Welcome to the Camponotus Crew!

[Hawkeye]

Hey guys,

Since you've been so enthusiastically interested and helpful in trying to identify the Camponotus species before... I wanted to offer something in return. There was something about those markings on the queen we tried to identify together which made me recollect something...

When I just joined the forum months ago, I stumbled across a post of someone who didn't really intend to keep ants but decided to save not 1 but 2 queens he discovered in his pile of logs destined for the fireplace. He lives on an island which is part of Canada, but I can't match his ant queens to any known Canadian Carpenter species. His specimens are truly beautiful with shiny black bodies and wide silver bands across their gasters. I could be very wrong of course, but I actually suspect this is a previously unknown species.

Have a look at https://forum.AntsCanada.com/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=14651 and let me know what you think?

Hawk

[CabboAntsGuy]

Ok, I'm starting to wonder if there's a limit for replies, because together we posted about fifty today so far. I'm not sure more people is what we need............ Just kidding!! Got your message Hawkeye. Glad to bring in more people to the Crew. Soon this ant nest will not only be a fire ant nest, but a multi-queen fire nest.

Ladies and gentlemen, we are proud to present, a worldwide exclusive! The worlds first ever Camponotus Super Colony!!!

Love it! And those other queens you sent us too, the first one, ABSOLUTLY BEAUTIFUL!!!!!! The second looks like it has a head the size of a gaster and a gaster the size of a head. They are both lovely ants.

Ok, Question. Has anyone heard from Kerafox in a while. Wow is she gonna be in for a surprise when she comes on!

[Tzakeran]

Wow! That is a unique looking queen that guy found. Thanks for the link Hawkeye. Wouldn't that be something if a new ant species was found! I'm feeling the Camponotus queen will be having a few workers soon on my end. She had a few pupae last I looked and I'll give it another few days before I peek again. Might have to invest in a formicarium this winter!

[CANant]

Hey guys,

Since you've been so enthusiastically interested and helpful in trying to identify the Camponotus species before... I wanted to offer something in return. There was something about those markings on the queen we tried to identify together which made me recollect something...

When I just joined the forum months ago, I stumbled across a post of someone who didn't really intend to keep ants but decided to save not 1 but 2 queens he discovered in his pile of logs destined for the fireplace. He lives on an island which is part of Canada, but I can't match his ant queens to any known Canadian Carpenter species. His specimens are truly beautiful with shiny black bodies and wide silver bands across their gasters. I could be very wrong of course, but I actually suspect this is a previously unknown species.

Have a look at https://forum.AntsCanada.com/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=14651 and let me know what you think?

Hawk

To me the silver band across her gaster looks like light reflection and the tip of her gaster has a bit of a shadow from the wood. Also on the test tube she looks all black. Just what I see anyway.

[Kherafox]

Ok, Question. Has anyone heard from Kerafox in a while. Wow is she gonna be in for a surprise when she comes on!

I've been reading along!

It FINALLY rained for about half an hour where I am, after nearly two months of no rain. The fire ants outside wasted no time in sending their couple hundred of alates out! I saw a carpet of tiny shiny wings with my flashlight, and my porch light is a very popular club spot right now.

Unfortunately, not a fan of fire ants, so I'm avoiding the current sauna and flying, biting ants all over me or in my hair. By how many alates they had, the fire ants were just huddling under the surface, waiting for that layer of water, I swear I might have heard some cheering if the rain hadn't been a bit loud.

Any ideas on what time of night/day Campos might take advantage of this rain?

[CANant]

Ok, Question. Has anyone heard from Kerafox in a while. Wow is she gonna be in for a surprise when she comes on!

I've been reading along!

It FINALLY rained for about half an hour where I am, after nearly two months of no rain. The fire ants outside wasted no time in sending their couple hundred of alates out! I saw a carpet of tiny shiny wings with my flashlight, and my porch light is a very popular club spot right now.

Unfortunately, not a fan of fire ants, so I'm avoiding the current sauna and flying, biting ants all over me or in my hair. By how many alates they had, the fire ants were just huddling under the surface, waiting for that layer of water, I swear I might have heard some cheering if the rain hadn't been a bit loud.

Any ideas on what time of night/day Campos might take advantage of this rain?

I don’t know about your area but I always see Camponotus queens (foundresses) wandering around the next day after a rain.

[Kherafox]

Well, if these little ones are fire ants, I've got two queens. They were up near a porch light hanging around with tons of males.. no telling if they're fertile... I mean, they obviously flew but were they done flying? Not sure. Not even sure they are fire ants, all I know is they are smaller species than I wanted, but the first queens I've seen (first flight I've seen!).

[sartwell90]

Just experiment with insects you can find in and around your house I would say. Spiders, mosquitoes, houseflies etc. Catch them, freeze them, and the offer them up at random.

I can try this, but just afraid of parasites and insecticides

Well, the freezing part should eradicate any bacteria, mites and other parasites. So you should be fine there. As for pesticides that depends on where you catch them I guess? You can always breed some feeder insects yourself?

I've got a dubia roach bin for this purpose, which initially wasn't an option. After keeping crickets, which was a good lesson in how smelly, nasty and escapy that crickets are, me and my wife revisited the option. After discussion and considering the pros vs cons, I gave the roaches a try.

They are less smelly than crickets by a landslide (almost no smell other than whatever you feed them), easy to contain (they don't have the specialized foot parts to climb smooth surfaces), easy to feed (water gel, water gel and some dry food/substrate for dubia roaches), and strangely endearing.

I honestly thought I wouldn't find roaches to be as pleasant to keep as they've ended up being, and I got ~125 nymphs to start, some of which are almost adults and will start breeding. Keep them in a storage bin under my ant desk on a larger seedling heating pad which raises the temperature to 80-100 degrees depending on where in the bin you measure, which they love.

Maybe I'll make a thread documenting the whole process on the forums if folks would appreciate it. Oh and one of the roaches (just one) strangely has taken a liking to approaching my hand and spending some time on my arm when I go to clean the bin and check on them. It is very strange and such behavior would almost certainly lead to death in the wild, so I don't know what to think of it. Really not sure about the mental capacity of roaches, but without overthinking it - it is at the least kinda cute.

If you've got the space for a storage tote or two and your already keeping ants, I honestly think Dubia are a pretty good choice. That comes from someone who was initially adverse to the idea, and had to discuss and come to consensus with someone even more adverse (my wife). Both of us now prefer these feeder insects to others.

[CabboAntsGuy]

Glad to see you again Kerafox, and you too sartwell90. Happy to hear about the flight Kera, sounds like it was a big one. As far as camps go up hear, I found most of mine a few days after a rain storm. And if those lttle ones don't look like fire ants, the might be pharoh ants. Good luck with them!

StirTheFire (our own catch phrase )

[Broodmonkey]

Hello everyone I just posted my new queen ant in the identification section and a member named Camponotus suggested I have a Camponotus festinatus. Thank you for that. She was caught outside my apartment by a light upside-down on the ceiling. she did not look very good when I first got her, but apparently she settled right in because she ripped her wings off with in 20 mins of being in the setup. I moved her in to a test tube and she has sense laid 10-15 eggs and has 3 larvae at the moment. If any one has any tips for me let me know.