4 replies to this topic

[Redmoth27]

I have a colony of them in my front yard and they only come out at night. They're some of the laziest ants I've ever seen. When I put food down at night and roaches from the bushes come, their majors don't bother killing them. This got me wondering, if they're this lazy do they even go to war? Do camponotus go to war usually or is it super rare? Are the majors only for defense?

[ANTdrew]

Well, they are one of the largest genera in the world, so I don’t think you can generalize. Our temperate ones are probably more defensive in nature.

[Ants_Dakota]

From my experience, it seems that because camponotus ants each take lots of resources to make, they don't bother to attack much for fear of losing that ant. Even other insects that i put near them. Also finding large colonies of camponotus, especially around here, is pretty hard. 

[T.C.]

I've seen camponotus go to to war on logging sites where their nests where put in close proximity. Your assumption of them being more defensive is correct. I can tell you that they're the most sturdy of species. I put a camponotus major in with my Pogonomyrmex, and it lasted 15 minutes before dying. That's not a long time but when you get stung a hundred times and are getting dismembered, that's pretty good.

[LowQualityAnts]

I feel like Camponotus majors server more of a utility purpose in most species. They can bore into wood and cut food better than workers, but they still defend the colony.