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38 replies to this topic

#21 Offline Mettcollsuss - Posted April 8 2018 - 4:20 PM

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4-8-18

Seven workers now. The brood pile has about 10 pupae left. The queen just laid a new batch of 30ish eggs, and approximately 10 are now small larvae.

 

The workers' coloration looks different than Lasius neoniger. Working on a positive ID still.


Edited by Mettcollsuss, April 8 2018 - 4:22 PM.


#22 Offline Mettcollsuss - Posted April 15 2018 - 4:20 PM

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4-15-18

The queen's loyal subjects have grown in number since the last update.

 

Finally got some photos!

 

med_gallery_1963_974_55501.jpg med_gallery_1963_974_102715.jpg

 

med_gallery_1963_974_25145.jpg med_gallery_1963_974_32970.jpg


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#23 Offline Mettcollsuss - Posted April 29 2018 - 6:18 AM

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4-29-18

The queen looks like Lasius neoniger, but the workers look more like L. alienus. Until I figure it out, I will just call these Lasius sp.

 

I'd say they're at about a dozen workers.

 

med_gallery_1963_1175_115281.jpg med_gallery_1963_1175_37108.jpg

 

med_gallery_1963_1175_99755.jpg

 

med_gallery_1963_1175_166671.jpg

 

med_gallery_1963_1175_62614.jpg

 

med_gallery_1963_1175_89963.jpg

 

med_gallery_1963_1175_145869.jpg

 

med_gallery_1963_1175_119826.jpg


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#24 Offline Mettcollsuss - Posted May 7 2018 - 4:45 PM

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starting to lean towards Lasius alienus.



#25 Offline Canadian anter - Posted May 7 2018 - 5:52 PM

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I find my now ~2 year old colonies will readily take fruit flies (even kill them if not dead yet) and Sunburst nectar, but still dumb founded by even tiny meal worms.  They will attempt to push/pull it into their test tube, but never quite make it in and after a couple days eventually give up on it. The meal worms are quite small (maybe .5"), so not a huge deal.  In contrast my Tetramorium colonies, with the same size meal worm, have no problem navigating them into the nest, then removing them totally hollowed out about 36-48h later.

 

I saw in the other thread the protein goo,  I was going to give it a shot with the Lasius as they are scavengers:

http://www.formicult...-feeding-video/

Mine are also two years old but they will tackle mature Lithobius centipedes and rove beetles. They reached about 200 workers at one point last year.


Visit us at www.canada-ant-colony.com !

#26 Offline Jadeninja9 - Posted May 7 2018 - 7:12 PM

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Is that really as big as the Lasius workers get?

#27 Offline Mettcollsuss - Posted May 7 2018 - 7:26 PM

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Is that really as big as the Lasius workers get?

No, these are nanitics. Lasius is still a pretty small ant, though.



#28 Offline Jadeninja9 - Posted May 7 2018 - 8:28 PM

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Okay good. I was just curious because I also have Lasius alienus colonies.
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#29 Offline Major - Posted June 21 2018 - 10:39 PM

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Nice journal. I move quite a bit so around seven years ago I lived in Chicago. I think I’ve finally put my roots down though.
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#30 Offline Mettcollsuss - Posted July 6 2018 - 5:46 PM

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7-6-18

They are now around 30-40 workers, but they've put so much garbage and debris on the glass it's hard to see in.



#31 Offline rbarreto - Posted August 14 2018 - 7:52 AM

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How large is the queen?


My journal featuring most of my ants.

My other journal featuring Formica Bradleyi.

Check our my store here!


#32 Offline Mettcollsuss - Posted December 3 2018 - 7:48 AM

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Okay, so I have 3 species of Lasius so I thought I'd just lump them all into this journal. I have the L. neoniger that this journal started with. There's the L. americanus, and I have a new three worker flavus-group colony that's either L. brevicornis or L. nearcticus (though I'm leaning towards L. brevicornis). I may be selling one of the niger-groups soon, though.


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#33 Offline Mettcollsuss - Posted December 20 2018 - 3:37 AM

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I'm trying to decide which one to keep and which one to sell. The L. americanus are doing a little better than the L. neoniger at the moment, so I'm kind of leaning towards them. But if anyone else has some input or suggestions, I'd be happy to hear them.



#34 Offline noebl1 - Posted December 20 2018 - 5:20 PM

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For me, keep the L. americanus and sell the L. neoniger.  Around here L. neoniger is more popular by far.  Though TBH they both look really similar so not a big deal either way. 


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#35 Offline Mettcollsuss - Posted January 16 2019 - 6:23 AM

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I moved the Lasius americanus into a THA Atom formicarium. The first two days, they all huddled in a corner of the nest and didn't move. But today they're more spread out in the nest, are more active, have started to forage, and accepted the fruit fly I gave them.

 

The L. cf. nearcticus are doing well. They have just under 10 workers at the moment and plenty of pupae.

 

I have an extra Atom. I'm thinking of moving the L. neoniger into it before selling them.



#36 Offline Mettcollsuss - Posted January 20 2019 - 1:41 PM

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Some photos of the L. brevicornis colony

 

med_gallery_1963_1384_971740.jpg

 

med_gallery_1963_1384_3117651.jpg


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#37 Offline Will230145 - Posted January 21 2019 - 1:09 PM

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Top picture, are those mites?

Edit: ant farthest to the right

Edited by Will230145, January 21 2019 - 1:10 PM.

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#38 Offline Mettcollsuss - Posted January 21 2019 - 1:33 PM

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I'm not sure. I'll keep an eye out, though. Thanks for the heads up!


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#39 Offline Mettcollsuss - Posted January 26 2019 - 8:14 AM

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Okay, so I forgot to update this. The day after the last update, I woke up to all the workers in the L. americanus colony dead. The queen is still alive, and I moved her to a test tube setup. I'm feeding the L. neoniger a lot of protein to help them produce brood. If they have enough, I can try to boost the L. americanus queen with some pupae. Hopefully this works, otherwise she'll die.







Also tagged with one or more of these keywords: journal, lasius, ants, ant keeping, mettcollsuss, lasius niger group, colony, ant colony, lasius sp., lasius spp., lasius americanus, lasius flavus group, lasius brevicornis, lasius pallitarsis, lasius neoniger

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