Chestnut Carpenter Ants (Camponotus castaneus)

General: Camponotus castaneus is a large, easy-to-keep, beautiful species. Although worker development time can take a long time, colonies can grow quicker with slight heat and feeding. These ants do have majors!

It’s important to keep a clean setup with these ants and make sure they have plenty of sugars. The workers should always (aside from diapause) be in a somewhat clean, warm environment with gasters full of sugars!

Note: Founding Queen option means that the queen was caught recently and is still growing her first workers. This means she’ll likely get first workers in weeks, depending on where the eggs are in the growth cycle!

Diet: These ants love sugars in the form of sugar-water or honey-water. They also usually need protein to grow in colony size, so provide proteins such as crickets, fruit flies and mealworms. Fruit flies seem to be a favorite. They can be fed at least once or twice a week. If workers don’t have bloated gasters full of food, they should be fed more sugars! The queens do not need food during founding, as they are fully-claustral.

The most recommended diet with these ants is Sunburst for the workers and Fruit Flies for the brood. Feed as much as they will take, but make sure to feed through a liquid feeder or tinfoil. Don’t allow excess food to build up in a test tube, as it could cause mold or create a sticky environment, unhealthy for the ants.

Temperature: These colonies benefit from a VERY SLIGHT heating gradient, and at the hottest point, it should be around 78. Ensure there is an area that is cooler. A nest environment of 75-77 seems to be ideal for brood development. This species, despite being from Florida, will NOT develop well over 80 degrees. In the wild, they dig deep and forage mostly at night. A gradient ranging from 70 on one side and 78 on the other is probably best for this species.

Diapause: This species could need a short diapause period. If they seem to slow down, cool them down to slightly cooler than room temperature for 1-2 months(50-60F is recommended), and feed them less during that time too. The Florida (current) variant only needs about 4 weeks of hibernation, if any at all. Only diapause them if growth seems to slow naturally.

Growth: Brood development takes around 7-9 weeks. Usually it will take about 8 weeks, if heated and fed properly. Colonies can sometimes reach dozens of workers or over a hundred within the first few months or year. These ants do grow slowly compared to most other ants, and definitely require some patience!

Queen size: 16-20mm

Worker size: 8-12mm

Major size: 9-15mm

If ants arrive in bad condition, contact us for help. Live arrival is guaranteed.