My journey keeping a Camponotus Pennsylvanicus Colony

[CANant]

Hi all
Seems all is good with my colony. Check out the brood. The larvae aren't wasting any time! Look how big they are in so little time. I also see some new eggs!
Sorry the picture isn’t the best. I had to use the flash and they definitely don’t like it so I had to be quick.



I just in case you noticed as well I saw two tiny little orange things near the brood. I immediately panicked and thought “ohhhh nooo! Can those be mites??” I immediately went back to inspect further. I always freeze or dip the cricket into boiled water to kill any unwanted mites or bacteria. It looks to be bits of cricket. I do feed Flukers Orange Cube Complete Cricket Diet to the crickets so maybe it’s from that??! I will still keep a close eye on them.

[CANant]

I got some great shots of the brood and I’m blown away how massive the larvae are getting! Check them out!

[CANant]

Update: I now have 19-20 workers of various sizes and there are even more enclosing very soon. The queen is laying a lot and the brood is growing fast. The first image you can see the recently enclosed worker. She is brown instead of black.

Please excuse the cracks in the test tubes. I’m not sure why it is happening but the heat from the heat cable has made them much worse.






More images and video on https://imgur.com/user/CANant

I’ve recently received an order of springtails, crickets, wax worms, mealworms and fruit flies from CS Exotics (Canada). The colony is eating very well now. Such an exciting time seeing them grow. They are now separating their garbage and food storage from their brood areas. They have been moving around larvae depending on their stages and requirements.
I’ll be working on their new AC Outworld hopefully this week. I plan to have a natural vivarium feel to it but the base will be sanded grout so hopefully they won’t move in and it all works out as planned. Stay tuned for pictures!

[CANant]

For anyone that’s interested...finished my AC Outworld now it’s just drying. I have 3 miniature iris plants spread out in the back. I will probably have to remove them if they even survive but we’ll see. I’m worried it will be too cluttered but if so I can always remove everything except the wood and rocks. Once it’s all dry I’ll mist the soil and moss and then add some springtails and maybe some other soil creatures. I may not be able to keep it moist enough for the springtails and other soil creatures but it’s worth a try. I have air pumping in from an aquarium air pump for air circulation.
What do you think?

[ArizonanAnts]

WOW that is super cool. Where did you get those feeders?

[CANant]

WOW that is super cool. Where did you get those feeders?

Thanks! They are from byformica. Love them! Their ant nectar is great too. You can buy them on amazon or through some stores like Ant Depot

[CANant]

I’m not able to count how many ants I have now. It’s over 23 for sure. I have a 2 (maybe 3) major’s...at least I think they are because they are 3/4 the length of the queen and they have much larger more heart shaped heads. What do you think? Here is one that enclosed recently. She’s the big brown ant on the brood pile.



Video:
https://i.imgur.com/3Pp6jcM.mp4

[CabboAntsGuy]

Hey CANant, nice to see your colony is doing so well, I'm kinda jealous of their progress, My colony still has 9 workers from last year and I think some of them may die soon. I would think about starting My own journal, but I still need to figure out the best way for me to do pics. That out-world is also very stunning love the driftwood.

[CANant]

Hey CANant, nice to see your colony is doing so well, I'm kinda jealous of their progress, My colony still has 9 workers from last year and I think some of them may die soon. I would think about starting My own journal, but I still need to figure out the best way for me to do pics. That out-world is also very stunning love the driftwood.

Hey! Thanks Cabbo!
Once I put my colony back on a heat cable and started offering protein they have just exploded!
Imgur is great for photos/video if you haven’t tried that app. It’s free too.

[CabboAntsGuy]

Do you think the heat cable makes that much of a difference, if so, what heat do you put yours at?