Hello people of Formiculture!

 

I have come to bless/curse (depends on who you ask) with this journal.  See, I am extremely bad at ID, which is why I thought Lasius Claviger and Aphidicola were both Tetramorium, haha...  Well, I didn't hibernate them, but according to Arman (I dunno whether or not he's on FC), they're not, but they should be fine.

 

Later tonight I'll probably post (bad) photos, I have bad memory so...  As soon as Americanus starts making some pupa again, I'll go collect some hosts.  In the meantime, I guess you can look at my awful photos of parasitic ants???

 

P.S.  I just realised this isn't posted in Ant Keeping Journal's, so if you have the power/authority/capability to move this post to there, please do so.  Thanks.

 

Haha, I'm bad at this,

Chickalo

Edited by Chickalo, March 29 2021 - 2:41 PM.

Lasius aphidicola ^^^

Lasius claviger ^^^

 

The pictures aren't the best, but they are not that bad either.

pog

On my way home from school today I was randomly flipping rocks and logs, not really expecting to find anything.  But then under some bark under a rock was four queens!  I guess they were hibernating or coming out of hibernating, but I quickly scooped em up and headed home.  Two were Lasius aphidicola and the other two were Lasius claviger.  I knew they were parasite because the clavigers had skinny gasters and large heads and the other also had large heads.  Also, they unusually had no workers or even brood.  Unfortunately the claviger queens attacked the aphidicola queens.  One is dying with a nasty bite to the gaster, the other died.  (Also, Arman ID'd them again)

Edited by Chickalo, March 30 2021 - 10:16 AM.

I guess I should probably give them some more ventilation because according to this thread:  https://www.formicul...sius-claviger/ they can kill themselves with their citronella smells (kinda excited to see whether or not it smells good and whether or not it'll mask the smell of old pond water in my room).  Any suggestions?  I could try some THA founding chambers, but I don't want to spend too much money because I also want to get a Mini Hearth.

What is POG? Sorry Gen-Xer here.

 I really hope these do well, really don't see enough successful parasite journals on here.

 

And I have the same question as Antdrew, since I am in no ways familiar with common(useless good for nothing) slang terms.

Edited by NickAnter, March 30 2021 - 7:19 PM.

 I really hope these do well, really don't see enough successful parasite journals on here.

 

And I have the same question as Antdrew, since I am in no ways familiar with common(useless good for nothing) slang terms.

Pog is an emote on Live Streaming platform Twitch.tv

 I really hope these do well, really don't see enough successful parasite journals on here.

 

And I have the same question as Antdrew, since I am in no ways familiar with common(useless good for nothing) slang terms.

It's that emote thing on twitch and it kinda means excitement? I don't really know how to describe it lol

I guess I should probably give them some more ventilation because according to this thread:  https://www.formicul...sius-claviger/ they can kill themselves with their citronella smells (kinda excited to see whether or not it smells good and whether or not it'll mask the smell of old pond water in my room).  Any suggestions?  I could try some THA founding chambers, but I don't want to spend too much money because I also want to get a Mini Hearth.

Why does your room smell like old pond water?

I had some citronella plants and I thought they smelled pleasant.

 

 I really hope these do well, really don't see enough successful parasite journals on here.

 

And I have the same question as Antdrew, since I am in no ways familiar with common(useless good for nothing) slang terms.

It's that emote thing on twitch and it kinda means excitement? I don't really know how to describe it lol

I guess I should probably give them some more ventilation because according to this thread:  https://www.formicul...sius-claviger/ they can kill themselves with their citronella smells (kinda excited to see whether or not it smells good and whether or not it'll mask the smell of old pond water in my room).  Any suggestions?  I could try some THA founding chambers, but I don't want to spend too much money because I also want to get a Mini Hearth.

Why does your room smell like old pond water?

 

uhhhh old fish tank with a lot of snails lol

So I gave the aphidicola queen a neoniger worker.  Did I give her multiple?  No.  Did I even try, to look for some kind of brood?  No.  Just seeing if she'd accept.  Anyways, I'm not sure.  At some point I got lazy waiting for her to stop running away from the literal crippled worker and left.  Then today she was next to it.  Maybe she accepted it?  I dunno.  Anyway, I found a nice big colony of them with multiple nest openings under rocks on my block (along with Solenopsis molesta).  Pretty sure you need pupae, too, if not tell me so I can go back to look for more workers, and more for the claviger queens. 

