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too many queens

Posted: Wed Aug 12, 2015 3:32 am
by jarnozoxx
Last Nuptial flight (Belgium,Flanders) i caught about 22 ant queens.
I think they are Lasius Niger and Lasius Flavus or Lasius Neoniger (can't see the difference :) )
Now 18 of them have laid eggs and some even already have larvae.
The problem I have is that I don't know what to do with them, i can keep a colony or two but not 18!
Does anyone know if i can release them back into nature and how or anything else to get rid of them without killing them?

Thanks!

Re: too many queens

Posted: Wed Aug 12, 2015 7:18 am
by antscanada
Foxish wrote:You could join the GAN program and other people will come and collect them from you :)
Yes, I second that notion. It would be awesome if you could join the GAN Project as we often get messages from Belgium for ants. For the most part, North American ant hobbyists seem to be on board with keeping only local ants but European ant keepers have been buying and keeping exotic ants or ants shipped in from another country for so many years now that it is taking some time to get them to catch on to the trend of keeping locally-caught ants. You would be a great step towards that movement if you could join the GAN Project.

Hope you can join us.

Re: too many queens

Posted: Wed Aug 12, 2015 7:44 am
by jarnozoxx
I will have to think about it and ask my parents (i'm underaged).
And i'll have to find out the species, does anyone know if there's something on the internet that can help me identifiying the species?

Re: too many queens

Posted: Wed Aug 12, 2015 12:15 pm
by ooper01
jarnozoxx wrote:I will have to think about it and ask my parents (i'm underaged).
And i'll have to find out the species, does anyone know if there's something on the internet that can help me identifiying the species?
http://antweb.org/ is a great resource, though it takes some time to get used to it. I have still not mastered it. There are tens of thousands of photos and descriptions added by myrmecologists world-wide.

Re: too many queens

Posted: Wed Aug 12, 2015 2:36 pm
by Rovvov99
Jonathan21700 wrote:Lasius neoniger does not occur in Europe. Possibly L. niger as they recently had flights.
Why don't you just release them?
If they have already brood it's almost impossible to establish a new nesting site, so if he'd release them they would die.

Re: too many queens

Posted: Wed Aug 12, 2015 4:03 pm
by jarnozoxx
ooper01 wrote:
jarnozoxx wrote:I will have to think about it and ask my parents (i'm underaged).
And i'll have to find out the species, does anyone know if there's something on the internet that can help me identifiying the species?
http://antweb.org/ is a great resource, though it takes some time to get used to it. I have still not mastered it. There are tens of thousands of photos and descriptions added by myrmecologists world-wide.
very helpful, thanks!

Re: too many queens

Posted: Wed Aug 12, 2015 4:08 pm
by jarnozoxx
Jonathan21700 wrote:Lasius neoniger does not occur in Europe. Possibly L. niger as they recently had flights.
Why don't you just release them?
Yes neoniger doesn't live here in europe, thanks.
I'm now pretty sure i have Lasius Niger and Lasius Flavus ( also alot of those colonies in my area)
And I might join the GAN project as suggested by a few people but i have some questions first i will probably address via mail.

Re: too many queens

Posted: Mon Jun 04, 2018 5:21 pm
by AntsDakota
jarnozoxx wrote:
Wed Aug 12, 2015 3:32 am
Last Nuptial flight (Belgium,Flanders) i caught about 22 ant queens.
I think they are Lasius Niger and Lasius Flavus or Lasius Neoniger (can't see the difference :) )
Now 18 of them have laid eggs and some even already have larvae.
The problem I have is that I don't know what to do with them, i can keep a colony or two but not 18!
Does anyone know if i can release them back into nature and how or anything else to get rid of them without killing them?

Thanks!
Sometimes the queens of L.niger and L.flavus will get along in the founding stage, and sometimes the queens will stay alive when their first workers arive, yet someitmes the queens will fight each other or the workers kill all but one queen. So you could try putting them together into one massive super colony.

Re: too many queens

Posted: Thu Jun 28, 2018 2:38 pm
by antnest8
jarnozoxx wrote:
Wed Aug 12, 2015 7:44 am
I will have to think about it and ask my parents (i'm underaged).
And i'll have to find out the species, does anyone know if there's something on the internet that can help me identifiying the species?
i know that this is an old post but i just have to say that its really annoying to be under aged because in like 4 years you have to release all your ants because you need to leave for collage.

Re: too many queens

Posted: Fri Jun 29, 2018 8:16 am
by AntsLuxembourg
I know how you feel pal. I caught 7 Lasius Niger yesterday and I will only keep a single one. I case one of them is fertile. If the queens aren't fertile then I can still release them somewhere outside.

Btw Lasius Flavus and Lasius Niger look way diffrent. Like Lasius Niger got a black body and it's gaster looks like an airbubble was stuck between 2 pieces of round plastic. Lasius Flavus is much brighter like an orange brown or amber colour. Lasius Niger and Neoniger look quite the same but Neoniger are much brighter. You should have a quick look on google. Or if you got problems identifying them properly just post pictures of them and we can try to identify them for you.

About getting ride of the others just offer them via the GAN Project. I will do the same as soon as I know which ones are fertile and which aren't. Btw next time when you catch queen ants perhaps try to not get too excited of catching as many as possible unless you want to offer some to other people or to sell some on a legal way.

Btw how are you keeping this many queen ants anyway? I myself got a big problem with seperating them so I had to use some tubing to give each queen enough space by cutting it into testtube sized pieces and closing one end with my glue gun. XD
Of course I washed it out a couple of times with clear water so there aren't much harmful particles in the testtubes water. I've ordered a box with 100 testtubes for 30 bucks via Amazon anyway for future uses.

I also did some more research and so far I think we can say it's not neoniger since they are native to north america. Lasius flavius usually has mating flights from august to september so I think you got just a lot of lasius niger ants. ;D

I could take one Lasius Flavus if you really got one but I think you actually have Lasius niger. If you want you can try to take some really clear pictures of each queen ants which look diffrent to the others for further identification. :D