3 replies to this topic

[ctantkeeper]

Does anyone know how large both wild and captive Lasius neoniger colonies get when they approach their max size? Whenever I read a colony journal for these ants, it often ends shortly after the colony has reached 100-200 or so workers. surely there are ant keepers with larger Lasius neoniger colonies out their.

[drtrmiller]

There are YouTube videos with colonies in the tens of thousands. I'm pretty sure an experienced and attentive antkeeper should have no problem nurturing a colony to a very large size. Given the expected maintenance, however, such large colonies are generally not advised.

[T.C.]

Lasius neoniger are a species I have experimented with a great deal. Multi-queen colonies, new worker/Queen introductions, brood boost testing, etc. One time, I gave a queen I caught ten minutes after her nuptial flight, around 200 cocoons from wild colonies. Only an hour later a few workers had emerged. So, she literally had a colony ten minutes after a nuptial flight and all 200 cocoons hatched within two weeks. She started laying eggs shortly after. That colony was very successful. I will do the same again this summer. I am hoping to get my next colony of this species up to the thousand mark.

Edited by T.C., May 10 2017 - 8:19 AM.

[ctantkeeper]

thanks for responding to my post. However, I have seen many videos of this species on youtube and never have I come across a video of a colony with a worker population in the "tens of thousands". You might be thinking of Lasius niger.