it's that time of year again

[togot]

well spring is here in the US and I found a red/orange queen. this will be my third year trying to establish a colony, and hopefully the third times the charm. my target species is the common garden ant, I believe it's called Lasius black person. I hear they are hardy and from my observations appear to be very active. last year I caught about 12 queens after their mating flights and put them in various small containers with moist dirt. some of them laid eggs, others died. only one queen's eggs hatched and developed into ants, but she never laid any more and they all died after three months despite my feeding them on a regular basis. anyone know what I'm doing wrong or have any suggestions for improving the chances of a starting colony? I really don't want to wait another year to try and catch queens.

[Formicalondon]

The common Garden ant in the UK is Lasius niger but in the USA I'm sure the species would probably be a very different one depending on what state you live in. It could however be Lasius neo-niger which I hear isn't as easy to keep. Good luck with the orange queen you found, I should imagine it's of the Camponotus family as they tend to have their mating flights early in the year. Keep her in a claustral cell, such as a test tube with water filled about a quarter of the way, bunged with cotton wool for the time being, do not just place her straight in a farm.

[bilbo]

I tried carpenter ants a few times, thay never really worked out so good luck. From what I have read they are intresting though and I would love to have one.

[Soldier Ant Warrior]

Only if you dug this queen up out of the dirt

I'm almost certain if you caught a Lasius queen, that color orange/red it has to be Lasius flavus here in the US.

I have both Lasius flavus and Lasius neo-niger Colonies, &
out of the two I find Lasius flavus to be the harder colony to keep in captivity, because they tend to only eat very very limited types of food as opposed to Lasius Neo-niger, who will eat almost anything.

I doubt you have neo-niger or niger because Lasius neo-niger queens are Dark dark brown, and Lasius niger (who rarely I have ever seen other then when I was over seas) are dark brown almost black...Lasius flavus are bright red orange and that's if you have Lasius flavus at all.


If you just caught this queen on a mating flight that just occured here during this time in early spring.

You have caught a false honey pot Queen ant, as they are very similar in size and appearence and behavior as Lasius queens, but they are shiny bright red/orange and are very hard to cultivate...

[formica]

I caught carpenter ants once, and I put them in an artificial home made nest made out of wood and plastic. They survived with 3 workers and a queen, but although new eggs are born, no new pupae ever got hatched

[toudzard]

Hmmm well if it's red-orange and is in the U.S. I would say its a Red Fire Ant thats like it to me.