Tripped over, literally, a carpenter ant colony with queen so now I'm here to learn!

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dominatus
Posts: 10
Joined: Wed May 22, 2019 4:37 pm
Location: Texas, USA

Tripped over, literally, a carpenter ant colony with queen so now I'm here to learn!

Post: # 58582Post dominatus
Wed May 22, 2019 5:11 pm

Howdy y'all!

I've never had an real ant colony before. I've read up on the hobby from time to time but never had an opportunity to dive in. That has changed in a very serendipitous way!

I've kept critters all my life, picking up the creepy crawlies as soon as I could walk. In my 30's now I am content with a couple of tarantulas, Trouble the map turtle I've had since I was 6 or so, and my faithful dog. I've never had, and always wanted, an ant colony complete with queen and all the viewing angles.

I've always kept my eyes for roaming harvester or carpenter ant new queens during spring time, but never see one when I am in a position to act on the opportunity. Here in Texas, USA you see harvester and carpenter ants all the time and they are so interesting with their varied sizes (from big to bigger) and active nature.

Lately I've been helping the parents clear their couple of acres of overgrown trees and parts of the field and fence line that haven't been cleared or raked of the years of detritus. I've seen lots of carpenter ant colonies while doing all the trimming and cleaning up. I even saw all the colonies with their alates loitering around entrances and crevices last month. I spent all day taking small breaks to go see if any were swarming yet. Eventually I came around and they were all gone and I couldn't see any swarms anywhere! Sad day. I kept my eyes on the ground all week after that looking to spot a new carpenter ant queen looking for a home, no luck. Well that was 6 or 7 months ago and I had once again figured I'd maybe do an ant colony some other year.

Now lets talk about yesterday! Yesterday I was moving fallen limbs, trees, and what not around on the burn pile I've been accumulating and I noticed a rotten piece of wood on the bottom edge after I tripped over it. It looked like it had been buried in dirt from all the recent rain. I go to pick it up to put on the top of the pile and it breaks away. It was actually part of a bigger log then I thought. Under the breakaway is carpenter ants and their eggs, larva, and pupa. Scuttling away to hide deeper in the log I see the queen, no doubt, in all her glory! I immediately pick up the whole log and toss into a 20 gallon aquarium I had laying around on the porch. Bam! I now have an actual, intact, established Camponotus sp. ant colony! Well crap... now what...

There is a bit more to the story after that. Today they tried to escape and moved a lot of their eggs, larva, pupa into a rusted out lamp on the porch a few feet away from the aquarium. I scrambled to come with a plan to build a formicarium but didn't have the time to take action. I settled for slowly scraping away some of the wood to confirm the queen was still in there. She was. I placed the bit of wood she was in and about half of her work force into a 10 gallon aquarium with petroleum jelly around the top for actual, real containment. Silly me for thinking they would chill in their log while I figure out what to do. I then cut open the bottom of the old rusted lamp and got most of the workers and young into the aquarium also. So hopefully all this hasn't been a colony killing stressful event. Hopefully tomorrow I can start working on a real formicarium for them instead of some dirt and their bit of transported rotted wood. I don't have the funds to just order $50 -$100 bucks of stuff online but I do have lots of aquariums, tools, random building supplies, and a crafty, clever personality!

So I am here. Looking to get educated and make this colony that was slated for sacrifice to the god of fire a new home with less chance of burning.

TL;DR

I found an actual, intact, established Camponotus sp. ant colony and am playing extreme catch up on making a homemade budget formicarium for them.

I'll make a post later detailing what I have planned so far along with pictures of the queen and the colony in general.

Laters for now!

AntsDakota
Posts: 1283
Joined: Sat Mar 17, 2018 4:22 pm
Location: South Dakota

Re: Tripped over, literally, a carpenter ant colony with queen so now I'm here to learn!

Post: # 58615Post AntsDakota
Thu May 23, 2019 4:42 pm

dominatus wrote:
Wed May 22, 2019 5:11 pm
Howdy y'all!

I've never had an real ant colony before. I've read up on the hobby from time to time but never had an opportunity to dive in. That has changed in a very serendipitous way!

