5 replies to this topic

[Deanmontague]

Hi guys

Back agai. After a 3/4 month break
I put my lasius Niger and camp. H. Colonies in the fridge to sit between 5-10c either at the start or end of November (I can’t remember whether it was the start or end) either way they’ve had about 3 full months (possibly 4 if it was early November) in there

I’ve lost a couple of niger workers (have a decent sized colony of 70+ workers) and they clumped the entire time. The herculeanus colony only had 7 workers and stayed spread out and reasonably alert still (sometimes in the out world which was a box, they’re both in tubes)

Taken them out today as I figured losing some ants was a sign of them being too hungry - they are barely moving and I took them out about 7 hours ago. I’ve put some soaked cotton wool with ant nectar in the tube as an immediate sugar source but they aren’t taking to it. I’m moving them into nests soon, so attached both their tubes to their new nests for when they decide to wake up properly with food in the foraging area once they discover it.

Question is; is it normal for them to still be acting like they’re in hibernation, if so how long does it take for them to be normal? My house is at room temp 20c or so. Have I taken them out too soon? Or left them in too long that the colony can’t recover?

Thanks in advance

[antperson24]

Hi guys

Back agai. After a 3/4 month break
I put my lasius Niger and camp. H. Colonies in the fridge to sit between 5-10c either at the start or end of November (I can’t remember whether it was the start or end) either way they’ve had about 3 full months (possibly 4 if it was early November) in there

I’ve lost a couple of niger workers (have a decent sized colony of 70+ workers) and they clumped the entire time. The herculeanus colony only had 7 workers and stayed spread out and reasonably alert still (sometimes in the out world which was a box, they’re both in tubes)

Taken them out today as I figured losing some ants was a sign of them being too hungry - they are barely moving and I took them out about 7 hours ago. I’ve put some soaked cotton wool with ant nectar in the tube as an immediate sugar source but they aren’t taking to it. I’m moving them into nests soon, so attached both their tubes to their new nests for when they decide to wake up properly with food in the foraging area once they discover it.

Question is; is it normal for them to still be acting like they’re in hibernation, if so how long does it take for them to be normal? My house is at room temp 20c or so. Have I taken them out too soon? Or left them in too long that the colony can’t recover?

Thanks in advance

Three to four months is perfect! Camponotus does normally take a little while to wake up, but I'm sure they will be fine, within three days they should be right back to normal! Also note that you should capitalize the genus, but not the species. 

[Triggerhippy888]

Lasius niger take up to one month to fully awaken from hibernation. The following will happen. 

 

First, almost immediately, some workers should wake up and detach themselves from the pile and start exploring. I'm surprised you don't have about 10% of the colony exploring after 7 hours. It can take the whole of the workers 3-4 days to fully unstack and go back to normal, I've sometimes not even seen the queen for 3 days. 

 

It will take the larvae (you should have come through hibernation with quite a lot of larvae) at least a week to fully wake up and sometimes as long as two weeks, to begin with they might not have much interest in protein until the larvae wake up. They do however almost immediately want sugar as they've used up reserves during hibernation. 

 

After about a week or two you will get the first pupa of the new season and they normally go quite mad here, a lot of the larvae that came through hibernation will pupate and they start a little pupa factory going. 

 

It can take the queen up to a month and in some colonies maybe even longer before you get new eggs, this is the last thing that happens when they come out of hibernation and once you see eggs you know you are fully off and running for the new season. 

[Deanmontague]

Thanks for your detailed responses!

I saw one camponotus leave the tube so far but go back in soon after.

I don’t have any active niger atm. One worker is wandering a bit but no more than 1 or 2. Haven’t seen either species eat any of the sugar I provided which I thought was odd.

The Niger colony do have a ton of larvae like you said.
Will see how they are in a couple days then come back here! I was tempted to put them on a heat mat to help but thought I’d let them warm up naturally.

[Deanmontague]

There is at least 10 or so lasius workers who are active now and they started moving some brood into their new nest but the rest won’t come / not all the brood.

Camponotus are still barely moving!

[Deanmontague]

Bumped the wrong post!

Edited by Deanmontague, May 23 2023 - 11:15 AM.