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Post by TenebrousNova on Dec 6, 2010 7:46:35 GMT
The weaker Queen's larvae are still tiny. I could see her through the bottom of her plastic container. Today, I uncovered her (shallow soil so its easy to help them if needed), and she was still alive, though thin and surprised. I then offered her some honey water on a cotton bud, which she soon began drinking. Afterwards, and a bit fatter, she started moving her tiny brood to a new site, which is easily viewable. I'm getting worried about her now, and she wouldn't like having to be uncovered every few months in order to eat. Stronger queens brood are very slowly developing (It's that time of year, and her 5 workers absolutely refuse anything given, even a few months ago), in stark contrast to my Lasius Flavus, who until beginning to slow down would eat everything I offered them.
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Post by TenebrousNova on Dec 21, 2010 11:28:37 GMT
Second queens larvae are the same size, fed her again just now. She almost forgot where she left her brood as well. Stronger queen has just been moved to a test tube set up, so I can keep an eye on her. Believe me when I say that moving these L.Niger was very hard. I had to uncover their chamber for a start (Narrowly avoiding a cave-in as well), then I picked up the queen on a cotton bud and put her in. It was not so easy for the five workers, as they were not happy and refused to stay still. They soon calmed after finding the queen. I lost the biggest larva, as the final worker began to carry it around as I got round to catching her. She left it somewhere in the soil, and I have no clue where it is now. Anyway, she has most of her brood, and the workers are unhurt. Trying to find the leftover larvae was hard. But I spied a few eggs in the test tube earlier. I'll try and feed them later.
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Post by TenebrousNova on Jan 5, 2011 9:06:15 GMT
The weaker queen has barely any brood now. Is it worth trying to feed her? She has been going on like this since I caught her in the first place.
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Post by Wood~Ant on Jan 5, 2011 9:16:23 GMT
To be perfectly honest, I think that this may be a queen which would have died in the wild; and she sounds rather weak. A bit of food may help, but unless she can raise her brood (as she should really have a few workers by now), then she is simply not going to make it.
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Post by TenebrousNova on Jan 5, 2011 10:00:54 GMT
My thoughts exactly, so I'm not sure what I should do with her. There are no accessible Lasius Niger nests nearby, as they are all within concrete locations, so I cannot boost either of my queens (It is still too cold for looking for ants anyway). If she dies then I'll give her remaining brood to the other queen, I expect she and her workers will look after them. The other queen is still okay, and my room is pretty warm throughout the year and so she has been laying eggs. I am quite certain as I saw her lay one and my Lasius Flavus have a big egg pile in their nest. The Flavus also accepted a small dead spider as a worker single-handedly dragged it into the nest, so that should help them. Recent attempts to feed the L.Niger colony have failed, as the workers poke around at any tiny amounts of jam or honey that I give them and then ignore it. One worker almost managed to drown herself in a tiny amount of honey once, but fortunately I was able to save her, and she soon dried off. The moral of this is that if a worker looks like she has drowned, put her somewhere to dry off and she will probably wake up.
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Post by Wood~Ant on Jan 5, 2011 10:19:59 GMT
I always put honey (slightly watered down) on a small pad of cotton wool, as then small ants can suck on this without drowning in it. The same goes for sugar water too, as ants normally sip sweet sap or juices from plants/flowers or honeydew from aphids while standing safely on a dry spot, as any ant which gets stuck in sap (pine resin for example which later becomes amber) is in danger of becoming a fossilized relic; and while this may be good news for archaeologists, it is bad news for the ants
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Post by TenebrousNova on Jan 9, 2011 12:04:36 GMT
Okay, I'm not sure what to do with the weaker queen. She is sitting there with a tiny pile of eggs, and she is pretty thin. It's sad to see her like this, and I'm not sure what I should do with her- she clearly won't manage to raise any workers. The queen with workers is still refusing food, as I put a small fly in there. A worker just picked it up and dumped it in the corner, and they haven't touched it since. While they do examine any honey or jam they are offered, they simply move away from it and ignore it completely. I find this annoying as L.Niger are usually all too pleased to take any food they find in your house. I find it especially odd because they seem to have reversed roles with my L.Flavus colony- the L.Nigers are refusing food and the L.Flavus are eating everything they are given. What's more, the L.Flavus have come to expect food whenever I move their container out of the cupboard and send a number of workers out to find their anticipated treat.
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Post by Blem12 on Jan 9, 2011 12:40:41 GMT
You could try the adoption method:
Method:
Things needed;
- 20 - 25 worker ants. -Small siffer ( Holes must be small so that ants cannot get out ) -Fridge. -Tin foil.
