Camponotus Novaboracensis Journal

[AntsOntario]

(If there are any spelling mistakes, please tell me. I'll fix them ASAP.)

Hey! I'm Daniel from the AntsOntario channel, and I thought I'd start a journal. From the title, you can see this will be about my Camponotus Novaboracensis queen. I might add in some of my other queens (tetramorium, lasius, formica), but this will mainly be about my camponotus. My queen is already on the pupa stage, so I guess I am kinda late. I'll add all the previous information below. I'll also be adding pictures once my micro
I caught this queen on May 25th, or at least I am pretty sure. (Give or take a few days.)
My queen didn't lay eggs for 2 weeks. She was viciously tearing at her cotton, and I had to change it twice. I moved her to a brand new one, and she settled in instantly. It took her about 4 weeks to go from egg to larvae. Larvae to pupa took 1 week. (July Thursday 13th when they appeared)

As of today (July 31st) She has 12 Pupa. Most of them are pretty dark, so I can expect workers soon!

So that's all! Hopefully this will be fun to read, and hopefully I can learn a thing or two haha. I'm still kinda new to this.
Enjoy!

[AntsOntario]

My Camponotus queen has 2 pale workers! The cocoons got really dark today, and then.. boom?? I'm so excited for this colony.
Also, 2 of my tetramorium colonies has workers now. One has 9, and another has 11. They had their workers on the same night. I guess this first week of august has the most action for most ant keepers. I also added their first outworld. I soaked a bit of cotton with this mixture of honey, white sugar & water. They seem to love it!
I'm thinking about moving them to a new outworld though. I used regular dark soil as their substrate, but as you can imagine, it's hard to see them. Naturally, my ants would be dealing with a grainy substrate, so I think it'll be fine.
One of my lasius queens has HUGE larvae for some reason. I only caught her 2 weeks ago.. but the more workers, the happier I'll be, haha! It's possibly the temperature I am keeping them at. I keep them at a consistent temperature of 26 - 30 Degrees. (79 - 86 Fahrenheit) It stays super humid in my garage. I have to keep them there, since my house is so loud 24/7. I tried a closet, cabinet, even my room! (I couldn't even sleep.)
In the end, they found themselves in the garage.

Ill make sure to keep you guys updated.

[1sttimeantfarm]

Nice to see other Ontario antkeepers about.

[AntsOntario]

Nice to see other Ontario antkeepers about.

Haha yeah! Was starting to think I was the only one..

[1sttimeantfarm]

You should include some pictures.

[AntsOntario]

Hi guys! Glad to see people are tuning in. I have great news! My Camponotus Novaboracensis queen now has 5 strong workers. All of them have gotten darker & I have just introduced them into their first outworld. I fed them a little drop of my mixture. (Sugar, Honey, Water.)
My Tetramorium colony is doing well also. They have 14 workers and are eating well. I fed them a small cricket & they finished the entire thing overnight. I'll be purchasing size 1 & 3 from the AntsAustralia shop. (Ytong Nests.)
I don't know which colonies to keep. I have 4 different species, since I sold some already. I have lasius, formica, tetramorium & camponotus. What colony do you guys think I should keep?

Lasius - 7 Huge Larvae / 1 Dark Pupa
Camponotus - 5 Workers / 7 Pupa / 7 - 20 eggs
Tetramorium - 14 Workers / 7 - 11 Pupa / 5 - 10 eggs
Formica - 5 Larvae

So you can vote by replying. I can't keep all of these colonies so I wanna figure out which one I should keep.
(I've also included a picture of when my queen got her first workers. If you guys can tell me how to properly add pictures it would be great. I'm currently using google drive but I don't think this is working very well.)

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B5NYDWoHp_lvM3VkS2w2SHZoZk0

[Will230145]

#1 Camponotus, favorite species



#2 Lasius, second favorite species

Both easy to keep!

[AntsOntario]

#1 Camponotus, favorite species



#2 Lasius, second favorite species

Both easy to keep!

Turns out my lasius queen is actually a Formica Pallidefulva.
I like my camponotus colony also, so I think I'll keep them. She just got another worker this morning

[Rhetorik]

I vote Camponotus and Formica : )

Imgur works well for hosting pics, once uploaded hit share and copy the link. Then use this button



And paste the link between the 2 brackets.

It's nice to know there's more Ontario people's here. Keep us posted

Cheers

[AntsOntario]

Alright. Hopefully you guys can see these (I used Imgur)
The Camponotus picture was taken on August 4th.
The Formica Pallidefulva picture was taken on August 5th.
The Formica Fusca was taken on August 5th.
Enjoy!