4 replies to this topic

[Paulette]

I have a Camponotus colony that I really want to ramp up this season. They LOVE heat. When I put a heat cable under one end of their setup, they pile all the brood there, it's really cute.

 

Is it too early in the season to start heating them? They were in hibernation until about a week ago.

 

Is it better to keep the heat cable on continuously, or put it on a timer so they are heated just during the afternoon/evening (which may be more like the heat they would have in the wild)?

[ultraex2]

I don't think it's too early, I've been heating my camponotus for several weeks now and they've been doing fine.  As far as heating time, I think you should just do it continuously - assuming heat makes the brood develop faster, you would only be heating them half the time so they would only be growing faster when there is heat and normally when there isn't.

[MrPurpleB]

I had the same question, but I have been continuous heating my founding colony for a few days, and a queen started to lay an egg.I would advise continuously hearing them, if you want to increase brood development. If you want you can try to only hear up a section of the setup to allow the ants to choose were they want to stay.

[Works4TheGood]

If you want to play it safe, mimic nature to the best of your ability. With experience and research, you'll learn plenty of shortcuts.

[drtrmiller]

If you turn the heat off at any point, condensation will quickly form and possibly drown ants or cause Fluon barriers to fail as the relative humidity increases with the corresponding temperature decrease. Keep it constant.