47 replies to this topic

[Jamiesname]

Ok so I found some Lasius workers. they may be the same. I put 5 in with each queen and 24 hours later there are no fatalities. I'm gonna start a journal I'll place the link here if that's ok and maybe you could check it out from time to time and offer advice?  Thanks!!

Have at it! I'll be sure to wonder over from time to time and check it out.

[NickAnter]

I hope I get a chance at a parasitic Lasius. After seeing the great job you have done with them,but makes me want to try with them. Good job!

[Kaelwizard]

There are a ton of parasitic Lasius in my neighborhood. I never try to keep them though. I finally found a colony I can use to get host workers so I may try to keep them now. The second ant queen I found was Lasius murphyi I believe. Most queens I see now are Lasius aphidicola I believe.

[Acutus]

Here's my Journal. Thanks for taking a look!

 

http://www.formicult...19/#entry116933

[Jamiesname]

So I took a calculated risk with my most successful colony (#4) today. It came about as a result of dying host workers. There's still a dozen or so left alive along with the 6-8 L. Interjectus workers, but I don't want the work force die out and cause the colony to stall and eventually fizzle out like my L. Latipes colony is. I decided to flip a nearby stone where I knew a huge L. Neoniger colony lives and check for larvae. Sure enough there was a ton of it. Off to the side, seperate from the rest, I saw some female alate larvae as well. I scooped some of what I hope is worker larvae (could be males though - I hope not) and put a few in one of my L. Neoniger colonies. The workers took it and out it with their own brood, so it passed that test. Next, I a few in with my least successful L. Interjectus colony and they also accepted it and out it with their brood. Since I was 2 for 2 I put the rest of it in with colony #4. They, too, accepted it. As you can see they are stacking it all by the cotton with the queen's own brood. This will give her a huge workforce as long as they are workers. On the other hand, it could take resources away from the L. Interjectus larvae and the introduced brood could turn out to be male. The larvae is quite small, slightly smaller than an average L. Neoniger worker, but looks almost ready to pupate.

I'd like to know your opinions on how you guys think this will turn out.







I'm going to work on some better pics. I knew these werent great, but after posting I can see that they're pretty bad.


Here we go:


Here's the L. Neoniger larvae mixed with the L. Interjectus. The L. Interjectus are the larger ones.




A couple pics of newly laid L. Interjectus eggs.






All the L. Neoniger brood that the hosts are moving to the back of their tube. If comparing larvae size to the host workers, keep in mind that these hosts are only about 80% of their potential size. They were all nanitics from one of my L. Neoniger queens.

Edited by Jamiesname, June 11 2019 - 5:34 PM.

[Acutus]

I have no idea how it'll work but I'll keep my fingers crossed for ya! I just did my first brood boost but with Camponotus castaneus today. Keeping my fingers crossed on that too!  

[Jamiesname]

It has been a few days since I introduced the foreign Lasius spp. brood, and a lot has happened since then, so I figured that it was time for an update.

First off, their test tube was dry, moldy and stinky, so I moved them to a fresh tube. Of course they wouldn't go willingly because that would have been waayyy too easy. I ended up just dumping them in a new tube, which I admittedly do with most of my colonies when they're being stubborn. This time went slightly different though. I do this by taping two tubes together and then tap them on one end until the ants/brood fall into the bottom tube. This time the tape apparently wasn't on very good and the tubes came apart and fell on the floor. There were ants and brood all over the place, including my queen scuttling away in terror. Somehow I managed to corral all the workers and queen back into their old tube. They actually wouldn't leave it again once they were back in, so it was easier to collect them than one would think. It felt like I was the dad on Honey I Shrunk the Kids when he was combing his lawn for his children. I then proceeded to pick up the larvae and pupae one at a time and put them back also. I did lose a lot of larvae. Some were so small that I couldn't find them in the carpet and they ended up getting vacuumed up.

Once they were finally back in their tube, I was back to square one and they still needed a new tube. I tried my luck at dumping them again and this time was a success, so here's a few pics of them in their new tube. You can also compare pics from the one above with all of the larvae that I introduced to get an idea of how much was lost.

They're fine today though, and the queen has laid a new batch of eggs as you can probably see in the pics.

Edited by Jamiesname, June 15 2019 - 1:38 PM.

[Manitobant]

Update?