Welcome to the Camponotus Crew!

[ridgewalker]

Thanks Cabbo,
I appreciate the heads up about the queen not being able to turn around.

I think

I have now run out of wax worms though, or rather they all died or turned into moths and then died,
-Cabbo

Cabbo, I would like you restock your wax worm supply by visiting my 12 honeybee hives, any wax worm or small hive beetle you can find is your’s , totally free of charge, in fact, if you can collect them all I will pay you to take them! Please take them, lol, I hate wax worms so much

[joquijada]

Hello friends,

Just joined this morning. I want to start my own colony of carpenter ants.

I live in Pennsylvania too, Northeast - the Pocono's. I'm new to ant keeping and just caught my first ant queen, a Camponotus read/black ant queen! I grabbed her from a colony thriving in my backyard.

I put her in a test tube with half water filled, a cotton to stop the water, and then another piece of cotton to cover the open end, just like the video showed. I notice she's restless. Do I need to feed her if I took her from an existing colony that seemed to be quite mature? Or does the no feeding necessary rule apply to all cases?

I also I will purchase a formicarium very soon. I was wondering if I can grab a few workers from the same colony (other than taking the queen, colony was left intact, no damage to it whatsoever), and then move them into the formicarium along with the queen. Do you think that's feasible?

[Hawkeye]

Hello friends,

Just joined this morning. I want to start my own colony of carpenter ants.

I live in Pennsylvania too, Northeast - the Pocono's. I'm new to ant keeping and just caught my first ant queen, a Camponotus read/black ant queen! I grabbed her from a colony thriving in my backyard.

I put her in a test tube with half water filled, a cotton to stop the water, and then another piece of cotton to cover the open end, just like the video showed. I notice she's restless. Do I need to feed her if I took her from an existing colony that seemed to be quite mature? Or does the no feeding necessary rule apply to all cases?

I also I will purchase a formicarium very soon. I was wondering if I can grab a few workers from the same colony (other than taking the queen, colony was left intact, no damage to it whatsoever), and then move them into the formicarium along with the queen. Do you think that's feasible?

First of all: Wow how did you manage to even get the queen, without damaging the nest?

Second: your queen has already settled a colony so she depends on her workers to feed her. She hasn't got any reserves like an alate does. So yeah you want scoop up a good amount of workers too, and some brood if you can.

Carpenter ants are a singke queen species, so the 'otherwise intact nest' will now die out, as they haven't got a queen to produce brood.

About her restless behaviour: I'm guessing you'd be pretty rattled too if you were just abducted from your home and placed in a completely foreign room made of unknown materials.

The test tube setup will do for now provided you get her some workers. Next you'll have to place the setup in or connect it too an outworld so her worker can forage for food.

[tdoukas]

Hi, I'm new to this forum. Please go easy on me. If this isn't the right place for this question, please direct me to where is the best place to post.
I've been helping my young son with his ant hobby, but it's also turned into my hobby, as it's pretty addicting. March 2019, we found a Camponotus queen on the SF peninsula, CA. (I don't know anything more specific than it's a Camponotus.) Over the summer and fall, the colony grew to about 16 or so. Two different types of workers, very cool. Then the colony stopped growing over the winter, which I understand is normal. But now it's almost July, and the queen has not laid any eggs, and the colony is not growing. Actually the colony has shrunk down to about 10. We've tried different food sources but nothing has worked. What can we do to get the colony growing again? The queen and her workers are in a test tube attached to a feeding station. Thank you!

[Hawkeye]

Hi, I'm new to this forum. Please go easy on me. If this isn't the right place for this question, please direct me to where is the best place to post.
I've been helping my young son with his ant hobby, but it's also turned into my hobby, as it's pretty addicting. March 2019, we found a Camponotus queen on the SF peninsula, CA. (I don't know anything more specific than it's a Camponotus.) Over the summer and fall, the colony grew to about 16 or so. Two different types of workers, very cool. Then the colony stopped growing over the winter, which I understand is normal. But now it's almost July, and the queen has not laid any eggs, and the colony is not growing. Actually the colony has shrunk down to about 10. We've tried different food sources but nothing has worked. What can we do to get the colony growing again? The queen and her workers are in a test tube attached to a feeding station. Thank you!

