5 replies to this topic

[Aliallaie]

Hello everyone.
I’m back, I have news about my campontus chromaiodus colony that were attacked by mold outbreak. They’re doing great in their THA fortress. They have recovered and doing great.
I recently bought a 1 year old Camponotus castaneus colony from someone on the marketplace forum. They’re about 50 total and have majors. I placed them in an AntsCanada hybrid nest. They’ve been in there for almost a week now. Recently I read here on the forum about Formica acid poisoning inside plastic ant nests. And specifically Camponotus ants death. Has anyone had any experience with AntsCanada with Camponotus ants living in these nests? I want to know if it’s a danger for them I will move them in a THA nest. AntsCanada is a little vague about any species of ants except fire ants. On their YouTube channel they mostly have videos only for fire ants. Please let me know.

[TylrsAnts]

That is true
Camponotus will eventually grow slower in those nests that in formic acid absorbent nests

Edited by TylrsAnts, November 6 2019 - 5:12 PM.

[AntJohnny]

I purchased an acrylic nest and placed a small Formica colony in it. I noticed mold growing pretty quick in it. If the workers drugg decaying animal matter in the nest itself. I was thinking about attaching vinyl tubing to the side and attaching a small springtail culture to the nest. Idk if the formic acid would kill the spring tails or if the charcoal for the spring tails would hurt the colony. I am going to try it in spring and see if the spring tails will leave the charcoal for the mold and decaying bugs. I'm hoping it will work it's a small formicaruim but without a substrate idk how it will effect them.

[Serafine]

Usually this isn't an issue. There are a lot of people who successfully keep Camponotus colonies in test tubes, as well as plastic and 3D-printed nests. If you're unsure you can always just paint a thin layer of sand-clay mix to the bottom of the nest chambers.

[MrKotter]

No complaints or losses here.  I have 6 Camponotus floridanus colonies in AntsCanada formicariums all from new queens caught this past summer.  1 in the AC Large Camponoutus 2.0, 1 in the AC Large Formica Hybrid 2.0 and 4 in the AC Hybrid 2.0 Minis.  All are doing quite well and have 50-90 workers, except one that is over 150. I did have to restrict the tube size of the entrance a bit because they were bringing way too much food back to the nest (little too big for them and too humid in the Formica style).

[Serafine]

Not AntsCanada but a 3D-printed nest. Works fine. They still love their glass tubes though.