Noob Needs Help with Camponotus...

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allenjl3
Posts: 17
Joined: Mon Jun 18, 2018 5:41 pm
Location: OHIO

Noob Needs Help with Camponotus...

Post: # 38174Post allenjl3
Mon Jun 18, 2018 6:20 pm

I'm nearly positive I have a Camponotus (carpenter) ant queen --- see photos

https://imgur.com/a/b1Q3Ql9
https://imgur.com/a/KA4W47o

It is hard to see in the photos, but she has pretty obvious scars on her thorax that suggest she has shed her wings.

However, I find that she is often sitting near the dryer side/exit side of the cotton, and she almost always appears to be grooming herself and her antennae. I'm hoping this isn't due to an excessive amount of water/humidity inside the tube. I've heard that carpenter ants prefer dryer locations than most other species, and was looking to get any advice you all might provide. She is the first I've ever caught, and I'm hoping to give her the best chance of living. I've given her a very small amount of honey, which she took to immediately... I've been doing my best to just leave her alone in the tube and not disturb her. She appears to always be tugging or messing with the cotton.

--Also, I initially had her set up in 2 joined test tubes, but she escaped into my cabinet while I was work today! I was able to coral her and get her back into the setup you now see in the photos... I realize that was likely pretty traumatic for her, and my primary goal is to get her somewhere stable that I can trust won't be too humid/wet to keep her from laying eggs. More importantly, I don't want to cause her death!

Any advice would be much appreciated, thanks.

Justin

allenjl3
Posts: 17
Joined: Mon Jun 18, 2018 5:41 pm
Location: OHIO

Re: Noob Needs Help with Camponotus...

Post: # 38244Post allenjl3
Tue Jun 19, 2018 7:14 am

>>

Alexander
Posts: 118
Joined: Mon Jun 12, 2017 1:55 pm
Location: Portugal

Re: Noob Needs Help with Camponotus...

Post: # 38291Post Alexander
Tue Jun 19, 2018 2:09 pm

Hi,
You defenetly have a beautifull campanotus queen.
I think you are having some problems because the test tube you are housing your queen is not set up correctly for a large campanotus queen. The tube has too much water in it leaving the queen whith very litle space!
If i were you i would try to get a loger tube and fill it up whith the same amount of water, or if you only have that tube i woul just fill it up whith 1/3 water (reduce the coton wall in contact to water too) to try and give the queen more space.
Campanotus ants thend to prefer a dryer nest, so providing the queen whith space to move and locate close or far away from the wet cotton is necessary to achive the perfect humidity!
When you make the necessary changes I am sure your queen will start laing,
Hope this helped!
Keeper of:
Lasius niger
Messor barbarus
Campanotus Barbaricus
Tetramorium Caespitum
Campanotus Vagus
Tapinoma nigerium
Iberoformica subrufa

allenjl3
Posts: 17
Joined: Mon Jun 18, 2018 5:41 pm
Location: OHIO

Re: Noob Needs Help with Camponotus...

Post: # 38411Post allenjl3
Wed Jun 20, 2018 7:03 pm

Thanks for the reply, Alexander! I had already purchased some new tubes online (received them at work today), and now I am currently housing her as you'll see in the following images. I would've purchased them from AntsCanada, but I wasn't sure about how quickly they could get them to me.

Let me know if you think I should reduce the amount of water in the "NEW" setup, as it still takes up a lot of the test tube.
I've included the other test tube side by side to give an idea of the size comparison. The new ones are literally double the size of the old..

New photos:
https://imgur.com/a/mnwsqFY
https://imgur.com/a/c4igfzo

Thanks again!
Justin

allenjl3
Posts: 17
Joined: Mon Jun 18, 2018 5:41 pm
Location: OHIO

Re: Noob Needs Help with Camponotus...

Post: # 38412Post allenjl3
Wed Jun 20, 2018 7:29 pm

After posting the "new" photos... I ended up moving the water-side cotton back even further in a different tube and easily transferred her to it... If hydro regulation is still an issue with them beyond what I've already taken care of, I wouldn't know what to say or do to remedy it, haha...

One other question @ALEXANDER --- Should I be using any type of heating pad under the test tube or near a part of the tube?
I keep my apartment around 74 degrees F... and I've read that most ants enjoy 80-85 degree termperatures.
I will say, I'm keeping her inside of a cabinet, so that should likely be slightly warmer... but, I do have a heating pad with a temperature gauge readily available to be used if needed.

Masterchief
Posts: 31
Joined: Sun May 06, 2018 5:50 pm
Location: Elk Grove, CA

Re: Noob Needs Help with Camponotus...

