My journey keeping a Camponotus Pennsylvanicus Colony

[CabboAntsGuy]

Congrats, it's an... egg? Nice to see that so early on.

[CANant]

Congrats, it's an... egg? Nice to see that so early on.

Yes 3 eggs. Both queens I have caught have produced eggs within a few days. Won’t know if she is fertile until I see nanitics.

She’s in a test tube with water on one side and a cotton plug to seal the tube opening. I have a heat cable running near the opening of the test tube. Plus I have aluminum foil wrapped around the part where the queen is so she is in the dark.
She will remain that way until she has workers. Then I will attach a portal or a very small foraging area to give them food.

[CabboAntsGuy]

I just caught another queen a few minutes ago bringing my total to five campos.

[CANant]

I just caught another queen a few minutes ago bringing my total to five campos.

That’s awesome! Is she a Pennsylvanicus Queen?

[CabboAntsGuy]

Yeah, that's mostly what I find.

[CANant]

Last night we were too busy to clean up from dinner so this morning I started to clean and get this I found another Pennsylvanicus queen in my frying pan!! Poor girl was covered in oil. I am glad she got stuck in there because I don’t want a nest of camponotus loose in my house! Eek!
She is cleaned off as best as I can and settling into her new home..a luxurious oil free test tube. She must have been thirsty because she took a long drink of water. Hopefully she makes it.

[CabboAntsGuy]

cool, what a trap. my update is on the crew page if you want to see it.

[CANant]

Just a quick update.

Nothing too exciting going on really.

I have 2 more Pennsylvanicus queens now. That makes 3 new this year plus my colony of course.
I’ve been seeing a few other queens. Very small black one and even smaller reddish brown ones but I can’t collect every one I find plus I am only interested in Camponotus

The first queen I caught just enclosed her first nanitic. Yeppie she’s proven fertile.
The other 2 queens are doing well with lots of eggs. I ended up putting the “frying pan”queen into a larger test tube because she has trouble moving her one back leg properly. I can only assume it was injured when she was stuck in the oil. The larger tube gives her more surface area to spread her legs so she’s moving around a lot better now and once she settled in she started laying eggs.

My year old colony is doing very well. They are eating well and the queen has been laying so many eggs. I have noticed 2-3 ants died from old age. I still haven’t found their gravesite. They aren’t leaving them with the insect waste.

That’s all for now....

[ArizonanAnts]

WOW!!! I just read all of the latest news. That is super cool. Your colony is progressing very nicely. Sorry for my Inactivity. But I am back and ready to share some exciting news soon!