I caught a queen as well, I'm looking for workers, larvae and cocoons. I'm pretty sure you need cocoons and brood as well, to "buy the queen more time" so she can make her own offspring. My plan is to catch all 3, wait for some adults to open cocoons, then give the callow to the queen, and eventually when all callows are transferred I give the larvae. The best place to look for ant brood in my experience thus far is to look under rocks, in fields next to forests. Found crematogaster eggs, tetramorium eggs, and even red formica (didn't take any, crematogaster and red formica aren't common where I live). Found no Lasius. I'm planning on looking in similar habitats for them. 

Edited by Temperateants, April 27 2021 - 4:36 AM.

I caught a queen as well, I'm looking for workers, larvae and cocoons. I'm pretty sure you need cocoons and brood as well, to "buy the queen more time" so she can make her own offspring. My plan is to catch all 3, wait for some adults to open cocoons, then give the callow to the queen, and eventually when all callows are transferred I give the larvae. The best place to look for ant brood in my experience thus far is to look under rocks, in fields next to forests. Found crematogaster eggs, tetramorium eggs, and even red formica (didn't take any, crematogaster and red formica aren't common where I live). Found no Lasius. I'm planning on looking in similar habitats for them. 

I believe Lasius gets their cocoons later in the year like June-July or something.

Are the parasitic queens flying now, or did they fly last year and hibernate?

Are the parasitic queens flying now, or did they fly last year and hibernate?

I found all of mine under rocks, I guess they failed in finding host colonies.  one claviger queens in fall, two more in spring and 2 aphidicola queens in spring, one aphidicola queen in fall.  The ones in spring were just getting out of hibernation.  You can check the flight charts but I remember finding someone queens on the ground april-may.

Also I found some yellow non-citronella lasius with larvae, hopefully pupae in others soon.  As far as my bad ID skills go I think that means either Brevicornis or Nearticus, neither of which I believe are hosts.

Interesting- thanks for your reply chickalo. Things are similar in uk. I wonder how long they can survive while hunting out a nest. They may even be able to co-found. My friend rescued an umbratus colony and there were 3 queens in it. Maybe some de-alates return to their original nest if they can.

I found L. niger hosts for 2 umbratus colonies last year and the experience was awe inspiring. I was glued to my magnifying glass. They're just about to get their first umbratus workers now. They didn't lay until after hibernation. You raised any before?

Interesting- thanks for your reply chickalo. Things are similar in uk. I wonder how long they can survive while hunting out a nest. They may even be able to co-found. My friend rescued an umbratus colony and there were 3 queens in it. Maybe some de-alates return to their original nest if they can.

I found L. niger hosts for 2 umbratus colonies last year and the experience was awe inspiring. I was glued to my magnifying glass. They're just about to get their first umbratus workers now. They didn't lay until after hibernation. You raised any before?

No this is my first time, I've heard from many American ant keepers that it's hard. I guess it's easier in Europe due to the abundance of Lasius niger.  Most lasius I find here are either unsuitable as hosts or are parasites species.  I'd imagine they just hibernate and wait for spring to look for a colony.  I might be wrong, though I wish you luck with your umbratus, I believe they're supposed to be the old world version to our new world aphidicola!  This is also with species like Niger and Neoniger, Lasius flavus and brevicornis, etc.

Edited by Chickalo, April 29 2021 - 4:17 AM.

Thanks chickalo. Yes Lasius niger are everywhere here and raiding brood is a breeze. I find wild colonies and give them somewhere warm to heat their brood, often an upturned terracotta pot (with a stone over the hole) in a sunny spot right by the nest. Then if i ever need the brood i just lift it, suck out some pupae and replace the pot. Any workers sucked up in this surgical strike are much more likely to be young brood nurses, rather than older guards, and more amenable to accepting a new queen. I give the wild colony some food in exchange.

One of these wild colonies is currently pollinating my strawberries as they drink the nectar from the flowers.

I hope you find a suitable host colony.