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[Antsinmycloset]

Currently have a few colonies of Camponotus pennsylvanicus in acrylic boxes. There ARE test tubes with water reservoirs available I'm hoping they'll move into for hibernation, but all queens are currently living in plastic test tubes with no water. They seem annoyingly content where they are.

I use feeders with straight water and one with a ~1:5 honey:water mix. Everyone seems to ignore the water entirely, despite having no water in their test tube. Is this a sign to make the honey water more concentrated?

[Works4TheGood]

Are your containers/boxes relatively air tight? Perhaps the humidity is high enough in the container that the ants don't like the extra humidity in the full test tubes? I think that my ants experience this sometimes.

I thought I remembered asking a very similar question last year and someone said that a colony will relocate even during hibernation if they run completely out of water. I'd just be sure that a full test tube is very nearby, and I might try to hibernate them in such a way that reduces air circulation so that there's not as much evaporation.

I always used sugar water, not honey. I've read a suggestion of using a ratio of 1:4 sugar to water, but I honestly just eyeball it. It's worked so well for all my colonies that I have no incentive to ever try anything else.