AntsEnglands Lasius niger Journal

[antsengland]

Today I went down to my local park and collected a huge Lasius niger colony with one fat queen.. she looks like she is about to burst, her abdomen is so jam packed with eggs that it is white

I had been eying up this colony for a few months now and finally I captured them

I have placed the colony into a tank with 1/2 sand and 1/2 Tesco's compost. I know I don't like to spend

The tank I bought from Ants Unearthed, although the lid DOESN'T fit on which is very annoying, but it doesn't matter as the gap I filled with vaseline so they are not escaping so far but they attempt to ;D

I added strips of bark to the surface of the mixture and the queen dashed under it, and her workers took all of the eggs and cocoons underneath also.

Currently, they are excavating their new nest site underneath the bark and down into the mixture
this colony will hopefully do well with me

[antsengland]

4 aug - 2011

pictures will come soon.
They have really made themselves at home, I lifted up the tank to see that they had dug down and made a chamber at the bottom where all of the brood are.
I placed a small piece of pumice stone on top of the compost mixture, and then put a couple of drops of honey + sugar + water on the stone. Before I knew it there were twenty or so workers supping the stuff up

[antsengland]

they are cheeky little critters, I woke up to day and saw that a trail of workers had climbed out of the tank up the wall and out of my windows, they had a crane fly (daddy long legs) and they were taking it down the wall and into their formicarium ;D

[antsengland]

they have excavated a lot of compost mixture, I lifted up the tank and looked underneath to see a chamber full of larvae, eggs on pupae

[antsengland]

fed them a little honey, they drank it like there was no tomorrow

[antsengland]

today they ate a huge black cricket that I squashed up, the devoured it and left the empty carcass

[antsengland]

since a few months ago I sold this colony, from what I hear they are doing very well with their new owners

I will update this when I get the updates from the new owner