Nicobar carpenter ant
Camponotus nicobarensis
Where it comes from
- Range
- Southeast Asia
- Size
- Workers 5–10 mm, queen 12–14 mm
- Queens
- Often several queens, which colonies tolerate well
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 5–7 weeks at 26 °C
- Nest
- Warm nest with a damp end; heat one side and let them choose
- Wintering
- Optional cool rest around 15–20 °C if you want to slow them down
The tropical starter ant: fast, tolerant and awake all winter. A good choice if you would rather not watch a box in a cellar for five months.
Starting a colony
Camponotus nicobarensis comes from tropical Asia, so unless you live there, your queen will come from a dealer rather than from a mating flight. Many are sold with eggs or a few workers already.
House a founding queen in a test tube: water at the back behind a plug of cotton wool, the queen in the dry front half, and a loose plug at the opening. She is fully claustral and lives on her own reserves until her first workers arrive, only warmth, darkness and quiet. Keep the tube at 24–28 °C by warming one end of it rather than all of it, so she can move to the spot she prefers. At 26 °C, egg to worker takes roughly 5–7 weeks, which is quick for a Camponotus. At a cool room temperature it takes a lot longer.
This species tolerates several queens in one nest. Queens that started together usually stay at peace. Adding an unrelated queen to an established colony is still a gamble, so do not do it unless you are prepared to lose her.
Feeding
Sugar is the staple: sugar water or diluted honey, which the workers carry home in their crop and share with the nest. Protein is for the brood: fruit flies, crickets, cut mealworms. Because there is no winter break, a colony eats all year round, and a growing colony eats a lot. Feed small amounts often rather than large amounts now and then, and remove uneaten insects after a day.
The nest and the heat
Give the colony a warm nest that is damp at one end and drier at the other. In most homes that means a heat source: a heat mat or heat cable under one end of the nest, never under all of it. The workers move the brood to the spot that suits it, and they can only do that if there is a warmer and a cooler side to choose from.
Ytong, plaster and acrylic all work, and a piece of cork or wood is welcome. Keep the young colony in its tube until it is crowded, then connect the tube to the new nest and let the workers move themselves. Workers range from 5 to 10 mm and climb well, so the outworld needs a barrier along the top — PTFE (Fluon) or a thin film of paraffin oil — and a lid. A healthy colony grows to several thousand workers.
Through the year
Camponotus nicobarensis needs no hibernation. It stays active through the dark months, which also means it keeps needing food, water and warmth while your house is at its coolest. Some keepers give the colony a cooler rest of a few weeks at about 15–20 °C to slow it down. That is a choice rather than a need, and colonies kept warm all year do fine.
Common mistakes
- Letting the setup cool down in winter along with the house.
- Heating the whole nest instead of one end.
- Forgetting that there is no winter break: the colony needs feeding every week of the year.
- Adding a strange queen to an established colony.
- Releasing a colony you no longer want. A tropical ant does not belong outdoors anywhere outside its own range.
Questions keepers ask
How long until the first workers? About 5–7 weeks at 26 °C. At an ordinary room temperature it can take twice as long.
Does it need a winter? No. A short cool rest is optional. A long cold one, the kind a European species needs, is not what this ant is built for.
Can I keep several queens together? Queens that founded together, yes. Combining queens from different sources is riskier, and a well-run colony with one queen grows just as well.
Is it a good first species? Yes, if you can provide steady warmth. It grows faster than a European Camponotus and needs no cellar in winter. If you would rather not run a heat mat, Lasius niger is the easier start.
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.
Start a colony with this species
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