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DDD101DDD's Camponotus Pennsylvanicus


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#181 Offline Kaelwizard - Posted July 31 2021 - 12:36 PM

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Well they all look nice and fat at least.


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#182 Offline DDD101DDD - Posted September 13 2021 - 7:01 AM

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9/13/21

 

So, after about 2 months nothing has changed. The colony seems to stop huddling together on some days and go out for food a little, and return to their huddling positions. No pictures for now because I could use pictures from like, 5 updates ago and they would look identical. I'm probably going to update this one more time before the year ends, to indicate when they go into a real diapause. My Lasius neoniger colony has also stopped laying eggs and growing, so I feel like real diapause is coming soon. Also I've found sifters to be quite useful when cleaning sand outworlds.


Edited by DDD101DDD, September 13 2021 - 7:03 AM.

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#183 Offline Chickalo - Posted September 13 2021 - 7:40 AM

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Wow, they're looking amazing!

 

You know, I really should stop reading people's Camponotus journals.  It just makes me extremely jealous that all of my Camponotus queens end up dying.


Edited by Chickalo, September 13 2021 - 7:40 AM.

シグナチャーです。예.

 


#184 Offline Crazycow - Posted September 13 2021 - 8:31 AM

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When did you hibernate your camponotus at? I have Modoc and I’m not sure when to start prepping them for hibernation. They have around 35 workers and a decent pile of brood.

#185 Offline DDD101DDD - Posted September 13 2021 - 11:25 AM

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Wow, they're looking amazing!

 

You know, I really should stop reading people's Camponotus journals.  It just makes me extremely jealous that all of my Camponotus queens end up dying.

Thanks, I'm sure you'll get a decent colony some time.

 

 

When did you hibernate your camponotus at? I have Modoc and I’m not sure when to start prepping them for hibernation. They have around 35 workers and a decent pile of brood.

I don't really have a set time for hibernation, it's more like I wait until I'm sure that the colony has stopped growing and is ready to hibernate. Signs of this are

  • No more larvae growth.
  • All pupae have turned into workers
  • All eggs have hatched
  • Workers are bunched up together
  • foraging becomes minimal
  • activity in general slows

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#186 Offline Crazycow - Posted September 13 2021 - 12:07 PM

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<p>


Wow, they're looking amazing!

You know, I really should stop reading people's Camponotus journals. It just makes me extremely jealous that all of my Camponotus queens end up dying.

Thanks, I'm sure you'll get a decent colony some time.

When did you hibernate your camponotus at? I have Modoc and I’m not sure when to start prepping them for hibernation. They have around 35 workers and a decent pile of brood.

I don't really have a set time for hibernation, it's more like I wait until I'm sure that the colony has stopped growing and is ready to hibernate. Signs of this are
  • No more larvae growth.
  • All pupae have turned into workers
  • All eggs have hatched
  • Workers are bunched up together
  • foraging becomes minimal
  • activity in general slows
Thanks for the help

#187 Offline DDD101DDD - Posted February 24 2022 - 11:27 AM

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2/24/22

 

It's been roughly 4 months since the last update, the only thing that happened over those months is that a bunch of them flipped over and looked dead for a while, but yesterday when I checked on them again they were all perfectly fine. Basically, nothing happened except they bunched up a bit and looked dead until yesterday. I haven't seen any workers come out in a very long time now.

 

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#188 Offline azzaaazzzz00 - Posted March 4 2022 - 4:22 PM

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Well I hope they'll be fine, wonder where the queen is (I'm guessing in that ball of workers)


Been keeping ants since January of 2021

Always try new things, even if its hard, hard is not impossible. We are smart and it's good to be smart but not too smart for your own good.

#189 Offline DDD101DDD - Posted March 29 2022 - 10:44 AM

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3/29/22

 

2 weeks ago, something absolutely unprecedented happened

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They went outside.

 

 

It was a complete shock, and naturally I was hopeful. Immediately I fed them a mealworm and some honey. The mealworm was taken, and I was hopeful. Perhaps they would finally do something, anything other than lay around like a lazy child who just got home after school. Obviously, nature could not accept such a thing. 2 weeks ago, it was quite warm, often reaching the 60's. Ever since the workers came out, it's been in the 30's and 40's on average, and I haven't seen any outside since then. It literally snowed for a bit last weekend. Looks like it'll be awhile before anything of substance happens, but they have spread out a bit more.

 

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#190 Offline ElisAnts - Posted March 29 2022 - 3:44 PM

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heating cable?

