Camponotus herculeanus

Description

You can fall in love with the beauty that Camponotus herculeanus holds today! This is a true colossus from our homeland. It differs from the largest ant of Europe, Camponotus ligniperda, only by having a slightly slimmer body. Its size will astound any visitor to your home who admires it. And that queen size is not all, if you are patient you will see an army of soldiers that is almost queen size. Such an army is already making an incredible impression, not only on your guests. We guarantee that during feeding, you will experience a thrill yourself!

Camponotus herculeanus, is a great species for adults or minors (if this is not your first ant).

Species description of Camponotus herculeanus

Camponotus herculeanus in the wild occurs mainly in woodland. They mainly nest in decayed wood, although there will be cases of live coniferous trees inhabited by this species. The species feeds mainly on the protein of small insects and the honeydew of aphids. Camponotus herculeanus sends out an army of soldiers to hunt, creating spectacular trails. Watching an adult colony on the hunt is an unforgettable sight!

Camponotus herculeanus forms monogynous colonies, meaning that there can only be one queen in the nest. During the mating season, the young princesses soar on a mating flight and, after mating, never return to their natal nest, but establish a new nest in a monastic fashion. Camponotus herculeanus queens can live up to 15 years.

This species, like all those found in Poland, requires overwintering. This means that around November – February, we need to part with our colony and put it in temperatures between 5 and 10 degrees. And although this would not occur to many – the fridge may be the best possible option available at home 🙂

Like most large species in the Camponotus family, Herculeanus is an initially slow-growing colony. No one will be surprised to learn that in the first year of breeding, a number of 20 to 50 workers is a good or even very good result. In subsequent years, however, the queen starts to brood much better and colony development accelerates considerably. These ants can reach up to 10,000 workers in one colony!

How to breed Camponotus herculeanus

Let’s start at the very beginning. When buying a solitary Camponotus herculeanus queen you need to be patient. Due to its sizable size, the transformation time from egg, to larva, to pupa to worker can take up to 8 weeks. In the first cast, you can expect the first workers to hatch at a level of between 2 and 10 workers. The first workers are small in size, in the range of 4-5mm. These are the so-called ‘nanitics’. However, once we have the first workers and the queen is better fed by her workers, the subsequent larvae are much larger.

After the first workers have appeared, we give the ants a drop of nectar or water with honey right away. Both the workers and the queen herself will enjoy such a meal. From now on, feed the ants regularly 2-3 times a week. The already living worker ants need sweets to live, but the larvae and the queen need protein. We provide it in two ways: with food insects (such as whiteflies, woodlice, cockles, crickets) or with protein food available in our shop. We recommend feeding in a schedule : Nectar – 2 days break – protein – two days break – nectar ….. and so on. This schedule will allow you to achieve the best growth and good nutrition for your ants. However, if you are afraid that you won’t be able to leave your charges on holiday because of this – don’t worry. You can easily go away for 2 weeks, leaving them access to water in a drinker. The ants will be fine for this period, and you will feed them when you return.

Once the first 5-10 workers are reached, we can connect the tube to the first nest. However, this nest should not be too large. We recommend an ant portal to start with, which will make feeding easier, or a nest no bigger than 10×10 cm, such as our Combo “M” set.

From now on, you already have a stable colony, which will only grow stronger and more and more pleasing to you – the breeder – every week.