Post: # 38427Post Masterchief
Thu Jun 21, 2018 1:52 am

Honestly your new setup looks great compared to the previous one. I think for best possible results the external factors really need to be dialed in. Try wrapping her in a towel, shirt, cloth anything that can prevent the light from getting to her when you open the cabinet or drawer. You want her in total pitch blackness. I keep my Queen's on a towel that is folded back over them inside a drawer. When I want to see them I just lift the top fold of the towel. With heat you need to be careful because some heating pads can get very hot. I have my heating pad under the towel my test tubes are sitting on and attached to an in line thermostat that cuts power to it when the temp is too warm. I have a little Lazer heat gun thing to double check the temp. Can't be too safe! Here are the pics I've posted so far. I hope some or any of that helps! Remember, lock her away and throw away the key! Peak once a week! Go ACAF
When I first got her:
http://imgur.com/gallery/yTkEUxn
After I got my heating pad and another queen:
http://imgur.com/gallery/ZLBBWYq
Me trying Desperately to move her(she refused):
http://imgur.com/gallery/8yXRgwa
Now just 3 months in just introduced to an "outworld":
http://imgur.com/gallery/mLXwqt9
This is my fist time and first 2 Queens ever! Keep trying to provide the best! Might just get lucky :)
Go ACAF
Keeper of
1 Liometopum Occidentale (Velvet Tree Ant)
1 Tetramorium (Pavement Ant)

Masterchief
Posts: 31
Joined: Sun May 06, 2018 5:50 pm
Location: Elk Grove, CA

Re: Noob Needs Help with Camponotus...

Post: # 38429Post Masterchief
Thu Jun 21, 2018 3:43 am

Ok some of those links may not work.. Here is a good link to a few pics.
http://imgur.com/gallery/047h4kY
Keeper of
1 Liometopum Occidentale (Velvet Tree Ant)
1 Tetramorium (Pavement Ant)

allenjl3
Posts: 17
Joined: Mon Jun 18, 2018 5:41 pm
Location: OHIO

Re: Noob Needs Help with Camponotus...

Post: # 38443Post allenjl3
Thu Jun 21, 2018 8:34 am

All of the links worked for me!! They look great ;)
Thanks for the reply and the info! My heating pad with a temperature remote/gauge is arriving tomorrow. I'll consider setting her up with it, and I'll see if I can grab something else to manually check the temperature.

I currently have my setup 100% covered with a kitchen dish towel, and it's all being kept in a kitchen cabinet.

It should be rather dark in there.... However, I probably check up on her too often.
After day 1, she had escaped one of my setups and was freely roaming in my cabinet, hahaha... So I got kind of nervous about it and check back too often. I think the current setup is rather secure though, so maybe I'll try to "throw away" the key and check on her weekly, especially once I get the heating pad setup complete.

Thanks again, Masterchief!

AntsLuxembourg
Posts: 1578
Joined: Sun Jun 24, 2018 7:17 am
Location: Luxembourg
Contact:

Re: Noob Needs Help with Camponotus...

Post: # 38739Post AntsLuxembourg
Sun Jun 24, 2018 4:12 pm

Alexander wrote:
Tue Jun 19, 2018 2:09 pm
I think you are having some problems because the test tube you are housing your queen is not set up correctly for a large campanotus queen. The tube has too much water in it leaving the queen whith very litle space!
He could also just add some more space by connecting some tubing to the testtube so increase the space by as much as he likes. Like adding 2 inches/5-6 cm to the whole thing.

About getting the queen to chill I would sugguest just put her in the darkest corner possible so she can chill some more. I had a queenant which was stressed a lot by accident because I didn't thought it would stress her. It was like she was delivered by the mail and I didn't just leave her for 2-3 days to just chill and get used to the current temperaturs.

I would say leave how being for now since you have already moved her to a new testtube. I would sugguest that you just leave her being for now. Like Just don't touch the testtube and just leave it as it is. Perhaps check once a week to see if she has laid some eggs. I also don't think that she already needs some heat since ants can produce their own heat so unless you want to give her more space than I would wait with installation of the heatpad. At least personally. Because if you add the heatpad to the current set up with only the testtube she can't choose between a warm spot or a cool spot. So she can't really thermoregulate.
Doing some proper research is the best way to start an antcolony.

Need help or want to help? https://forum.AntsCanada.com/viewtopic.php?f=25&t=18153#p70566

Currently not keeping any ants anymore.

Alexander
Posts: 118
Joined: Mon Jun 12, 2017 1:55 pm
Location: Portugal

Re: Noob Needs Help with Camponotus...

Post: # 38915Post Alexander
Tue Jun 26, 2018 10:20 am

In regards to heating i think its not realy necessary just now,
Ants mainly use heat to reduce the time a worker spends pupating!
Your room temperature is completely ok for your queen.

I think you should add heat to your colony when the queens larvae spin their cacoons and enter the pupa stage, and for campanotus sp. that can take quite some time.

Hope this helped,
The best of luck
Keeper of:
Lasius niger
Messor barbarus
Campanotus Barbaricus
Tetramorium Caespitum
Campanotus Vagus
Tapinoma nigerium
Iberoformica subrufa

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