Camponotus Herculeanus Queen Ant + Workers

*** We only ship live ants UK addresses with First Class Signed For delivery ***

Camponotus Herculeanus, also known as the carpenter ant, is one of Europes largest species, but ideal for a beginner ant keeper. The are frequently found nesting in rotten logs and stumps, but they are not native to the UK.

The queen is generally 14-17mm in length and is often darker in colour to the workers. The workers have a red area at the front of their abdomen.

Workers vary in length between 5mm up to a massive 14mm. Sometimes, it can be difficult to distinguish between the queen and the largest workers, but the red abdomen of the workers helps with identification.

A Camponotus Herculeanus queen is thought to live between 10-15 years.

Simply provide them with a temperature of between 20-27°C (room temperature) in the nest and a humidity of between 50-60% plus some additional honey and protein and they will be very happy.

You can feed Camponotus Herculeanus colonies sugar water or honey, but we find ours love Ant Nectar! As a protein source you can feed them fruit flies, meal worms and other small insects. We always recommend feeding your colony dead insects. To make sure there are no harmful bacteria in the protein source, we recommend either quickly boiling the dead insects, or freeze them in the freezer. Your local pet store should stock meal worms and fruit flies, and these can be kept in the freezer for many months meaning they are not wasted.

Until the colony has about 10-15 workers, the colony can be quite docile, once the colony starts to grow, they are much more lively and great to watch.

Camponotus Herculeanus should be hibernated during winter months (late October to late March) as they would do in the wild. You can do this by keeping the ants at temperatures of between 5-10 degrees celsius. Don't let the temperature fall below 5 degrees as the ants could die.

Our queens with 'no workers' will have at least 1 egg.

Live arrival guarantee

We care for the ants a great deal, so we don't just send them out in a jiffy bag with the test tube inside. Our queens, within their test tubes, are carefully placed within a cut-to-size piece of pipe insulation, and are then wrapped in bubble wrap. This is then placed in a strong mailing box. Our queens might be slightly more expensive than elsewhere because of this extra care, but you can be sure you are buying a strong queen and she will be packaged securely with a 'live arrival guarantee'. We have never had a queen die before arrival, but if she has somehow not survived the journey, please contact us and we will replace her, or refund you. We might ask for some evidence in the form of photos, or even ask for her to be shipped back to us at our expense to investigate what happened. The live arrival guarantee is only valid until arrival.

We will not send out ants on Fridays or Saturdays or in periods of extreme hot or cold weather. We don't want the queens sitting in any extremes of temperature in a van or sorting office longer than needed. Delivery is by '1st Class Signed For' post only, and please make sure that there will be someone around for delivery. The 'live arrival guarantee' is invalid if nobody is in to receive the ants and/or they are returned to the post or sorting office.

Non-native Species Warning

This species is not native to the UK, therefore it is illegal to release them into the wild. If you can no longer care for your ants, please contact us immediately.