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This is my diary for the queens i caught this year, for a change im allowed to keep the queens i keep this year so here it goes.........
8th August 2010 -
Caught 4 queens, made up some make-shift tubs (I know its not ideal but its my only option). 1 queens was put in a bottle with half filled with sand (Again its not ideal).
15th August 2010 -
A week since i got them, i havent checked on them so far and upon inspection one of my queens had died, i dont know what had happend but the other 3 were ok, The queen in the bottle has dug herself in and is just about out of sight from the side. No eggs yet :(
22th August 2010 -
a week since the last diary entry and two of my queens both have a small pile of eggs, I say a pile one has about 3 eggs and the other about 5, Still im pleased ive got some, the other queens im unsure about :s
24th August 2010 -
The queen with three eggs has been frantic today trying to choose a spot to put her eggs in, quite funny really. :P
Comments welcome
matt
Hey,
Well I have 18 Lasius flavus queens and 19 Lasius niger queens that I caught in this years mating flights (Between the 12th - 14th of August) , they aren't terribly hard to rear from queens, especially not the nigers, but one thing I would say is that *in my experience* Lasius flavus don't do so well from queens in test tubes, no idea why... #-o
All of my Lasius flavus and most of my Lasius niger are in sand filled (childrens play sand from argos) universal containers, are maintained at between 25 - 27 celsius and all of them have huge piles of eggs the size of their thorax, and a couple of my nigers have small larvae. The sand filled tubes are harder to maintain humidity wise but with sufficient temps and humidity they seem to do really well.
I originally caught around ~50 queens but most had been stood on by pedestrians or attacked by ants :( ... So lost a lot witihn minutes of collecting them, however of all that survived I only lost 1 flavus queen from a mold/fungas growth on her.
Make sure they have access to water, fresh air and heat! You should have your first workers just before they need to go into hibernation hopefully, keep us updated!
Thats alot of queens, how are you going to house all of them?
I plan to Hibernate my Ants between december and march so thay get a few months, what kind of time are you hibernating yours?
Will keep you updated :)
Lol yes it is a lot of queens, but I live by a busy road so the mortality rate of delate queens goes from 99.99% to about 100% =( so I will always take quite a few, I may keep a couple, sell some, and one is already promised to someone who doesn't trust himself to rear them from queens :roll:
And any that are left will probably be released on a nice sunny heath if no one wants them :grin:
The queens and small colonies will be happy enough for most, if not all, of next year in what they are in now :D Any I keep will eventually be kept in aerated concrete nests.
Hibernation is between end of October/ begining of November - Febuary/March as far as I am concerned, they need a good 4 - 5 months rest in order to become egg laying machines! All you have to do for British species is look outside and see if there are any ants about, if not time to go into hibernation, when they are back outside time to take them out of hibernation, sometimes they come out a little early, and sometimes the niger dont come out well into March for some reason... #-o
Good luck with your queens!
Someone will probably pull you up on this so i may aswell say it now, Releasing ants into an 'unfamiliar' area could harm the balance of the ecosystem, release your queens near by you found them.
Yer i know the only problem is im away over december and january so i can leave them for the two weeks and know they will be fine.
UPDATE:
25th August 2010 -
Two queens recieved half a grape, both caught the scent very quickly and both immediatly checked out and drank up some of the juice. The queen in the bottle has unfortunatly died (no the best set-up) :(
Matt
Hmmm unfamiliar area? well Lasius flavus, Lasius niger and a few Myrmica species is all you will find around here (excluding a few formicas), and I honestly don't think releasing even a hundred queens in a few open fields would unbalance anything, this is their natural habitat (they are part of the ecosystem here) and the fact that whole colonies are being killed by buildings being built upon them, and ignorant people poisoning them because they simply don't like them walking over their patio, makes me think that now more than ever a few founding colonies extra per year will help more than hinder the local ecosystem.
/rant over :grin: I just get annoyed about people killing ants! :evil: I assure you I would never release a non native species [-X
Good luck with your 2 queens!
UPDATE;
02 September 2010:
Egg pile is huge and are expected to emerge as Larvae any day now.
Do you mean the egg pile is huge? =)
Most of my L asius niger have cocoons, but the most of the flavus still only have small larvae... =(
What set ups are your queens in now? And what temperatures are they kept at?
Also I checked and I actually got most of my queens on the 8th of August, they flew that day, good timing that yours did too :D
Hey,
Sorry i editited my post and then forgot to reply ;P
My queens are still in their tubs and will be until the second worker arrives, they are currently kept just above room temp as they would in the wild, the heat from my computer makes the temp 2 degrees warmer, i will get my thermometer soon and look for you.
Yours are developing quicker than mine so we shall see :)
Matt
P.s Are you feeding your queens?
Hey,
I normally wouldn't feed the queens in the set ups with sand because mould appears very easily and kills ants rather quickly, but I did feed all of my flavus queens and one of my Lasius niger queens directly from a syringe when their egg piles were quite small, and the sugar water seemed to help :)
All but 2 of my Lasius niger queens have mostly cocoons now, and the flavus have medium larvae, mine are only developing faster because they are kept at a higher temperature :grin:
Are you going to keep your Lasius flavus in a set up with root aphids when the colony is larger? A bit early to ask I'm just wondering ^.^