10/14/2025
It's been super busy, but I've been taking good care of the colonies that are still out of diapause. Over the past month or two, I've put almost every Lasius into diapause. There's a few that have yet to go in, as well as some that won't be going at all.
Lasius neoniger (FL): I've been lucky enough to get a Lasius neoniger queen from Florida. It's widely assumed that this population, logically, is more adapted to short/no winters and warmer temperatures. The young colony I received has about a dozen workers and a few pieces of brood. I'm feeding them roaches and fruit flies.
Lasius clavipes: The 2 queen colony had a queen fight soon after getting bios, and one of the queens won. She doesn't seem to have any injuries at all. I'm trying to get them to hibernate, but the brood just keeps growing (though not in large enough batches to really be considered healthy growth, in my opinion). A few larvae pupate here and there, keeping me from fridging them altogether. The colony probably has at least 150 biological workers right now, and still at least 100 americanus hosts. I'm eager to hibernate them so that I can get them out earlier, as I'm super excited to see how fast I can grow them when all the workers are recharged from diapause!
Lasius minutus: This colony is ready for hibernation very soon! She has probably about 20-30 bios and a few hundred americanus hosts. There's currently a large ball of young larvae which tells me they're finally winding down for the fridge soon enough.
Lasius colei: The Lasius colei colony also, unfortunately, never grew out their larvae. The hosts definitely wanted to hibernate. I put them into hibernation a few days ago after a small mite fiasco. The queen probably has 75-100ish workers still and a nice batch of larvae.
Lasius sitiens: This colony is doing absolutely amazing. They're probably over 500 workers by now and they show no signs of wanting to hibernate. I'm feeding them fruit flies and roaches daily, which they take graciously. The queen is laying eggs continuously. Could this be the non-diapausing Lasius of my dreams?
Lasius latipes: I did catch a ton of Lasius latipes queens this year, as well as got a handful from friends. I probably have around 5 queens with a significant amount of hosts, and maybe 5-10 more that just have a few hosts. If I can, I'll be boosting them all with brood once it's pupae season again. I tried really hard to get as much pupae as I could this year, but for whatever reason some of the hosts let huge amounts of pupae die instead of opening them. I have two main queens (ironically, one notably smaller-than-average and one notably larger-than-average queen) which both have at least 75-150 hosts and are currently in hibernation. I'm really hoping they do well, as this species is my favorite!
Most of the other colonies are in hibernation already. The 28 queen (now 27 queens, womp womp) brevicornis colony had some casualties in hibernation. Since most of the workers wouldn't leave the outworld, I put them into the fridge with it still attached, and instead of walking back into the nest, they just hung out outside and desiccated. I since cleaned it out, detached it, attached another nest which was hydrated thoroughly, and replaced the outworld attachment with a test tube setup. I would say the colony is still at at least 1000-1500 workers, only a few hundred died.
Many of the colonies are set to come out in December or January. For some, I'll try to keep them in longer. Hibernation (diapause, whatever, I'll use them interchangeably throughout this) is always a worry for me. While young test tube colonies do just fine, I tend to have trouble with moisture in larger setups since most fridges dehumidify the air. I'll figure something out eventually, but for now I just need to close up the setups tight and make sure they always have local moisture.
I'll update if anything significant happens over the winter (and put a video in here as soon as I can), but this might be the last update until colonies start coming back out of diapause.
