Ok i'm just gonna keep this as short as possible. Me and my family left for vacation during June earlier this year. I obviously couldn't bring the ants with me so I left them behind with a large amount of protein and sugar they could live off on while I was gone. (all food was sterilized if that matters)
I own a Camponotus colony of about 70 workers that were thriving up until this point. Problem is that since I returned from vacation, they have barley exited the nest. Before you would always see 2-6 workers out foraging, but as it stands now, you would have to be lucky to see even one ant crawl around the entrance. They never come out to eat any of the fruit or honey I place out for them, and only accepts insects if I literally drop it on top of them.
There is no chance they have died, as I can clearly see the ants moving slightly inside the formicarium. At first, I thought this was just a result of the queen taking a break from egg laying, as I have read Camponotus do. But now that nearly three months have passed, I’m starting to suspect that isn’t the case. It's almost as if they have gone into hibernation.
Is this behavior normal and/or healthy? If not, what can I do to fix it?
More information on the housing:
They are kept in an all-in-one homemeade fomicarium/terrarium hybrid built out of ytong. I'm going to admit that the design isn’t that good as I have little to no control over hydration and heating. I usually use a heating mat at one side of the terrarium but have stopped after the ants went further away from the heated side. I suspect this is more of a problem with humidity than heat.
