My Camponotus nicobarensis continues to thrive. The queen has only five legs, but this has not stopped her from having many many daughters. They have three nests of ytong (aerated concrete) I've tried wood and acrylic nests with them, but they don't like anything as much as the stone.
And they do use their man-made nests. But when I decided to given them an outworld with a thin layer of natural soil, and a bit of drift wood increasingly the seem to prefer nesting in the shallow dirt to the proper nest.
It's hard to tell from the photo, but it would not surprise me if there were as much ants as dirt in that box. They just love it and have shaped it into a kind of mud hut supported by the dead leaves they found in the litter. They have eggs and larvae in there... though the queen likes to stay in the smallest and oldest nest as deep as possible from the main entrance.
I don't think this is a big problem, although it makes it hard for me to know if they need more nest space or not? Would you say they are over-crowded?
This is their outworld for feeding.
This is their "natural dirt" outworld. I do not keep the soil very moist, I don't think this is about humidity. I've tried making their ytong nests different humidity levels (water one but not the other) and that didn't change much they like them both the same. But the like the dirt the most.
So many ants are packed into their little soil huts and pockets. They seem very happy so I might just give them another box of dirt? Although, I would be sad if the queen decided to move into the dirt nest.
Starting this July I'm posting videos of my ants every week on youTube.
I like to make relaxing videos that capture the joy of watching ants.
If that sounds like your kind of thing... follow me >here<.
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