Quick question about lasius niger

[Velocurs]

Hello does lasius niger need any kind of substrate to spin there coocuns? i have a type of gravel substrate in there outworld but if they need substrate to spin the coocuns do i have to give them a more finer substrate like sand or dirt?
greatful for response!

[JoeHostile1]

I do believe all Lasius species can go through the pupae stage with or without spinning a cacoon. I guess you have them in a plastic set up? They can’t spin cacoons on smooth services. You can give them sand/dirt, but they will start smearing it and generally make the plastic hard to see through.

I gave a colony of mine some dirt because they were building cool ant hills out of seeds so I thought they would make good use of the dirt. Instead of making ant hills out of it they combined the dirt with water and cotton strands to completely cover all the glass. Of course there is no way to take the dirt back so one of my biggest ant keeping mistakes.

I would just give them some cotton or maybe coconut husk or something they can’t make a mess with.

[ClashOwenBash]

When larvae spin cocoon they produce the silk using special glands. They might only need some substrate to grip to the floor so they can make the cocoon more easily. I have found that this isn't necessary, but can help.