6 replies to this topic

[CozmoDog]

Hello everyone this here is going to be my first post so hopefully I won't brake any rules. Since Spring is getting close I wanted to ask some questions regarding my 2 ant species. First of all my first colony of Camponotus sanctus is at 7 workers and has been at that all winter, they have lots of eggs but they are still not growing I'm guessing they will start in a month or so from now, secondly the colony has not eaten anything since the summer because they stopped going outside the nest so I didn't really put any food in there so I was wondering when do I start placing food in there. Next is my Messor wasmani queen which I caught early winter, she was hibernating but I checked last night and I saw she had 3-4 small eggs stuck at the back of her abdomen(is that bad? Will she be able to get them off?), so I was wondering when the first workers hatch do I give them honey/insect or some kind of seed being a Messor species and all.

[dspdrew]

Welcome.

 

Sometimes I have Camponotus with brood that never seems to develop; I have no idea why either.

 

Sometimes queens get their eggs stuck on their gasters. It doesn't mean anything other than they are having a hard time controlling where their huge butt goes. Your Messor should eat seeds and insects. All the harvester ants I've ever had ate mostly insects when the colony was young.

[CozmoDog]

Yeah I see what you mean the Messor queen already got the eggs off about my Camponotus sanctus anyone here with experience on the species ? It's my first colony and I would like for it to be successful even though I did many mistakes they still seem okey.

[Ants4fun]

I just googled C. Sanctus and they look awesome! As a general rule with Camponotus I do the following to achieve the best results:
1. Use substrate. Camponotus benefit from having even a little bit of sand or wood shavings. They don't always do the best in test tubes as it is.

2. Heat them. A little heat can go a long way. Even just putting part if a heating cable at the end of your test tubes will decrease the time it takes brood to develop dramatically. I recommend putting it on the dry side to avoid flooding the test tube.

3. Don't disturb them! Queens do best when they are not disturbed. Especially with tropical/hard to rear sp. Queens can and will eat brood when disturbed. Until they have a couple workers, try not to disturb them. Once they have a small colony going, you can view them more.

Edited by Ants4fun, March 14 2016 - 5:42 PM.

[CozmoDog]

Thank you very much for the information you have given me ! Unfortunately I can't make use of if with my current Camponotus colony as I said I made alot of mistakes since it was my first colony, one of them being I moved them to their nest abit sooner than I should have, 2nd mistake I did the nest was a full size nest which can prob hold more than 500 ants. They only had 11 workers when I moved them other than that they seem like I tough bunch they started decorating the whole nest even with their small workforce,they ventured outside the nest to forage so I still think they are okey. My only problem as I said is that I'm not sure when they will become active again they are down to 7 workers(I think i only had 4 ant workers die of old age) and since spring is coming I don't know when they will want food, they are not foraging at the moment but It's almost spring shouldn't they want more food? (Also how can I post a picture? I would like to post their nest)

Edit:found the picture thing I think.

Edited by CozmoDog, March 15 2016 - 1:02 AM.

[Ants4fun]

I suggest moving them back into a test tube. My Camponotus colony had trouble foraging in very large setups as well. Are you sure they aren't foraging at night? Many sp. of Camponotus are nocturnal.

[CozmoDog]

I don't think I can move them back atm and I don't think they forage at night either I would assume its because It's still winter time so maybe it's just that I placed some honey abit deeper in the nest today and one of the workers got to it and drunk it. Hopefully by the end of March they will start foraging again.

Edit: i forgot to add when they first moved to the nest they foraged all the time they stopped when winter arrived so I don't think its the size of the colony vs the nest

Edited by CozmoDog, March 15 2016 - 4:53 AM.