Knowledgebase

Proper housing for a local carpenter ant? #805086

Asked August 07, 2022, 3:50 PM EDT

Hi, I am trying to set up a naturalistic setup for a terrarium for my ant colony. At the moment my colony lives in a small test tube set-up but I feel like they are using all the available space as is so I want to expand it. Attached are photos. I believe they are black carpenter ants (camponotus pennsylvanicus) so I'm going to base questions on that but if I have them misidentified then I'd love to have the questions deal with whatever species they are I was wondering, where or what would carpenter ants live in in a typical outdoor environment? How I could best recreate it in a terrarium set up? Do you have any recommendations? In particular, I was thinking of if they would need some sort of substrate to dig in and what I would use for that?

Hennepin County Minnesota

Expert Response

Carpenter ants have a thin waist with one node (petiole) and a thorax (area behind the head) that is evenly rounded when viewed from the side. They also have elbowed (bent) antennae.  Carpenter ants damage wood by excavating and creating galleries and tunnels for their nest.  They need a large piece of wood for them to build their nest in. They feed on sources of protein and sugar.  They eat living and dead insects, honeydew, meats like tuna, pet foods, syrup, honey, sugar,jelly, and other sweet foods.  Please compare your ants to the pictures in the following site.
https://extension.umn.edu/insects-infest-homes/carpenter-ants
Pat M MN master gardener and TCA Replied August 07, 2022, 4:33 PM EDT

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