Hello,Ninefingers wrote: ↑Thu Sep 20, 2018 7:51 pmI have a Camponotus pennsylvanicus queen I caught approximately the beginning of June. She laid eggs approximately June 6th/2018. I kept her in a standard test tube set up. I kept her in a dark closet in my air condition house. Temperature stayed at a constant 20 degrees Celsius. To date she only has 2 workers and a pile of eggs. At the beginning of Sept I moved her to the garage and increased *** SPAM *** to about 25 degrees Celsius in the hopes of helping her get a few more workers before the winter. They never leave the test tube to forage. Every couple of days I insert a que tip just inside her test tube and give them a sugar water solution garnished with either pieces of a store bought cricket or meal worm. I have only seen them take the protein offered on 2 occasions. Occasionally one of the workers can be seen on the carbohydrate I provide. Temperature has started to become fall like here in niagara falls canada. I have never hibernated a set of ants before.AntsOfOntario wrote: ↑Sat Sep 15, 2018 6:05 pmYou can ask them all here, I don't mind I created this thread to document Camponotus Pennslyvanicus in as much detail as I could in hopes that it helped someone out. A question you might have could apply to many others.Ninefingers wrote: ↑Wed Sep 12, 2018 8:53 amFirst off, I would like to congratulate you on the fantastic progress/success you have had with this particular Camponotus pennsylvanicus colony. I am very jealous. They have always been my favorite. I have a colony as well but did not heat them. As a result they have underperformed. I wont hijack your thread by posting a few of my many questions. Would you mind if I pm'ed you regarding a few of them?
Should I continue to feed until the end of October then hibernate them?
Should I attempt to increase temp by way of a heating cable or lamp for the next month?
Should I attempt to have them relocate to another test tube with a greater water supply before hibernation by removing wrapper on test tube to add light while providing a darker alternative?
What will happen to the eggs that dont (eclose?) And become workers before the winter hibernation?
Sry for all the questions. I'll post a few simple pics of my meager set up for clarification shortly.
I am first going to let you know that your colony is doing fine. I have many colonies of this same species that have around the same development speed as you. I am noticing that growth is high dependant on the queen you end up coming across in this species. Most queens have a strict range and you won't see any outliers but in this species there are many.
Although, 2 workers is quite low for any queen. So I must ask, did she *only* lay 2 eggs or was there more and she ate them?
I can already tell that heat was a factor in the development in your workers. Normally it takes *Camponotus Pennslyvanicus* queens 1.5 - 2 months to bring their brood from egg to worker. At 20 degrees that is significantly increasing that wait time, thus draining more of that queens reserves. I think if you had offered her honey a couple of times she would've produced a larger first generation.
Now, in terms of foraging nothing you mentioned is a rare occurrence. You won't catch them doing so until they reach at least 6 workers. This species is very timid and will do everything in their power to not risk their worker force. If you have tubing connected to their foraging arena, I suggest placing food in there so it isn't directly in their nest, but they can access it without getting stressed out.
'Should I continue to feed until the end of October then hibernate them?'
Yes. Once their eggs hatch that is when you should start getting ready for hibernation. This allows the colony to have a faster startup in Spring.
'Should I attempt to increase temp by way of a heating cable or lamp for the next month?'
No. It is probably too late to increase their workers by very much without going into the colder months.
'Should I attempt to have them relocate to another test tube with a greater water supply before hibernation by removing wrapper on test tube to add light while providing a darker alternative?'
Depends. I would have to see how much water is actually left. With 2 workers they will probably get extremely stressed out.
What will happen to the eggs that dont (eclose?) And become workers before the winter hibernation?
They will hibernate as larva. This is actually something you'd want to have happen, rather then them going into hibernation with no brood.
Hope this has helped
If you have any more questions feel free to ask away.