Huge Camponotus Colony in omni nest XL

[RangerRob]

Ran across a huge colony of Camponotus sp. Found them in a old log. It was slightly chilly so it slowed the ants down enough where i could easily catch them and there queen. They had an amazing amount of brood with them as well!!! Also showed my starting colonies in the hybrid nests at the end. I need to get the Camonotus colony another formicarium to attach and a bigger outworld as well so hopefully that will be my next upgrade.

[WillWithAnts]

Whew, I am drooling . So cool! My camponotus colonies are just founding, so I anxiously wait for them to grow to that size!

[ooper01]

Wow very nice! Growing a Camponotus colony that large would probably take at least a couple of years. Congrats!

[RangerRob]

Whew, I am drooling . So cool! My camponotus colonies are just founding, so I anxiously wait for them to grow to that size!

I know right! at first I had a starting colony of the same species of camponotus in the omni nest, they started with 7 workers and the queen in the test tube and by the time I moved them out of the formicarium for the bigger colony they had grown to 57 workers in one summer with the same amount of brood! so from what ive seen the 1st year is the slowest. but after that they take off!!! i was just lucky enough to stumble across this giant colony and find that many with brood and the queen lol! I found a couple of colonies like this under rotting fire wood piles even one with tones of males and soon to be queens getting ready for a nuptial flight! its surprisingly easy to harvest almost all the colony too! all I did was get a tub like you would put Landry in. coat the inside with vasoline and brang it out in the woods with me. when I found the colony I simply picked up the log and broke it apart with my hands over the tub and woolaaa! all the ants brood and the queen fall into the tub and cant crawl out or up the sides. then I brang them home and put test tubes all around the bottom just like any set up, and put a light source over. By the next day they all moved into the tubes and I just pour them into the outword. they then move into the nest no problem. Still better to start colony from founding queen tho.