Why aren’t my ants coming out

[Danw190]

i have a small colony of colobopsis impressa. They all stay in the nest most of the time but a lot of workers come out a few days at a time and get food and work on the nest then stop for a week then start being active again. Is this normal?

[NKantsalberta]

Hi there,

I am not sure of the behaviors of that specific species, but it seems normal for a small colony.

They will only venture out enough to find what they need, then return to the nest. It is a survival strategy in most species when numbers and resource stores are low, each ant is valuable. The nest will only be expanded as space is needed, if you have them in a substrate nest.