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Post by Wood~Ant on Jul 21, 2014 10:37:52 GMT
Most of these little ladies will eventually be sold, as I only plan to keep a very small number of both species. Here is my box of Lasius flavus and L. niger queens from the recent 2014 July nuptial flights.
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Post by Atomfix on Jul 22, 2014 10:26:13 GMT
2 Queens in the same test tube? How does that work out?
They don't kill each other? different scent?
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Post by Jenny on Jul 22, 2014 10:50:38 GMT
New queens were caught and put together from the same flight. L.niger queens will raise their brood together, but eventually the workers will decide which is the dominant queen take on her scent and will kill the other less dominant queen. Keepers use this method to gain a bigger colony quicker, but if you want you can split them. Flavus however are quite happy to bring the colony up with no challenge.
If I had kept the niger queens in the jar I caught them in overnight, then they would have killed each other by exuding formic acid in droplets, as the stress levels increase. This happened to us when I caught some up Goodwood not far from here, because I didn't have enough containers at that time. You can't put too many together, not even for a few hours.
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Post by Atomfix on Jul 22, 2014 11:05:21 GMT
New queens were caught and put together from the same flight. L.niger queens will raise their brood together, but eventually the workers will decide which is the dominant queen take on her scent and will kill the other less dominant queen. Keepers use this method to gain a bigger colony quicker, but if you want you can split them. Flavus however are quite happy to bring the colony up with no challenge. If I had kept the niger queens in the jar I caught them in overnight, then they would have killed each other by exuding formic acid in droplets, as the stress levels increase. This happened to us when I caught some up Goodwood not far from here, because I didn't have enough containers at that time. You can't put too many together, not even for a few hours. Well... I've learnt something new today. Didn't know this was possible. I can see the good side to it on raising brood quicker though! |
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