#191 Offline azzaaazzzz00 - Posted March 29 2022 - 3:58 PM

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Yea that's what I was thinking too, I havn't seen one in any of the pics. Or are you using something else that was out of the pictures?


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Been keeping ants since January of 2021

Always try new things, even if its hard, hard is not impossible. We are smart and it's good to be smart but not too smart for your own good.

#192 Offline OiledOlives - Posted March 29 2022 - 5:18 PM

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Congratulations on getting ant to actually do something!


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#193 Offline DDD101DDD - Posted March 30 2022 - 4:51 AM

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heating cable?

 

No heating cable, there's not an outlet close enough.


He travels, he seeks the p a r m e s a n.


#194 Offline ANTdrew - Posted March 30 2022 - 4:57 AM

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That’s your issue. Get an extension cord.
"The ants are a people not strong, yet they prepare their meat in the summer." Prov. 30:25
Keep ordinary ants in extraordinary ways.

#195 Offline Tai_pan1 - Posted March 30 2022 - 10:48 AM

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I love this journal!  I am new to ant keeping and my Camponotus Castaneus queen and Camponotus Discolor queen should be arriving tomorrow thanks to THA.  I read the entire journal and now have an idea of what I should expect.

 

I really appreciate that you showed the various formicariums in your pics and pointed out pros and cons.  I like to plan ahead, and am debating the type of formicarium I’ll use.  Your journal helped provide me with information.  Please continue to update us.



#196 Offline azzaaazzzz00 - Posted March 30 2022 - 12:00 PM

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Camponotus Pennsylvanicus was the first species I've ever kept. I wanted to see how others took care of this species.


Been keeping ants since January of 2021

Always try new things, even if its hard, hard is not impossible. We are smart and it's good to be smart but not too smart for your own good.

#197 Offline DDD101DDD - Posted April 25 2022 - 10:47 AM

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4/25/22

 

This colony has become way more active in the past few weeks, although that still doesn't mean much. The weather has been fairly inconsistent, and on the days that hit high 60s and low 70s far more happens. The queen now reacts to light, something she didn't do before. Workers actively go outside the nest now, and they drink from honey quite often. A group of larvae have been moved to their water tube, hopefully these are all signs of the colony preparing to grow this season.

 

That’s your issue. Get an extension cord.

To be honest, I feel like the extra heat from the cable early in the year might've screwed up their timing on hibernation. There's not an awful lot of information to go off of for these ants and the long term effects of heating cables. 

 

 

IMG 0743
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In one of the pictures you can see a grasshopper, that's a Flukers canned grasshopper and the Camponotus rejected it, but my Pogonomyrmex ate it pretty fast.
IMG 0749

Edited by DDD101DDD, April 25 2022 - 10:47 AM.

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#198 Offline DDD101DDD - Posted May 23 2022 - 1:46 PM

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5/23/22

 

Pretty much everything is back to normal, it seems. Lots of workers are going in and out of the nest, there's a ton of activity happening. They're still obsessed with that stick in the outworld, and I see around 20-30 workers sitting on it all the time. Finally, the larvae have started growing again. I was actually getting a little concerned about it, but it looks like everything is good for now. Hopefully this year will be better than the last. My mealworms also started breeding again, I can see little babies and stuff. My rice flour beetles are all dead, I'm assuming due to the winter, so if anyone gets them I'd recommend you keep them inside or something.

 

IMG 1043
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#199 Offline ANTdrew - Posted May 23 2022 - 3:12 PM

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Good to hear!
"The ants are a people not strong, yet they prepare their meat in the summer." Prov. 30:25
Keep ordinary ants in extraordinary ways.

#200 Offline DDD101DDD - Posted June 22 2022 - 5:31 PM

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6/22/22

 

I guess I wasn't feeding this colony enough before, because now that I'm giving them about 3-5 mealworms every few days, they've calmed down a lot and more workers stay inside the nest. All their larvae have been growing pretty nicely, with about half of them being pupae as of now. The queen also laid a bunch more eggs, so we'll see how those develop in these coming months. Just like last year, the workers are biting some random big larva again. I also found some termites in my yard, so naturally I threw them and some pieces of what they were living in into the outworld. The workers had a field day, but I feel kind of bad about it so I probably won't do it again any time soon. A week or so after that I cleaned the water tray that the hybrid nest uses, the workers were really calm about the whole thing but the queen got really agitated and ran into the outworld. Also since my tweezers broke I've been using chopsticks to pick up mealworms, which works surprisingly well. Their nest isn't getting any cleaner though.

 

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