Lasius niger worker with two heads

Questions from those who are just starting or considering getting into the ant keeping hobby. If you’re intimidated or confused by the in-depth posts of the other sections of this forum, feel free to post here, and we'll start from square one!

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abosetti

Lasius niger worker with two heads

Post: # 4576Post abosetti
Tue Dec 22, 2015 11:33 am

Hi guys

I'm new to this hobby. Started looking into it 4 weeks ago, mainly because I am a dart frog keeper, and I was investigating their natural diet,which includes ants. So I started watching Mikey's video on youtube and got absolutely fascinated...so here I am, 4 weeks into googling like mad trying to gather as much infos as possible, with my first queen (Lasius niger, bought here in the UK from a local website, with her dozen workers, absolutely marvelous.

At this stage I have a couple of questions, but I'm sure more to come :-)

1) queen and workers seem very very active, they don't look into hibernation at all. It looks to me they have been kept indoors. Should I induce hibernation, or is too late? I have read that a pin drop on honey in the test tube is all they need at this stage. Correct or should I leave them alone?

2) one of the workers has two heads. Is it common in ants to display mutations like this?

Thank you for your replies
Alex

jonathan21700
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Re: Lasius niger worker with two heads

Post: # 4580Post jonathan21700
Tue Dec 22, 2015 2:12 pm

Really? I've never seen anything like it. Can you make a photo?
I recommend hibernating them.

abosetti

Re: Lasius niger worker with two heads

Post: # 4581Post abosetti
Tue Dec 22, 2015 2:25 pm

Not very good with camera but I will give it a go

Alex

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ooper01
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Re: Lasius niger worker with two heads

Post: # 4582Post ooper01
Tue Dec 22, 2015 4:44 pm

Welcome to the hobby :) Regarding the honey drop, you may want to consider cutting out a small piece of aluminum foil that will fit in the test tube and put the honey on the foil. It helps keep the test tube clean and non-sticky.
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MadVampy
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Re: Lasius niger worker with two heads

Post: # 4584Post MadVampy
Tue Dec 22, 2015 7:50 pm

ooper01 wrote:Welcome to the hobby :) Regarding the honey drop, you may want to consider cutting out a small piece of aluminum foil that will fit in the test tube and put the honey on the foil. It helps keep the test tube clean and non-sticky.
Yea like ooper said, I use wax paper and sugar water. Either way it makes clean up easy and you really don't have to disturb the ants too much, pull the cotton out pull out the foil or paper and stuff cotton back in, fast and easy.
MadVampy

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Name is also Mike but please don't confuse me with Mikey Bustos, two different people. :lol:
Keeper of Solenopsis Ants. :twisted:

GriffinAnt

Re: Lasius niger worker with two heads

Post: # 4589Post GriffinAnt
Wed Dec 23, 2015 4:58 am

welcome fellow brit. and please post pic of the 2 headed beastie please

abosetti

Re: Lasius niger worker with two heads

Post: # 4590Post abosetti
Wed Dec 23, 2015 6:56 am

hi guys

First of all, thank you for the welcome and the tips
This morning I went to take a picture of the two headed worker and, well, it has been destroyed.

The pictures below are not very clear. These are my first attempt at macro, so forgive the poor quality, but you can clearly see the body, although it's not obvious that it had two heads.

What I didn't realize, with my aging ***** eye is that there are also eggs.
Now the question is: shall I proceed with the hibernation or wait ?

Image
Image
Image

Thank you all
Ale

jonathan21700
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Location: Southern Europe

Re: Lasius niger worker with two heads

Post: # 4591Post jonathan21700
Wed Dec 23, 2015 1:22 pm

These are small larvae and will not continue developing without hibernation.
You can hibernate them now.
Good luck!

GriffinAnt

Re: Lasius niger worker with two heads

Post: # 4592Post GriffinAnt
Wed Dec 23, 2015 3:10 pm

yep def hybernate them. my lisus niger queen and her one worker is in the fridge and my messor barbouers is in the bathroom

Marandola
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Re: Lasius niger worker with two heads

Post: # 4594Post Marandola
Wed Dec 23, 2015 3:30 pm

Very strange places to keep your ants :lol: , luckily I don't have these problems in Brazil.

Good luck with your colony friend, they seem very healthy. Merry Christmas!

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