Hercules carpenter ant
Camponotus herculeanus
Temperature
20–25 °C
Humidity
50–70 %
Hibernation
October – March
Where it comes from
- Range
- Northern Europe, Asia and North America, in conifer forest
- Size
- Workers 6–14 mm, majors to 18 mm, queen 15–17 mm
- Queens
- One queen
Keeping them
- Diet
- Sugar water and insects
- Founding
- Fully claustral — the queen needs no food until her first workers
- Brood development
- Egg to worker in roughly 9–11 weeks at 24 °C
- Nest
- A roomy nest with a moisture gradient, kept cooler than its relatives
- Wintering
- 5–10 °C, and a full winter rather than a short one
A northern forest species: it wants a cooler summer than its relatives and a long, properly cold hibernation.
Check it yourself
General guidance from the usual beginner references — treat it as a starting point, not as a rule your colony has agreed to.