Phasenp's Lasius niger

[Phasenp]

I've had these for some time now and received the colony with approx 8-10 workers. I got them during a warmer period this winter which was nice. So finally I can write something :-)

I gave had them in the test tube for a few days before doing anything with them. I then decided to give them some sugar water with a syringe. The queen was really small, but the day after receiving the sugar water she almost inflated to twice the size! Her gaster was swollen and had laid eggs!

I spent the next weeks buying and creating a nest set up and outworld. First picture is the nest, this is made out of ytong and grout.
Second picture and video shows the whole set up. I've added two Y connectors for ease should I need to expand.

They finally migrated from their test tube to the ytong nest an hour ago. Unfortunately I totally missed them dragging the queen! She really did refuse to move for about 45-60 minutes with several workers pulling her out. Then, I went away for 15 minutes to get food together. During this time she did move, which was a bit sad.

Although they are smaller than my Messors, I really like them and they do explore the environment faster and with a speed my Messor colony has not.

[Phasenp]

Thanks dayshaddow! I do have 2 more nests almost like it ready except for the grout filling actually.

At the moment they haven't got anything else than a piece of mealworm. I'm gonna try cutting up a small piece of banana/apple or something and continue with mealworm. Any advice you can give regarding food?

[Phasenp]

One of the workers found a small puddle of sugar water which I put in their foraging area today. I'm really happy how the quality came out. You can see the water tension when the ant touches it :-) Be sure to put HD, sadly I did not get more of them on cam.