I've kept critters all my life, picking up the creepy crawlies as soon as I could walk. In my 30's now I am content with a couple of tarantulas, Trouble the map turtle I've had since I was 6 or so, and my faithful dog. I've never had, and always wanted, an ant colony complete with queen and all the viewing angles.

I've always kept my eyes for roaming harvester or carpenter ant new queens during spring time, but never see one when I am in a position to act on the opportunity. Here in Texas, USA you see harvester and carpenter ants all the time and they are so interesting with their varied sizes (from big to bigger) and active nature.

Lately I've been helping the parents clear their couple of acres of overgrown trees and parts of the field and fence line that haven't been cleared or raked of the years of detritus. I've seen lots of carpenter ant colonies while doing all the trimming and cleaning up. I even saw all the colonies with their alates loitering around entrances and crevices last month. I spent all day taking small breaks to go see if any were swarming yet. Eventually I came around and they were all gone and I couldn't see any swarms anywhere! Sad day. I kept my eyes on the ground all week after that looking to spot a new carpenter ant queen looking for a home, no luck. Well that was 6 or 7 months ago and I had once again figured I'd maybe do an ant colony some other year.

Now lets talk about yesterday! Yesterday I was moving fallen limbs, trees, and what not around on the burn pile I've been accumulating and I noticed a rotten piece of wood on the bottom edge after I tripped over it. It looked like it had been buried in dirt from all the recent rain. I go to pick it up to put on the top of the pile and it breaks away. It was actually part of a bigger log then I thought. Under the breakaway is carpenter ants and their eggs, larva, and pupa. Scuttling away to hide deeper in the log I see the queen, no doubt, in all her glory! I immediately pick up the whole log and toss into a 20 gallon aquarium I had laying around on the porch. Bam! I now have an actual, intact, established Camponotus sp. ant colony! Well crap... now what...

There is a bit more to the story after that. Today they tried to escape and moved a lot of their eggs, larva, pupa into a rusted out lamp on the porch a few feet away from the aquarium. I scrambled to come with a plan to build a formicarium but didn't have the time to take action. I settled for slowly scraping away some of the wood to confirm the queen was still in there. She was. I placed the bit of wood she was in and about half of her work force into a 10 gallon aquarium with petroleum jelly around the top for actual, real containment. Silly me for thinking they would chill in their log while I figure out what to do. I then cut open the bottom of the old rusted lamp and got most of the workers and young into the aquarium also. So hopefully all this hasn't been a colony killing stressful event. Hopefully tomorrow I can start working on a real formicarium for them instead of some dirt and their bit of transported rotted wood. I don't have the funds to just order $50 -$100 bucks of stuff online but I do have lots of aquariums, tools, random building supplies, and a crafty, clever personality!

So I am here. Looking to get educated and make this colony that was slated for sacrifice to the god of fire a new home with less chance of burning.

TL;DR

I found an actual, intact, established Camponotus sp. ant colony and am playing extreme catch up on making a homemade budget formicarium for them.

I'll make a post later detailing what I have planned so far along with pictures of the queen and the colony in general.

Laters for now!
Most ants are very tough when it comes to stress (especially Camponotus). They should be fine.
"God made every kind of wild beasts and every kind of livestock and every kind of creeping things;" (including ants) "and God saw that it was good." Genesis 1:25

dominatus
Posts: 10
Joined: Wed May 22, 2019 4:37 pm
Location: Texas, USA

Re: Tripped over, literally, a carpenter ant colony with queen so now I'm here to learn!

Post: # 58627Post dominatus
Thu May 23, 2019 10:15 pm

Ha, I said I saw alates 6 or so months ago. I meant weeks :-P

Anyways. Good to know they "should" do fine. I got them moved into a 2 in 1 outland / nest I made with some wood and a 20gallon aquarium. I'm not super happy with it. Mostly the wood needs to be fitted better, there is too big a gap between it and the glass, allowing the ants to kind of roam outside of the the cut chambers and paths. That and it just looks kind of looks ugly, I know I can build a much cleaner presentation. All in all I think it will work. I am going to go post pics in the formicarium section and get tips on how this set up may be lacking, or when I build another; I will be building another. This was a lot of fun and these guys will eventually need someplace bigger or a new, clean place after they wreck this one.

Laters!

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