be in the colony/nest? I'm no expert but this seems really off/odd...? She's had to be in there already given she wasn't in her tube or on the surface when I left for work but has come to the surface now... There's definitely moisture in the dirt - the bottom definitely shows signs of it and the dirt all around looks pretty dark - as opposed to what it looks like dry (from past non-founded/queen colonies I know how to tell this difference at least - in my youth I did everything from ordering colonies to catching ants, similar to what I did a few days ago, and pretty much always used good old Iowa dirt for them) They've got food in there somewhere - TONS of honey, a crushed up pistachio nut, before I went to bed I also added a moth that had made its way into my room which I killed and tore the wings off of.

 

Anyways - that's the update for now at least. Would post pictures - but on my phone it's a MAJOR PITA and definitely not worth it since no one seems interested...

Edited by Keymo, April 26 2017 - 1:57 PM.

[Batspiderfish]

Pistachios are not an appropriate food for ants, and formicine genera like Lasius are mostly incapable of digesting vegetable foods.

 

Dirt setups do not give a lot of control over moisture levels, so I would rig the test tube back into something they can move into and let the dirt dry out. Otherwise, just leave them alone and make sure their food and moisture needs are met. It's generally a bad idea to feed wild insects to your ants, so you might want to start a fruit fly culture or something similar. After that, just give them a little space to do their thing. Keeping ants is more like keeping a needy houseplant than anything else.

Edited by Batspiderfish, April 26 2017 - 2:42 PM.