Need help with camponotus

[Cerbenix]

Hello.
So I'm having trouble with camponotus ants. I'v had 4 camponotus queens. Three herculeanus and one ligniperdus. And all of them have either died or are having problems.

My most recent one that I caught late may, iirc, had a huge amount of brood, but none of it ever developed any further than the egg. After some time the eggs started to disappear and about a week ago the queen died. I had one that actually got to 3 workers, but again they started to disappear one by one and I found the last worker and queen both dead. Can't remember what happened to the first one I had, but she did die. Right now I have a ligniperdus queen which had some eggs before, but now they are all gone and the queen has not laid any more for months.

I have multiple other successful colonies of lasius flavus/niger and messor barbarus and a queen that I think is a tetramorium just got her nanitics and has a large amount of brood.

What am I doing wrong? Do camponotus queens need some kind of special care? Please if you have some advice or can tell me how you raised your camponotus colonies tell me.

[AntnoobSG]

Camponotus take around two weeks to develop into adult workers

[Cerbenix]

Whats your point? And they actually take 8 weeks from egg to worker.

[PwnerPie]

We need alot more details concerning their housing and care to give you more info. I have yet to have an issue with camponotus so itll be interesting to hear the differences.

[Cerbenix]

All of them have been kept in standard test tubes setups. And I keeps the tubes in a cardboard box with the lid slightly open for air circulation just in case.

[AntsRule]

I'd close the lid no worrys about air, how often are you checking on them? Camp. Can be pretty finicky if you disturbe them too much. The queens probably ate the eggs due to stress

[Cerbenix]

Yeah I know that stressing them can cause this. But I was super careful with the most recent one that I caught. After I caught the queen I put her away from any kind of disturbances in a separate box and probably the first time I check on here was after a month and that was just through the gap in the box I left. That was when I saw that she had a lot of eggs. Didn't move her at that time.

The other one that had the workers already, I did have to move because the tube had ran out of water and the surface of the cotton had mold. Attaching another test tube for them to move to might have caused them enough stress.

Could excessive heat cause this? For most of the summer it has been around 30C where normal summers around here are around 25C.

[JoeHostile1]

The queens that laid eggs and never developed could have been infertile. If you noticed the eggs were off coloured that’s usually a sign they are no good. The queen that had 3 workers born sounded like she could have made it. Did you feed her? For all the workers plus queen to die at same time suggests they were poisoned/exposed to a toxin, starved to death, lack of humidity or too cold/hot.

I believe Camponotus like it hot and I don’t think 30 degrees would kill them. Also 30 degrees outside, but probably not in your house. But perhaps 30 degrees for a prolonged period of time could kill them.

[Cerbenix]

First of all thank you for the replies. Secondly you did just tell me what I was kind of already thinking just wasn't sure.

The one who laid eggs but never developed might have been infertile because in the two and half months I never saw anything more than eggs.

The one with the workers might have succumbed to the mold before I had the chance to move her. That particular queen was given to me with a piece of paper towel rolled in a tube shape inside the setup, I guess for the queen to hide in. The queen had shredded and put it against the humid side of the test tube and that had mold all over it.

In my house we don't have AC and the windows are open 24/7 so it might be a bit cooler in the house but not by much.