3 replies to this topic

[soulkeeper79]

My Camponotus colony of about 60 workers hasn't touched a mealworm in nearly 10 days, when they used to eagerly consume them within a day. And they haven't touched any sugar source other than sugar water for about the same length of time.They have plenty of eggs and larva so I assume that they should be seeking out some sort of protein at least for the larva. I've also noticed that their activity has been greatly reduced when it comes to venturing outside of the nest. One other thing that I have noticed in the last 10 days is that a few of the smallest workers (only 3 or 4 of them) have gone into seizure like states that last several hours, falling over on their backs, twitching, legs almost seeming paralyzed at times...and these workers are not recently eclosed, so I can rule out "newborn clumsiness".

 

I'm not too worried yet, as I just started ant keeping 5 months ago and this has been my most self sufficient colony other than my Tetramorium colonies which seem to eat nearly anything that is offered to them. But any advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

Temperature stays between 75-82 degrees Fahrenheit, fresh water is available at all times via water tower in the outworld, 

[dermy]

I'm not 100% sure on this but this almost feels like pre-hibernation behavior, since Camponotus does keep larvae through hibernation, and I've heard a lot of people say they "stop growing", also Temperature has almost no effect if ants want to hibernate [and assuming they naturally do in your area] they are going to slow down and either cease to lay eggs/brood devolopment slows, and the colony just generally gets lazy.

 

I'd be more worried about the "Twitching, Seizures" since I've never seen/heard of those before and I'm very curious to know what they are from someone who knows/has experince with that.

[soulkeeper79]

The twitching behavior is something I need to capture on video. When it occurs, the other ants take zero notice of the affected colony member, no help, no touching, it's as if they have no interest at all when their sister(s) go into this state.

[soulkeeper79]

I found a large spider in my house this morning and disabled it with a quick a tweezer sqeeze before putting it in the outworld. The Camponotus wasted no time in finding it and within 5 minutes they have the spider being pulled into the 1/2' tube leading to their nest. Much better feeding response now, but I think they will need to dismember the spider if they want to get it back into the nest due to it's large size. I'm happy that their appetite is restored with this offering.