TL:DR - I have a large Camponotus decipiens colony in a log I found. They either have to be captured or they will burn with the log. The log is in a 20 gallon aquarium. What would be less risky to the queen and colony: Peeling apart the log with some tools or slowly flooding the aquarium over many hours?

Some of y'all may have read my post about my first colony, a Camponotus decipiens colony, I found in a small log on our burn pile. Well... It happened again. This time a much bigger log. I put this log on the burn pile, I am still helping clean up the parents property. It is a 12 inch or bigger rotten log. I saw lots of termites in it when I moved it. I collected some to feed to my ants and thought nothing of it again. That was till the next day when I noticed a bunch of saw dust piled up right outside the log. After investigating I saw a couple of Camponotus decipiens workers go into the log where a limb must of been at one time.

Well, I can't just leave this log laying around and I don't want these ants to burn up, so I figure it is rotten I'll just peel it apart and collect the ants. The termites can be food! Win / win. I was thinking it would be no bigger than the colony I found before, 50 or so workers. I really thought it was a brand new colony just established last year or this year. I was wrong. This is a big colony, easily over a 100 workers, lots and lots of majors. I spent probably two hours trying to get them all out. The middle of the log where most of them are, and the queen I am guessing, is still pretty solid. It looks like the termites have been kicked out or eaten, I found very few.

After all that work I had the log down to a size that it would fit in an 20 gallon aquarium. I put it in there with a baby powder barrier. I can continue to peel apart the log, but I am going to have to use some tools to make progress and I am afraid of killing the one ant I can't kill: the queen.

I was wondering if y'all thought if I slowly flooded the aquarium, say over a period of 8 hours, if they would move out on their own? A hose with a very slow drip is what I was thinking.  I would leave a tube leading from the log to another aquarium with pieces of the log they can hide in but I can easily just flip over later to expose them and motivate them to move into a formicarium. Should I attempt this or just try to carefully continue to peel the log apart? Do you think the chance of the queen and much of the colony drowning is a bigger risk than if I just kept peeling the log apart?

For all the people screaming about why am I collecting wild colonies, it literally is either this or death for them. I could just leave the log somewhere but eventually my parents would throw it on the burn pile or in the trash when I'm not around. They want to clean the place up, not leave a few logs laying around because I like ants. :-P I will also put their out world outside when they produce alates, so that they may continue to contribute to their species.

I don't know why I never noticed all these interesting ants around here when I was growing up. I know the location of five separate Camponotus decipiens colonies now. Those ones are safe in living trees or dead wood that is part of the fence line. I also realized two of the colonies I discovered were actually acrobat ants, Crematogaster laeviuscula maybe? They have the same coloration as Camponotus decipiens which is why at first I thought that was what they were. I soon realized they were not after actually inspecting them, very different shape and behavior but same favored nesting areas. That makes seven big colonies I of interesting ants I found out in the last few months. I often also see very tiny black ants in the wood, but I have not investigated them further.

Anyways, as much as I loved nature growing up, especially the arthropods, I am just surprised I never took more notice of these ants.

Please let me know if you have a suggestion about how I could go about getting the colony I spoke of out of that dang log. Thanks for reading!

Edited by dominatus, June 13 2019 - 9:10 PM.

Flooding will not work for Camponotus. I recommend you peel back the wood but by bit

Flooding will not work for Camponotus. I recommend you peel back the wood but by bit

Was thinking same thing. Good Luck! Just take it slooooooooooooow!! How's your other colony doing?

Well, I went agonizingly slow... it was really rough. In the end, I think I had the biggest Camponotus decipiens satellite colony ever. Over 200 workers, but I never saw a single egg. Almost all the brood I found were pupae with some large larva and very few small larva. The workers were 50% or more majors. It was insane, so many ants, not one was light colored, meaning newly eclosed. They were all super dark. I have no idea where the main nest could be, that log was really isolated and these guys don't do soil nesting. There is a tree about 20 ft away that I've seen some Camponotus decipiens moving sawdust out of. There is a dead spot on the trunk. I caught one of the few workers that was foraging on that tree and put her in with the ants from the log. They didn't chase her off but they didn't really seem to immediately recognize her. Maybe, maybe this is where they came from? I put one of my ants in there just to see if this was perhaps more of the colony I already rescued. That ant was definitely chased off and ran for her life.

In the end I took all the pieces and put them where the log was in a neat stack. I laid out water, honey, and dead crickets / meal worms for them as a big sorry. I told the parents I'll clean up the mess in a couple of days. I hope they move out and find their queen, I really don't want them to burn up when that mess is eventually cleaned up.

I read somewhere in a really old academic paper that Camponotus decipiens is nocturnal and rarely exceeds 100 workers. I really think that is erroneous, every colony on our property and my personal colony are rarely active at night. I see the most foraging in the twilight hours but often notice them even in the middle of the day. I periodically feed the colonies around here now, giving them a bit extra power to keep up with the pesky fire ants, and I've never seen them out when I try to feed them after sunset.

I also think that maybe satellite nest rarely exceed 100 workers but I really think a colony as a whole gets a lot bigger. My personal colony is over 100 workers now and shows no signs of slowing down. I think I'll make a satellite nest for them just in case that is something they need to thrive.

Well, disappointing day but I hope I at least motivated them to move to one of the standing trees or the wood on the fence line so they are safe from the busy bodies that are my parents! I'll let y'all know if they seem to be around still when I check on the mess next week.

Oh, I wanted to say I love these guys though, they don't swarm or really bite. They are such a pleasure to work with. Even the acrobat ants that have the same coloring around here will swarm and sting if you mess with their branch or piece of wood. I wonder how these Camponotus decipiens compete with those guys... their colonies are so big and they are a lot more aggressive it seems.

Edited by dominatus, June 14 2019 - 6:46 PM.