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PaddyJoe: Camponotus herculeanus (20. Sep 2011 11:04)

Hi All,

I bought a small colony (Queen + 15 workers) of Camponotus h erculeanus from Antstore together with a ytong nest with a glass basin attached. They have settled into the nest and I am heating just one corner using a small heat mat as my bedroom temperature can be as low as 16C even during the day.

I make sure they always have honeywater and water and occasionally I give them a fly or spider for protein. My question is should I be feeding them some special high protein foods or just carry on as I'm doing?

I am a complete novice and would appreciate any advice on keeping this species of ant.

Cheers

Pat

baumarkthammer: Re: Camponotus herculeanus (20. Sep 2011 13:40)

Hi,
it is ok like you do it now.
The colonies in nature normally don´t have very much food so probably the colony will be good. At this time of the year you can feed them flies and so on as you do now. The speed of colony growth is imporved by feeding the colony more insects. It isn´t nessesary to feed them anything special, just feed them the stuff they find in nature like you do.

Regards
Kaj