8 replies to this topic

[dboeren]

This is my first ant colony, Camponotus floridanus.

 

They started out in a Tarheel Mini-Hearth and seemed to be doing well.  I ordered a larger home (Labyrinth) for them and connected it to the Mini-Hearth with a length of tubing.  They still preferred living in the Mini-Hearth but I could see some wandering in the larger world and I had hopes the colony would eventually grow and spread out.  Sometimes I could see a group of them over one of the humidity wells.

 

However, something went wrong.  I started seeing them carrying dead ants and dropping them off in piles in the Labyrinth and was seeing less overall activity.  Over time I assumed that the queen had probably died and the colony was therefore on its way out so I was only doing minimal feeding/maintenance.

 

Some possible contributing factors:

  New home might have had something wrong with it?

  Colony was moved while relatives were here over Christmas (they normally live on my desk/kitchen table) and may have had varying conditions and less attention

  Liquid feeder has been kind of leaky, maybe the leaked sugar water solution grew something bad in it on the Mini-Hearth floor?

 

Today I decided it was time to do a big cleanup.  I didn't see any living ants in the bigger Labyrinth part so I unplugged the tubing and sealed up the Mini-Hearth so everything is in there now.  The front glass of the nest has been pretty dirty for a long time so it's hard to tell what's going on in there.

 

I decided that it seemed quiet enough that I would risk taking off the front glass to peek inside and clean it.  Nobody ran out and I was able to clean the glass, sweep out some trash, and look in.  To my surprise, the queen was hanging on the back wall and looks alive.  I think there are two living worker ants in there with her, and no brood pile at all.  It's possible there might be a 3rd worker "hiding" among the dead bodies.

 

Is it likely I can save the colony and get the queen producing eggs again?  I put in a plastic lid with a little bit of honey & water mix and a freshly killed small cricket for protein and then placed a business card to cover up the nest window and give them some darkness to minimize stress.  I've seen a worker come out to the outworld to check out the food but they're mostly staying below.

Thanks for any suggestions you may have.

[Ants_Dakota]

With Camponotus I have had little luck convincing a queen to lay eggs after her nanitics have died, however, since you have a few left, there may be a little bit of time remaining. Your first move should be to rehouse them in a fresh and clean test tube so that the colony can get away from the dead workers and all the bacteria and molds that grow on those. After that, you should heat the ants and try to observe them as little as possible. Make sure to feed them regularly to "convince" the queen that she can lay more eggs. I hope that helps!

[dboeren]

OK, that makes sense.  I went ahead and moved them all into a test tube setup with a moist cotton ball and a few thin smears of honey on an aluminum foil "plate" and put them in a dark drawer with a heating cable where they won't be disturbed.  I'll check on them in a week or two and see how they're doing.

 

Also, it turns out there were FOUR workers left so a little better than expected there.

[Ants_Dakota]

OK, that makes sense.  I went ahead and moved them all into a test tube setup with a moist cotton ball and a few thin smears of honey on an aluminum foil "plate" and put them in a dark drawer with a heating cable where they won't be disturbed.  I'll check on them in a week or two and see how they're doing.

 

Also, it turns out there were FOUR workers left so a little better than expected there.

Excellent, that is exactly the method I would have used myself. Just remember to feed them protein as soon as possible as this is what the queen uses to lay eggs. Usually when my colonies get nanitics, I move their test tube into an outworld, like the ones I make here. If you are able to create or buy something similar I think that would be optimal for a colony this size in order to keep their test tube clean. The tin foil helps with honey, but when it comes to protein, ants usually drag it all around their test tube and having an outworld for them to eat in helps keep everything clean.

[BrandonM]

As a first year C floridanus care-taker. My colony loves fruit flies and very small crickets 1/8” - 1/4”). I didn’t start giving crickets until they had 25+ workers.

Now at 50+ workers, they prefer fresh, frozen crickets; however, they still collect the fruit flies. No majors yet, but the worker size with each generation has nearly doubled in size from the nanitics.

Currently, they are only heated to 78-80 degrees, small pile of eggs (dozen or so), and have pupae that are pretty good sized with another two weeks to eclose.

Good luck to you and your colony! They are interesting and can move fast when they want to (very different from my C semitestaceus I had in Cali).


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[dboeren]

The tin foil helps with honey, but when it comes to protein, ants usually drag it all around their test tube and having an outworld for them to eat in helps keep everything clean.

 

Would it make sense to kill a cricket, squeeze some "goo" out and put that on the tin foil plate?  At that point it's sort of pudding-like consistency so maybe they wouldn't drag it around?

[Ants_Dakota]

The tin foil helps with honey, but when it comes to protein, ants usually drag it all around their test tube and having an outworld for them to eat in helps keep everything clean.

Would it make sense to kill a cricket, squeeze some "goo" out and put that on the tin foil plate? At that point it's sort of pudding-like consistency so maybe they wouldn't drag it around?

That is one method that will work, yeah. A cleaner method would be to use the crickets legs, as those don't usually smear everywhere and the larvae love the exoskeleton.

[dboeren]

OK, I will do both then - put some abdominal goo on the foil plate and then also throw in some drumsticks and see what they prefer.

 

Thanks for your help!

Edited by dboeren, Yesterday, 12:18 PM.

[Ants_Dakota]

OK, I will do both then - put some abdominal goo on the foil plate and then also throw in some drumsticks and see what they prefer.

 

Thanks for your help!

No worries, that is what we are here for!