What specifcally have you fed them? Have you (unintentionally) altered any other environmental factors like temperature, humidity, light etc?

[Hawkeye]

Switching up the food you offer is good for any creature. You don't eat the same food every night yourself either now do you?

Sources of sugar: white/cane/brown sugar, honey, maple syrup, honeydew, fruit

Protein: besides the usual insects, spiders, worms etc. You can try eggwhite, meat, fish, wet cat/dog food, flower pollen, peanut butter, and probably a lot more.

If you're breeding your own feeder insects, try gutloading them with a variety of fresh vegetables and fruit. You are what you eat, so this will benefit your ants too.

As for environmental factors always try to offer a 'range', so a hotter and a colder part for instance. That way your ants can find the optimum conditions.

[tdoukas]

I previously read your post about switching up their food, and I've tried that. Over the last few months, we've given them mealworms, fruit fly larvae, fruit flies, freshly killed spiders, freshly killed flies, lunch meat and other meat, honey, sugar, grapes and other fruit, etc.

The colony is in the same shoe box on the same dresser in the same room with the same temperature setting as it was last summer when they were multiplying. And we make sure to leave them alone for a few days at a time, so they have privacy.

We don't know what else to try. I was thinking of adding wood shavings to their feeding chamber, to see if they like that?

(We also have several tetramorium colonies in that same room, and they've all exploded and are in outworlds now. I know they grow very differently and faster than Camponotus though. I'd hate to lose this Camponotus colony... it's our only one, and some of the workers are beautiful, with their golden and black striped abdomens.)

[ridgewalker]

Hello friends,

Just joined this morning. I want to start my own colony of carpenter ants.

I live in Pennsylvania too, Northeast - the Pocono's. I'm new to ant keeping and just caught my first ant queen, a Camponotus read/black ant queen! I grabbed her from a colony thriving in my backyard.

I put her in a test tube with half water filled, a cotton to stop the water, and then another piece of cotton to cover the open end, just like the video showed. I notice she's restless. Do I need to feed her if I took her from an existing colony that seemed to be quite mature? Or does the no feeding necessary rule apply to all cases?

I also I will purchase a formicarium very soon. I was wondering if I can grab a few workers from the same colony (other than taking the queen, colony was left intact, no damage to it whatsoever), and then move them into the formicarium along with the queen. Do you think that's feasible?

Welcome to the crew

Would be able to post a picture of your queen? If you were able to catch the queen from an existing colony, that is awesome. When it a new queen, they are easy to spot because of their wings. However after they have founded a colony, they are a bit harder to identify. Camponotus can have super majors, can many people catch these believing them to be queens. A close up picture will help will to identify the queen and you will be able to learn what kind of Camponotus have caught.

[Hawkeye]

I previously read your post about switching up their food, and I've tried that. Over the last few months, we've given them mealworms, fruit fly larvae, fruit flies, freshly killed spiders, freshly killed flies, lunch meat and other meat, honey, sugar, grapes and other fruit, etc.

The colony is in the same shoe box on the same dresser in the same room with the same temperature setting as it was last summer when they were multiplying. And we make sure to leave them alone for a few days at a time, so they have privacy.

We don't know what else to try. I was thinking of adding wood shavings to their feeding chamber, to see if they like that?

(We also have several tetramorium colonies in that same room, and they've all exploded and are in outworlds now. I know they grow very differently and faster than Camponotus though. I'd hate to lose this Camponotus colony... it's our only one, and some of the workers are beautiful, with their golden and black striped abdomens.)

Carpenter queens lay their eggs in batches, they need to recharge in between. So it might have something to do with that.
I'd make sure they always have access to a sugar source and would feed protein rich foods according to demand. You could try to boil rice in sugary water and offer that to your ants. As a source of both sugars, protein and some vitamins. Fresh fruit like (water)melon or apple seem to be really appreciated by my ants.

[EmberMan]

Hello!

I am new to ant keeping and I have caught 4 queens which I believe are Camponotus pennsylvanicus. I’ve had them in test tube setups for about 5 weeks now, and 3 of them have eggs. I’ve only checked on them about once a week, but I have not really noticed a change in size of the eggs. They may be slightly more oval than when they started though. Wondering if this is normal or if the change in size at this point should be more noticeable. Any help would be appreciated!

Thank you:)