Updates for my Lasius social parasite

[Baltimore410Keeper]

So, trying to keep the community updated and to kinda document what I'm doing .... so I found a lasius social parasite yesterday (see all images below) and after having her IDed I kinda needed to act fast since I have to find some Lasius workers to try in integrate her with them. Cought about 7 workers that I found doing the pheromone line thing outside lol ....... so I set up a quick tupperware set up (sorry already gone so no pictures) had them kinda interact over night then this morning read a few more comments and decided the tupperware imo wouldn't work ..... so I moved them to a new test tube portal I got the other day ..... 1 test tube with water, two are empty to maybe give some moving room and one is blocked by cotton (if this ends up working I have the easy spot to move them to a formicarium or outworld.) ...... if you'd like any pictures or any questions let me know ...... I'll be trying to document as I go since this is pretty hard to do in captivity (they seem to do it well enough in the wild lol) currently I have the water tube covered so the queen can chill there and ...... guess we will see what happens over the next few weeks



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[Batspiderfish]

Well, as written in the little guide I wrote, the workers found outside of the nest are older and typically won't react well with social parasites. The workers from inside the nest are preferred; you want them to be as young as possible. There should also be at least 20 of them. You won't want to move them to a formicarium for quite a while.

[Baltimore410Keeper]

Well, as written in the little guide I wrote, the workers found outside of the nest are older and typically won't react well with social parasites. The workers from inside the nest are preferred; you want them to be as young as possible. There should also be at least 20 of them. You won't want to move them to a formicarium for quite a while.

I found some very tiny ones ....... assuming size is age equivalent ........ but not many ....... yea I read a lot of what you wrote. I'll see if I can find more very tiny ones .....


I didn't wanna go digging up a colony nest if I didn't have too ...... but I guess this is how I'll get this to work .... might end up finding thier queen .....

[Baltimore410Keeper]

So I caught some more very tiny guys ..... about 6 .. making total to be ..... 6 tiny (when I say tiny I mean like 1mm) and about 7 bigger workers ...... just put in the tinier one not even 5 minutes ago they still have the drop of ant nectar I gave them ... worried it will solidify if they don't take it ..... maybe I gave too much?

[Batspiderfish]

Those are not Lasius, so they will not work for your parasitic queen. You might want to let her go unless you can find the correct host. Otherwise, be sure to keep giving her fresh honey/syrup, preferably on a tray made of foil (a piece of aquarium tubing cut in half works pretty nicely, also).

[Baltimore410Keeper]

Those are not Lasius, so they will not work for your parasitic queen. You might want to let her go unless you can find the correct host.

Well crud lol ...... yeah I agree ...... a bit too much for a newbie at this .....


Thanks for all the help though!

[Batspiderfish]

It's ok! My first queen was a social parasite, and the only reason I found the right host workers was basically blind luck. As you become more familiar with your local ants, it will be much easier to meet the needs of these complicated queens. Lasius claviger are very common in your range -- I bet you'll be able to find one this fall if you wanted to.

[Baltimore410Keeper]

It's ok! My first queen was a social parasite, and the only reason I found the right host workers was basically blind luck. As you become more familiar with your local ants, it will be much easier to meet the needs of these complicated queens. Lasius claviger are very common in your range -- I bet you'll be able to find one this fall if you wanted to.

Well my first queen died before anything (I think my water wasn't reaching her) ... then this one lol ...... I want to get better in general before trying this again.

Best of luck and you'll see me around here everything about to start picking up so I'm sure these boards will be going mad soon.