Hibernation

[cmreese228]

Hello,

I was hoping that someone would be able to assist me with my new ant colony.

I have a Camponotus Americanus colony with about 5 workers that just recently came out of hibernation that was about three months long and I put them in an AC test tube portal. At the beginning of the day they were active and roaming for about 2-3 hours but now they are all in the test tube not moving at all. Does this have something to with hibernation? Are they just trying to warm up from hibernation and it takes a few days? Or have I done something wrong at all?

Any help would be much appreciated, this is my first colony so I'm just hoping to do everything right.

Thank you very much

[TriumphAnt]

Nice to hear you’ve decided to get into keeping an ant colony!
I now have a number of camponotus colonies too (C. pennsylvanicus, C. subbarbatus, C. chromaiodes, C. castaneus, C. nearcticus).
I’ve heard that even when not exposed to hibernation temps, they still may go through periods of inactivity. What area are you from? They may be sluggish due to it still being January, or maybe they’re just taking their time waking up. They were likely so active at first due to fear of being moved into a new home. If all you’ve done is woke them up and moved them to a test tube set up then I would think they are ok; I’ve moved some of my smaller colonies into test tubes recently as well. Just try to offer a little food and keep them warm, hopefully they should start to perk up.

Also just to put this info out there, I’ve recently had two smallish Camponotus colonies (C. chromaiodes) look LIFELESS, dead, like poured them out of their container kind of dead, seemingly from one day to the next. I panicked, gave their larva to other colonies to raise and worried I had accidentally suffocated them or something so I kept the container lid slightly off and left them alone (I almost tossed them out) but the next day one of the colonies had returned pretty much to normal! The other colony remained the same for a few days, with workers occasionally moving or twitching. Colony members are still very sluggish and the queen barely moves if at all even when touched (maybe a leg twitch). I think it’s been like a week and every day they seem to get more active but I still have NO IDEA what happened... Just goes to show, even seeming dead for a few days isn’t reason enough to give up on Ants!! Lol

[cmreese228]

Thank you for responding,

I am from Ohio, so it is still pretty cold but I did put them through a three month hibernation and moved them out yesterday. I check on them every morning and move the red cover I have over their test tube and today more workers began to move their antennae due to the light. Do you think that their just needing some time to wake up? I did read that sometimes it can take a little while for the ants to "defrost" from hibernation.

I would say you're a fairly experienced Camponotus keeper so any advice you have on this would be great! And I am trying to remain patient with it all, I hope that my colony will be as yours was and be active within the week, slowly getting better every day and of course hopefully laying some eggs soon too. And exactly, it's always good to keep on going with your little ant buddies! I can't wait for my colony to grow, it's exciting

[TriumphAnt]

I typed a huge reply and my phone just deleted it
Anywaysss My points were
-1 your colony is more than likely fine, I would keep them warm, offer food, and just watch for activity. Definitely don’t think you’ve done anything wrong though.

-2 I’m from West Virginia so I totally know its pretty cold haha

-3 Most camponotus can be slow growing I think, so just remember to be patient! Feed plenty in the summer and I’d imagine you should see a nice population growth.

-4 I read in a study about a trick you should be able to use to grow a CAMPONOTUS colony(won’t work for other genus)
—>(I repeat do not try with any other ants unless brood boosting the same SPECIES or otherwise know what you’re doing..if you want them to live)
Basically - hydrocarbon imprinting (how ants tell they are apart of a colony) happens upon hatching from pupae. So technically you could literally walk outside, find any foreign or wild carpenter ant colony (any native species- of camponotus GENUS), take some pupae/larva/or eggs from the wild nest, and introduce them to your queen and workers. When they hatch they should be loyal to the foreign queen and would even attack their genetic sisters if returned to their original nest after hatching. Hopefully after some of mine hatch and I remember to I can upload some pics of my multi species carpenter ant colony lol just an idea if you ever needed or wanted to jump your worker force for some reason.

[JoeHostile1]

Why take them out of hibernation in the middle of winter?

[cmreese228]

Thank you for that advice, I have recently offered them some honey in case they want to come out and they are staying nice and warm in my room. I will probably offer them some insects every now and then too in case they come out so they can get some protein in their diet. But I will remain patient with them, they can take as long as they need, I was just worried that I had done something wrong with them. I am sure that the warmer temperatures will warm them up eventually and make them more active here soon.

I actually was listening to a podcast about ants and they had mentioned that with kidnapping ants and I may even try to do that once it finally stays with warm temperatures (we've had an extremely mild winter here) and if I cannot find any americanus species, I regularly find pennsylvanicus around so I could experiment with that and watch the results which is fascinating, thank you very much!

[cmreese228]

I removed them so early because I had them hibernating for three months so I could remove them now and give them some time to warm up hopefully and then start to lay eggs again, after they had their much needed rest as well.

[PwnerPie]

They will try to hibernate for the entirerty of winter in your area. Generally 5 months. Nov-march is ideal