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Written by Marcus Smith
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Saturday, 10 November 2007 |
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Wood Ants are a fascinating species. My earliest memories of them were seeing their huge nests made from forest detrius like pine needles, on Brownsea Island off the Dorset Coast in the UK. There were hundreds of nests. Since that time I have only ever seen one nest, and that was in the south west of Bristol, which I stumbled on after seeing them on a path in the woods. I followed the trail back to a nest. Nests are approximately 1 metre high to 2 metres wide, and will extend underground with thousands of chambers and tunnels. These are some of the biggest nests known. They are typically temperature controlled between 25 and 30 degrees celcius despite the weather.
They are quite a large ant by British standards being between 5 and 11 millimetres in length, while the queens are up to 17mm. Nests can achieve 300,000 in number so don't sit on one by accident, but normally are 100,000 strong. As many as 100 queens can be in one nest, meaning this is a polygyn species.
Wood Ants eat mainly other insects like caterpillars and spiders. They hunt by way of leaving foraging trails anywhere up to 30 metres from the main nest. As well as other insects, wood ants also milk aphids in the same way as the Black Garden Ants do.
Their preferred areas are sunny spots within pine woodlands. Sadly these are declining with deforestation, and therefore so are wood ant species. Wood Ants start to rear their new queens and males during the spring, and the nuptial flights take place on warm June evenings where they will mate with other nests males. When the queens have mated, they will land, shed their wings, and hopefully establish a new nest.
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Last Updated ( Saturday, 10 November 2007 )
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Written by Marcus Smith
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Monday, 05 November 2007 |
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Carpenter Ants are among the largest species of ants in the world. My Carpenter ants are a species called Camponotus Ligniperda, or C.ligniperda. A very important species in Europe, probably due to their decline. By taking this species into my set of colonies, I hope to do my bit for the conservation and preservation of this species by way of study. I know that others within the UK circle of Ant keepers have had poor results keeping Camponotus species, and trust me, Im hoping that I can do a better job. Not because I want to be better etc thats rubbish! Its because I want to do a good job, and help this species. I will of course keep you all posted as to my success, or not!
This species is from the south east mediterranean areas like croatia and slovinia. They love nothing more than building their nests within damp dead wood, whether thats an old tree stump, or the old wooden joists under floors.
They are typically 10mm in length on average and have several castes. This species are black or dark brown on their abdomen and head and a red colour on the thorax.
They have their nuptial flights in the spring, then when the queens have mated, they will seek out a cavity in wood or soil. Of course, this may be one of the reasons why this ant is in decline. As technology within the home so that damp woods are becoming increasingly rare, this leaves the home as a damp area a rarity. Also the continent is fast replacing wood flooring etc with concretes, again damp woods have declined. Coupled with the continueing deforestation the other areas that could naturally house this species are lessening.
This species loves to eat most foods, insects, and vegitable alike, colonies can grow to anything up to 3000 workers. The damage that they can cause to homes is considerable, and they are known as pest species, they don't eat the wood, they tunnel through it and cast the fibres aside.
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Last Updated ( Monday, 05 November 2007 )
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