11 replies to this topic

[FinWins]

So I’m relatively new to the ant keeping hobby and I have yet to see a full grown Camponotus colony in person. It is pretty hard to judge how big an ant colony is from a video or picture and my colony only has one worker. What I want to know is, how much space does a Camponotus colony take up if space is used very efficiently?

Edited by FinWins, July 23 2022 - 10:37 AM.

[ANTdrew]

Look up Serafine’s Camponotus journal to see a massive colony. Boog also has a massive C. pennsylvanicus that will give you some good ideas.

[FinWins]

I checked out Serafine’s Camponotus journal but none of the pictures were of the setup and I couldn’t find anything about Boogs Camponotus

[DDD101DDD]

I checked out Serafine’s Camponotus journal but none of the pictures were of the setup and I couldn’t find anything about Boogs Camponotus

Look harder https://www.formicul...baricus/page-17

[Serafine]

I checked out Serafine’s Camponotus journal but none of the pictures were of the setup and I couldn’t find anything about Boogs Camponotus

 

[FloridaAnts]

I checked out Serafine’s Camponotus journal but none of the pictures were of the setup and I couldn’t find anything about Boogs Camponotus

 

Is this at max size?! I thought Camponotus colony size was undetermined for many species due to being polydomous

[Serafine]

Is this at max size?! I thought Camponotus colony size was undetermined for many species due to being polydomous

It's for a colony that's about 6 years old. Is it max size? Maybe, maybe not.
They had a growth plateau (and might have even shrunken a bit) over the last 1.5 years but right now there's a ton of brood in the nest, so we'll see where they go.
Yes, they're kinda polydomous, they have clay shrimp tubes and glass test tubes in a lot of those glass tubs and acrylic boxes (actually there's more ants residing in those shrimp tubes than in the main nest).

I'm pretty sure i wouldn't need the boxes on the shelf but they were available and i tend to give my ants more space than required so they don't get stupid ideas (like escaping or chewing on stuff), also it's good to have "reserve space" in case of a sudden population explosion. I'm generally not a fan of "keeping as many ants as possible on minimal space" either - there's few animals where "too much space" is a bad thing (Tarantulas probably) and ants are not one of those.

Edited by Serafine, July 24 2022 - 7:34 AM.

[FloridaAnts]

Is this at max size?! I thought Camponotus colony size was undetermined for many species due to being polydomous

It's for a colony that's about 6 years old. Is it max size? Maybe, maybe not.
They had a growth plateau (and might have even shrunken a bit) over the last 1.5 years but right now there's a ton of brood in the nest, so we'll see where they go.
Yes, they're kinda polydomous, they have clay shrimp tubes and glass test tubes in a lot of those glass tubs and acrylic boxes (actually there's more ants residing in those shrimp tubes than in the main nest).
I'm pretty sure i wouldn't need the boxes on the shelf but they were available and i tend to give my ants more space than required so they don't get stupid ideas (like escaping or chewing on stuff), also it's good to have "reserve space" in case of a sudden population explosion. I'm generally not a fan of "keeping as many ants as possible on minimal space" either - there's few animals where "too much space" is a bad thing (Tarantulas probably) and ants are not one of those.

I am now considering the price of all that and how much they need to be fed . If I grow my Camponotus that size, they will probably get a terrarium nest when they can.

[Serafine]

Their food consumption is actually not that bad. I have a Dubia roach farm and a waxworm breeding program running and that - plus the flies i manage to catch with my electric fly swatter - pretty much covers their needs.

Occasionally I get them crickets or locusts from the pet store but it's really not that expensive overall.

Edited by Serafine, July 24 2022 - 11:30 AM.

[FloridaAnts]

Their food consumption is actually not that bad. I have a Dubia roach farm and a waxworm breeding program running and that - plus the flies i manage to catch with my electric fly swatter - pretty much covers their needs.
Occasionally I get them crickets or locusts from the pet store but it's really not that expensive overall.

I am not okay with roaches , but wax worms might due for me.

[Serafine]

If you ever breed waxworms make sure they cannot reach any food supplies.

The freshly hatched larvae are literally impossible to contain but it doesn't really matter if no viable food source is within about a meter (i found out about their operational radius when they ate into my store of bee wax candles, don't ask) they will dry out and die (which actually happened to the ones that tried to eat the candles).

The substrate that worked best for me was glycerin + honey + different sorts of flour + semolina + some oatmeal flakes. You can leave out the glycerin but they'll do better with it. Do NOT use olive oil as a replacement (found out the hard way).

 

If you're not fine with roaches i'm not sure you will like them though - the waxworms develop into moths and they don't exactly look nice (i'm gonna try to put some pics into my journal when the next batch hatches, the pics i found on the internet are all meh). Also they're faily big and act like they're on crack.

Edited by Serafine, July 24 2022 - 4:45 PM.

[FloridaAnts]

If you ever breed waxworms make sure they cannot reach any food supplies.
The freshly hatched larvae are literally impossible to contain but it doesn't really matter if no viable food source is within about a meter (i found out about their operational radius when they ate into my store of bee wax candles, don't ask) they will dry out and die (which actually happened to the ones that tried to eat the candles).
The substrate that worked best for me was glycerin + honey + different sorts of flour + semolina + some oatmeal flakes. You can leave out the glycerin but they'll do better with it. Do NOT use olive oil as a replacement (found out the hard way).

If you're not fine with roaches i'm not sure you will like them though - the waxworms develop into moths and they don't exactly look nice (i'm gonna try to put some pics into my journal when the next batch hatches, the pics i found on the internet are all meh). Also they're faily big and act like they're on crack.

I once had a batch, and I am okay with the moths. They can’t bite and don’t look like wasp(I hate Black soldier fly larvae), so yeah. I would do a little more research, but thank you for the tips. Hope this isn’t too much off topic ; )

Edited by FloridaAnts, July 24 2022 - 7:05 PM.