The AntsCanada Forum

Lots of camponotus ants have die-offs when they first start. Symptoms commonly seen are: relentless foraging/climbing, spastic movements, and eventually flailing to death. I've been on the forum on and off since it was new, and I'd say I have seen the same thing 4-5 times now. It can't be Vaseline,...

I hope that Formica social parasite in the last post is ok... Ooohhh, that's what they were. That is probably why they were such cotton-pullers too. . . nope, she didn't make it to Winter. Wow Will, nice job at your queens! Right now it's December, so there aren't any queens around so i am waiting ...

Lots of camponotus ants have die-offs when they first start. Symptoms commonly seen are: relentless foraging/climbing, spastic movements, and eventually flailing to death. I've been on the forum on and off since it was new, and I'd say I have seen the same thing 4-5 times now. It can't be Vaseline, ...

Yeah, they have to be from the Lasius genus.

That is so weird! What is the colony doing? Why did they put their brood outside?!?!?

I tested by putting a pair of queens in 3 different test tubes and they were fine after 24 hours. They even seemed to be cleaning each other. :D So last night I went ahead and put all 15 (I caught one more) in a giant test tube together. I will check them in a few weeks and start a journal of the c...

Awesome! After that little boost, they should be good for a while. Good luck!

You may want to feed them some sugar-water or something. If they already lost some brood, they are going to need a bit more nourishment!

This is wicked cool. Great design, I love it! I want to build something this cool!

Went back out around 9 pm. Got 5 Camponotus queens. One of them is probably castaneus, the other four are black, probably pennsylvanicus. Pictures will be posted tomorrow. There were plenty of other queens there, do not have any more test tubes. Am hoping this will be enough to get a colony going :...