35 replies to this topic

[DerpyBoas]

After years of wanting to raise an ant colony, I decided this was going to be the year. After being super unlucky, and finding no queens, I bought one and had her shipped to me. Don't worry, we were both in Michigan so no border crossing. I decided on a Camponotus novaeboracensis Queen. I received her Wednesday, July 31st and my ant keeping journey began. I decided to record it here for me and anyone else who may want to read it.


When she first arrived, her test tube was a mess from being bounced around. Brood everywhere. I left her alone and didn't check on her until today, August 2nd. She has been sitting in my reptile room, in a dark box. The room stays 75-80°, usually staying closer to 75°.


When I pulled her out of the box she was settled and had her brood in a nice pile now. It looks like she has 4 pupae, and some larvae and eggs. She seemed calm. I only had her out long enough to snap a couple pictures before returning her to darkness.





I used my phone camera, Galaxy s9, so I apologize for the picture quality. Looking into a macro lens for my birthday this month.

Edited by DerpyBoas, September 6 2019 - 8:23 AM.

[T.C.]

One of my favorite species. Take care of the colony and they grow very large.

[rbarreto]

Definitely one of the best North American species for ankeeping. They are pretty generalist feeders and love their sweets (honey works great). They also grow pretty quickly, my colony entered its second year with about 100 workers. It is also pretty easy to acclimate them to light once they get a few workers. I keep mine out in the light all day and they could care less (just avoid direct sunlight). As for macrolenses I suggest a cheap one from wallmart or amazon. They work great especially for larger ants like Camponotus. Best of luck with this colony.

[Acutus]

WOW! Good looking Queen too! and you get better pics outta your S9 than I do LOL! Have fun you've got a great species!

[DerpyBoas]

Definitely one of the best North American species for ankeeping. They are pretty generalist feeders and love their sweets (honey works great). They also grow pretty quickly, my colony entered its second year with about 100 workers. It is also pretty easy to acclimate them to light once they get a few workers. I keep mine out in the light all day and they could care less (just avoid direct sunlight). As for macrolenses I suggest a cheap one from wallmart or amazon. They work great especially for larger ants like Camponotus. Best of luck with this colony.

Thanks! I wanted an easy keeper, which is one of the reasons I chose Camponotus novaeboracensis. The other was looks, I love the black/red combo.

Ill have to look on Amazon then to see what they have for lens.

Edited by DerpyBoas, August 2 2019 - 5:14 PM.

[DerpyBoas]

WOW! Good looking Queen too! and you get better pics outta your S9 than I do LOL! Have fun you've got a great species!

Thanks! She is good looking!

I think I got lucky, I had to delete a couple really bad photos.

Edited by DerpyBoas, August 2 2019 - 12:36 PM.

[Kaelwizard]

Do you mean Camponotus novaeboracensis?

[DerpyBoas]

Do you mean Camponotus novaeboracensis?

Yup! I wonder how my copy paste went so wrong. Fixing it now. Thanks!

[Kaelwizard]

Do you mean Camponotus novaeboracensis?

Yup! I wonder how my copy paste went so wrong. Fixing it now. Thanks!

Your welcome! 😄

[DerpyBoas]

Update August 5th, 2019:

No pictures but her test tube was super moldy and she seemed a lil frantic so I attatched her to an AC test tube portal so if she decides to she can move her brood into a new test tube. Placed her back into total darkness but I'm pretty sure I counted 7 pupae so that's exciting! 😁

My husband named her Joan of Arc.

[DerpyBoas]

Update August 13th, 2019

Not the biggest update but I counted 10 pupae! Two of them look close to becoming my first workers, I'm so excited it hurts!
Though I gave her the option of moving from her moldy test tube, she hasnt yet but she probably knows better than me when she needs to move. Here are some more pictures of her and her pile taken this morning.😊

[DerpyBoas]

Update August 16th, 2019

I wasn't going to check on Joan quite yet, but since I was doing some work in the reptile room I decided to sneak a peak.

There was quite the surprise running around! 3 lil workers. I wasn't expecting 3, I thought Id be lucky to see 1 today.

But here they are, still hunkered down in the moldy tube.




And if anyone caught it, I'm not a time traveler. don't know why I edited the title to say August 19th 😅. Guess I was just to excited to think straight.

Edited by DerpyBoas, August 16 2019 - 11:03 AM.

[DerpyBoas]

Update August 18th, 2019

We are at 4 Camponotus Novaeboracensis workers now, and they are exploring the AC test tube portal. Wish they would move out of the moldy tube, but maybe now that there is a few workers they will decide to soon. Theyve been drinking sugar water, and I gave them a pre killed cricket today.

Also, the size of these nanitics compared to their queen is adorable.

Here is a pic of a worker drinking some sugar water. She keeps checking the cricket, but that's about it for now.

[DerpyBoas]

Tiny update:

The cricket was dragged into the test tube and the queen was munching on it. Success!

I caught some spiders and have them freezing like the crickets. I still want to get mealworms and hopefully some other feeder insects but the petsore only had crickets.

[ponerinecat]

Tiny update:

The cricket was dragged into the test tube and the queen was munching on it. Success!

I caught some spiders and have them freezing like the crickets. I still want to get mealworms and hopefully some other feeder insects but the petsore only had crickets.

That's a voracious colony. My camponotus refuse food for weeks at a time.

[DerpyBoas]

Tiny update:

The cricket was dragged into the test tube and the queen was munching on it. Success!

I caught some spiders and have them freezing like the crickets. I still want to get mealworms and hopefully some other feeder insects but the petsore only had crickets.

That's a voracious colony. My camponotus refuse food for weeks at a time.

I was a little surprised myself, since I've read that Camponotus colonies can be picky.

[DerpyBoas]

Update August 19th, 2019

Soemthing I've noticed is that they have a guard at the entrance of the test tube, while the other 3 nanitics stay with the queen.

But when I offered another cricket today and some more sugar water, the guard checked it out and went back into the test tube to grab another worker before they started to munch on the cricket. The sugar water was being ignored while I was watching.


I have seen the queen at the entrace of the original test tube, so maybe soon they'll move to the clean tube.

Here is a pic of the 2 workers in the AC test tube portal. The shirt covers the test tubes to keep them dark in case anyone was wondering.

[Kaelwizard]

My friend got his second worker yesterday!

 

Good luck with this colony!

[DerpyBoas]

My friend got his second worker yesterday!

Good luck with this colony!

Thanks! Hopefully your friend's colony does good too! 😊

[DerpyBoas]

Update August 21st, 2019

This colony is stubborn. Yesterday the colony moved to the entrance of the test tube, but haven't moved further than that. They still have a guard set up, which I think is adorable.

Today I decided to only cover the clean test tube in hopes of getting them to move. And yes, its a toothpaste box, classy. The queen doesnt seem to care about lights though, still seems calm. Such an easy going queen.

I counted 7 workers, so that is exciting! I havent been back to the petstore to get more feeders but I fed them a cricket and their first spider today. Hopefully they like the spider, since I was terrified while catching it. 😅 Its been frozen like the crickets too.

In their current location its hard to get pictures but here:




Edited to add

I checked on them and 1 of 2 foragers was excitedly dragging the spider into the test tube. The other forager was munching on the cricket.

I know this is my first colony but they really seem to like their protiens.

Edited by DerpyBoas, August 21 2019 - 11:42 AM.