The AntsCanada Forum

Temnothorax colonies usually do not grow beyond a few hunderd workers.
Most ant need 4-8 weeks to get from egg to worker.

Just wash your hands before you make a test tube. That's usually enough to prevent most of the mold.
Do not use any desinfecting chemicals.

How is the setup of your Camponotus? Can you make a picture? Are they in a test tube? Camponotus are fairly dry-resistent but if they live in an open test tube humidity may still be an issue. Did you try offering your queen a drop of sugar water? If she fails to open her cocoons you can do that with...

Will230145 wrote: ↑

Sat Aug 26, 2017 9:10 pm

Ok thanks, what would happen if I got the wrong species?

They might eat the pupae or kill them when they hatch from their cocoons (these sometimes even happens to social parasites that are built to get accepted). Although sometimes if they're related enough they will be accepted.

Antmaps says Formica fusca is native in several US states (but then it's probably like Tetramorium with the spE complex and the caespitum-impurum complex, they're not exactly the same in NA and EU).

Some ants, especially Camponotus, store pupae in other places than eggs and larvae. The reason is that the eggs need humidity, the pupae don't. My Campos store their pupae at the top end of the nest where the heating cable is and the eggs at the opposite side inside the attached water tube (larvae a...

Formica fusca is pretty much the Lasius niger of the Formica genus. They are fairly resilient and can adapt to a lot of environments. The queen doesn't need food during founding but will probably take a small drop of sugar water if you offer her one. The best way to handle her once she gets her firs...

Use any hybrid nest with a lot of mesh area, Argentines like it very moist.
Also Argentine ants need a CONSTANT water source so you need to add a water test tube to the nest.

You don't need to water Camponotus much.
I'd add a test tube with water to the nest (they gonna store the eggs in there) and about 10ml water to the substrate every 4-5 days.

I had a similar problem (the test tubes from the hobby store didn't fit my simants nest) this is how I solved it: http://i.imgur.com/H0ZzO1s.jpg Put tubing in the hole, then push the test tube over the free tubing. If the difference in diameter is small enough it holds fine (for me it was 14mm tubin...