LeonofLondon: (15. Okt 2005 15:43)

If you want your lasius to become a large colony quick you should go out into your garden or around fields local to you find a nest and capture some cocoons. I did this after captering a queen after the nuptial flights about late july this year and now i got about 200 strong colony. My queens now laying 100s of eggs and has enough workers to tend to them.

Cephalothorax: (16. Okt 2005 13:36)

It´s good that it worked, but I would wait until the first ants of the queen appear before pushing the colony! It depends...

stevendunn2003: (17. Okt 2005 08:52)

what cocoons, you mean like any insect cocoons?

thanks

LeonofLondon: (20. Okt 2005 20:14)

no Lasius niger cocoons (pupai) just look for an ant nest under a stone or log and collect some. This time of year you might have trouble since there getting near hibernation I collected some about a month ago so you might be lucky.

stevendunn2003: (21. Okt 2005 08:58)

oh right, thanks

damondeionno: (21. Okt 2005 12:02)

How good is the PTFE at containing ants? I kept ants for years, but containment was always by far the biggest problem. Does it work for all species?

Last year had a beautiful colony of pheidole pallidula but had to get rid of them because they were such determined escape artists.