Welcome to the Camponotus Crew!

[Ragnaroeck]

Heeyheeyho Hawkeye,

Seems like it. Also seems like I am a bit over cautious, as it is my first ant colony today I looked at the queen as I try to only look once or twice a week at the queen and she was laying eggs (actually laid one while I was looking) and the workers who stay in the nest all the time have huge gasters, so I assume they are the repletes and aquapletes in the Nest

Sry for writing such a huge text over nothing
The Ants were a wish of mine for a long time and I was just worried

Thanks for the quick response

[Hawkeye]

Heeyheeyho Hawkeye,

Seems like it. Also seems like I am a bit over cautious, as it is my first ant colony today I looked at the queen as I try to only look once or twice a week at the queen and she was laying eggs (actually laid one while I was looking) and the workers who stay in the nest all the time have huge gasters, so I assume they are the repletes and aquapletes in the Nest

Sry for writing such a huge text over nothing
The Ants were a wish of mine for a long time and I was just worried

Thanks for the quick response

If your colony only has 9 workers at the moment, the likelihood of any of them being repletes are pretty slim. They've probably just chowed down on all that food you offered and are filled to the brim, in anticipation of the first batch of new worker ants which will need to be fed. Also I am not sure if Camponotus sp. Actually have repletes?

[SYUTEO]

I arrived home after my two day visit to my grandmother, and I found one of my camponotus colonies heavily decreasing in numbers because of lack of food! This camponotus colony is an unkown species of carpenter ant, the day before I went to my grandma's house they were perfectly fine, and I fed them that day, they were a healthy 8 month old colony with about 40-50 workers but now, they only had around 15-20 workers, how can I save them?

[Hawkeye]

A 2 day food shortage wouldn't affect the colony so drastically in my opinion. Especially if you kept them well fed before, they should have been able to survive the dry spell. Are you sure there isn't anything else that is bothering your colony?

Here's some things I would do immediately:
- remove their water supply and replace with fresh new (bottled) water
- remove any waste from their arena
- insert a couple of slices of lemon into their arena
- provide fresh (brown) sugar water
- provide some source of protein, like fruit flies

If possible:
- introduce springtails to the arena to help the ants deal with waste and fungus

[ridgewalker]

I was cleaning my car today and discovered a queen ant crawling around. Looked a few feet away and then I saw about six of them. I ran and grabbed a container to collect them. I got a total of 3. I only have one test tube setup available. So I put them into the test tube. I know not all queens make it and there no way to tell if they are fertile. Also remember the National Geographic video about 3 queen living together until the workers hatch and decide who to keep. Since most queen in the wild don’t make it. Is there any harm in keeping multiple queens in a test tube? I am starting to run out of equipment to house these guys. Going to have to chose which ants to keep.

[ridgewalker]

3 queens found today in my parking lot in Tennessee. They are about 10-12 mm in size

[Hawkeye]

3 queens found today in my parking lot in Tennessee. They are about 10-12 mm in size

Not completely sure which species they are. The size corresponds with pavements ants, though the coloration is not what I expected.

In general most ant species queens will quite happily share a claustral chamber (the first hole they dig) as the extra number of queens equals better protection. After that it kind of depends on if the species is monogyn (1 queen) or polygyn (multiple queens).

If the species only accepts one queen, they will fight to the death to become the sole ruler of the nest. Obviously the surviving queen will rule the nest, but she might be hurt in the process and risk losing limbs. (The eggs of the dead queens will boost her chances, but in general you'd like a healthy queen)

I suggest you go to your local florist or **** and ask if you can get 2 test tubes. Set them up with water and cotton balls and you might just be able to raise 3 healthy colonies.

[Hawkeye]

not sure why it turned that into a bleeeb... the store where you buy medicine

[ridgewalker]

3 queens found today in my parking lot in Tennessee. They are about 10-12 mm in size

Not completely sure which species they are. The size corresponds with pavements ants, though the coloration is not what I expected.

Thanks Hawkeye, yea the color is what caught my eye when I first saw them. The top of their back, in the sunlight looked like they had a red drop of paint on them

[Hawkeye]

3 queens found today in my parking lot in Tennessee. They are about 10-12 mm in size

Not completely sure which species they are. The size corresponds with pavements ants, though the coloration is not what I expected.

Thanks Hawkeye, yea the color is what caught my eye when I first saw them. The top of their back, in the sunlight looked like they had a red drop of paint on them

Any chance you have some cleared, less grainy pictures? Preferably a side and top view.