30 replies to this topic

[Solenoqueen]

Nice job dermy!

Hope to see the things get more exciting...

[dermy]

Nice job dermy!

Hope to see the things get more exciting...

They should as long as they make it through Hibernation, I have problems with Camponotus and hibernation.....

[dermy]

So far so good, they are in Hibernation and still twitching. I was worried they might get too cold in my basement when the power went out for 4hrs so I did move them to the fridge for a bit.

[MichiganAnts]

 

 

My camponotus wouldn't eat anything except honey. Their pile of larvae didn't even grow in a month. They're in hibernation now. What should I be feeding them?

if you have them hibernating you don't need to feed them, make sure that they have access to water and if you are hibernating in a nest, make sure it dosent dry out

oh yes I know, but when they're out of hibernation. What is recommended then?

 

I'm going to try several small bits and see what they want. honey/apple/superworm/sugar water

[dermy]

Mine were not too picky with what I fed them, they really liked Syrup.

 

 

I almost had a scare, my heat went out and the basment got really cold [almost mimicking the outside air] but luckily it's fixed and I only lost a few Myrmica workers in my Myrmica colony. The Camponotus are perfectly fine.

[dermy]

Just thought I'd shoot an update, the two Colonies I have in Hibernation are doing well, the queens aren't really "hard hibernating" hopefully that's not a bad thing [they move slowly, but aren't like completely immobile like I've seen with some peoples colonies]

[dermy]

It's been awhile since I've last updated this. As of May 2nd/2017 it has been a year since I've "collected" these queens. I'm keeping my eyes out for the flights again, but it's been really chilly out.

 

 

 

 

Pretty interesting feeding these things.

[dermy]

 

Next time I feed them I may need to clean out one of them tubes getting kind of nasty.....

 

One Colony looks like it will double it's worker force pretty soon

[dermy]

 

I gave them a Foraging area, with a small drop of honey. I will be giving them some protein very soon. As soon as I got second generation Pupae one of my workers died . There is about 3-4 Cocoons and a small batch of eggs so things should pick up soon.

[dermy]

 

2 Days later and the queen kills the one and only worker. I'm pretty sure she's doomed.

 

My other colony is doing good, 3 workers and one more will eclose soon. They have a nice pile of larvae too now. I'll get a video on them whenever the next worker comes.

[dermy]

After the last post [Sometime in June 2017] I decided to hibernate my remaining Camponotus herculeanus Colony. Now a few months later I've decided to wake them up again and keep them awake during the winter for a bit. Here's a video on them waking up: