shane
Ant Photographer
Ant Species Image Gatherer
Posts: 1,738
Likes: 819
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Post by shane on Jul 20, 2010 14:50:32 GMT
At first from range I though they was a group of flys fighting close to shops at side of wall close to where I live, but close up it was 4 males on a queen , I still didn't know if queens been mated as she still has her wings, but in case I may not have another chance, I took out an old tic tac box I keep in-case of a find like this and gently scooped her up with males. I didn't see any more around though, just odd males no queens. I still didn't know what to do with her yet or males, But when males die off I may feed them to messor's even though they still didn't seem to touch any dead flys yet. As for queen, I may keep her over this summer though to next year in this tic tac box with a damp Cotton ball and see if she had mated, which she should have been with all males on her heres a pic. =============== PS: Thing is I wasn't even looking for any flying ants or queens today as I thought I missed their mating flight for this year, but lucky I looked down to see them
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shane
Ant Photographer
Ant Species Image Gatherer
Posts: 1,738
Likes: 819
|
Post by shane on Aug 10, 2010 23:20:08 GMT
After a day, as she removed her wings I moved her out from tictak box and from males to a cleaned out test tube I got my messor queen in. also with reading about l.niger they seem to adopt other colony workers as long as they're in larva stage or cocoon, So I tried putting 2 cocoons in with her which was from a colony from under a slab in my back garden to see if queen would except them, and in return they would help her with small larva and eggs. They taken about 3 to 4 days to hatch out and was soon bonding to each other and helping with eggs and larva. And they did Only problem now as they are doing so well is she's laying more and more eggs which maybe cos of me helping a bit with putting a very small dab of Honey at tubes entrance I put on end of cotton bud so they can feed larva but it seems she is laying around 20 eggs a week to on top of it I don't know yet what to house them in once they all hatch as they already out number my messors once they all hatch.
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