First off get your 20 worker ants and put them in the siffer and quickly pour water 4-6 times over them. ( Not too cold or warm ). This should make their '' smell'' go away. Do this 1 a day for 2 - 3 days. Everytime you complete it once a day transer them to a new tub so that they do not get their same smell.
When completed, put the ants in the fridge for 1 -2 mins to slow down their metabolism.
Quickly get your queen ant and her test tube and pour the ''sleepy'' workers in the queen's test tube, cover it with tin foil, leave it in the firdge for 30 secs- 2 mins and afterward check if everything is going alright. If so put the test tube in your desired place.
This way if she has workers they may help her get stronger and eventually have a healthy colony but it may not result in this as she may just be a weak queen.
Note: This method may stress the ants.
Thanks,
Blem12
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Post by TenebrousNova on Jan 9, 2011 14:40:21 GMT
An interesting idea, but it would be cruel to the new workers and I probably couldn't bring myself to do that. Even worse, assuming I did that and introduced them to the test tube there would be the chance of them killing the queen and her existing 5 workers. My main hope for these is to find some existing ant pupae in wild nests. If my ants could hold on for long enough then I could be able to find some in the hills nearby, but it is too cold for ants to become fully active just yet in the wild.
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Post by Blem12 on Jan 9, 2011 16:00:48 GMT
Ahh I see. I thought the queen did not have workers thus making it easier.
I do not think you would see pupae in any nests as most would be larvae ''hibernating'' and when spring comes those larvae speed up the growth again.
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Post by TenebrousNova on Jan 9, 2011 16:53:30 GMT
Ah, thought you meant the good queen. Sorry. Well, I don't think it would be worth the attempt since the other queen is weak.
Indeed. If my L.Niger can hang on until summer then I may be able to boost them provided I can find and access a nest. I have good reason to believe that they may be living off their own eggs for the time being, I have no idea why they won't eat anything that others would.
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Post by TenebrousNova on Jan 16, 2011 10:51:40 GMT
Interesting, there are no signs of that fly I gave them and they do look plumper (The larvae in particular). In fact, some of these larvae are close to spinning their cocoons so perhaps this colony of 5 workers with their queen just went to a shaky start and might be more successful with their numbers up. The queen looks pretty gravid and I have seen her lay eggs recently, most of their larvae have reached the medium/large stage. I don't want to get my hopes up though, so I'll just keep an eye on them. Unfortunately the weaker queen seems to be dying, as there are only a few eggs with her now and she seems to be slowly eating them. I feel bad for leaving her like this but she clearly won't be strong enough. The Lasius Flavus on the other hand, are thriving (Numbers in the 30-40s with a plump queen). Their larvae are almost ready for cocoon stage as well, and there is a big pile of at least 20 eggs. ;D While three dead workers were taken out of their nest, they died of old age and not of anything else- two of these three dead workers were nanitics. This nest accepted a small cricket and spider, and are doing well. Actually I'll move this to the Journals section, as that's what this thread seems to have become.
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Post by TenebrousNova on Jan 17, 2011 18:39:31 GMT
Here is a overview of my Lasius Flavus, thought I would take the opportunity to show it.
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Post by TenebrousNova on Jan 23, 2011 14:02:18 GMT
The L.Flavus have had to be moved into a new bigger container, due to a big fungal outbreak that was getting into their tunnels. They are settled in now, with sand scattered on the surface which seems to discourage further fungal infection. L.Niger queen is still fine, gave them a bit of honey and a few tiny seeds to see what they think. They have been investigating the seeds with interest, but I haven't seen them actually eat them yet. The larvae are almost at the cocoon stage, which will be the boost this little colony needs. Weaker queen is dying, and I see little point in feeding her as she will only continue to eat her own eggs.
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Post by TenebrousNova on Jan 23, 2011 18:26:33 GMT
Good news at last. I just checked the L.Niger, and one of their larvae is in the process of pupating. Which is to say that the cocoon is mostly formed, but the black dot inside the larva is still visible. Looking forward to my 6th worker! There should actually be 8 by now (Not including the new cocoon), but 3 cocoons were eaten by the queen early on. I expect this one will become a nanitic, as the colony hasn't eaten much. Maybe they just need more workers to boost their confidence? I believe my heat mat must be helping with the brood development. I originally placed it in order to help along my Messor Barbarus queen, but decided to place the L.Niger test tube next to hers. Maybe this will help them.
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