8 replies to this topic

[ReignofRage]

Has there been any Camponotus colonies that get to sexual maturity, i.e. they produce both gynes and drones? I've heard that Camponotus just don't do well after a few years in captivity, any ideas as to why? I know about the whole urea thing... but was there a study that even supported that idea? All ideas are welcomed, I look forward to see what people have to say on this subject.

 

By the off-chance a thread already went over this a link would be nice.

[DDD101DDD]

I think the Urea thing came from this and this. Serafine's Camponotus barbaricus colony has produced both queens and males. Honestly I'm not really sure about the urea thing, apparently Cheeto has a 4 year old Camponotus pennsylvannicus colony and hasn't fed them any urea, so it might be that some people tend to disappear from the hobby after a few years, and their colonies never reached a point where they produced queens and males.

[ReignofRage]

That makes sense, thank you for the reply!

[futurebird]

Wait... carpenter ants need pee and bird poop? or is it just that they can make use of it if they encounter it?

 

Should I offer the girls some bird poop? Ew! The things I'm willing to do for these little spazzes. 

 

I kinda dread my colonies producing alates as I don't know how I'll deal with it... but I have a few years to learn. 

[ConcordAntman]

Out of 5 C. pennsylvanicus queens captured in 2018, 3 founded colonies. One of those is going strong (150+ workers), the other two queens each died after coming out of diapause 1 and 2 years after founding. I tried urea feeding with all 3 colonies but it wasn’t accepted. In 2019, I purchased a C. americanus colony founded in 2017. I had a 50% die-off in the first year but the colony is still plugging along. In May 2020 I captured a C. novaeboracensis queen who has survived in spite of losing all her nanitics just after diapause. She began to forage for herself, eclosed her first nanitic 2.0 two weeks ago and has a healthy brood pile. In June 2020 another C. pennsylvanicus queen founded a colony that’s now 12-15 with a healthy brood pile. At 4 years, I’m 4 for 8. Go figure. My most prolific colony has majors and minors, my C. americanus had a male which I suspect was an unfertilized egg. I’ve seen posts of other species that have had alates so it’s not isolated but I wonder if that should be the only measure of a colony’s maturity? Does colony size, the appearance of caste differentiation, or the rate of brood production also play a role in determining maturity?

I’ve seen some posts suggesting Camponotus sp are more difficult to raise in captivity. I don’t know. I’ve been lucky with a varied diet of fresh fruit and insects. I freeze the insects and thaw them as I need them to feed. I flash boil the bugs (a 5-7 second dip in microwaved water) to kill off mites and other parasites. That seems to work for me. 

[ReignofRage]

Out of 5 C. pennsylvanicus queens captured in 2018, 3 founded colonies. One of those is going strong (150+ workers), the other two queens each died after coming out of diapause 1 and 2 years after founding. I tried urea feeding with all 3 colonies but it wasn’t accepted. In 2019, I purchased a C. americanus colony founded in 2017. I had a 50% die-off in the first year but the colony is still plugging along. In May 2020 I captured a C. novaeboracensis queen who has survived in spite of losing all her nanitics just after diapause. She began to forage for herself, eclosed her first nanitic 2.0 two weeks ago and has a healthy brood pile. In June 2020 another C. pennsylvanicus queen founded a colony that’s now 12-15 with a healthy brood pile. At 4 years, I’m 4 for 8. Go figure. My most prolific colony has majors and minors, my C. americanus had a male which I suspect was an unfertilized egg. I’ve seen posts of other species that have had alates so it’s not isolated but I wonder if that should be the only measure of a colony’s maturity? Does colony size, the appearance of caste differentiation, or the rate of brood production also play a role in determining maturity?

I’ve seen some posts suggesting Camponotus sp are more difficult to raise in captivity. I don’t know. I’ve been lucky with a varied diet of fresh fruit and insects. I freeze the insects and thaw them as I need them to feed. I flash boil the bugs (a 5-7 second dip in microwaved water) to kill off mites and other parasites. That seems to work for me. 

Producing alates is practically the only way to measure a colonies sexual maturity, as for maturity I don't know to what extent those variables would have to extend to.

[Fatatoille]

What exactly is the bar for sexual maturity? I find it hard to believe that any wild sexually mature colonies in the multiple ten thousands are going to produce only one or two alates per year for nuptial flights, even serafines camponotus didn’t produce any more than a few queens per year; I would have imagined that a sexually mature colony would at least at least a few hundred. Obviously, overall colony size that a species will cap out at has an affect on how many alates a colony will produce; a camponotus decipiens colony of a few hundred is not going to produce 500 alates.

Regarding any ‘mature’ colonies, the only colonies I’ve seen in captivity that could be deemed sexually mature was a camponotus auriventris colony of two thousand and plenty of camponotus nicobarensis colonies above five thousand workers. As other people have mentioned, a lot of the commonly kept camponotus (with exceptions) that are kept are quite slow growing and a lot of people who keep them either give up on the hobby, or get bored of them before they reach any substantial numbers; probably why a mature colony in captivity seems to be so rare.

[ReignofRage]

What exactly is the bar for sexual maturity? I find it hard to believe that any wild sexually mature colonies in the multiple ten thousands are going to produce only one or two alates per year for nuptial flights, even serafines camponotus didn’t produce any more than a few queens per year; I would have imagined that a sexually mature colony would at least at least a few hundred. Obviously, overall colony size that a species will cap out at has an affect on how many alates a colony will produce; a camponotus decipiens colony of a few hundred is not going to produce 500 alates.

Regarding any ‘mature’ colonies, the only colonies I’ve seen in captivity that could be deemed sexually mature was a camponotus auriventris colony of two thousand and plenty of camponotus nicobarensis colonies above five thousand workers. As other people have mentioned, a lot of the commonly kept camponotus (with exceptions) that are kept are quite slow growing and a lot of people who keep them either give up on the hobby, or get bored of them before they reach any substantial numbers; probably why a mature colony in captivity seems to be so rare.

The bar for sexual maturity is the colony being able to produce both gynes and drones, the only way to know if they can is if they do. I don't think the amount of alates matters, more of just that they are able to.

[Fatatoille]

Ah, I just realized thiswas mentioned in the initial post, a good reminder for me to read the full post instead of just skimming over it, my apologies.