I recently added a heating cable for my Camponotus pennsylvanicus colony. ( it’s been cold in our coop and they have brood already, knew they’d like the warmth.) This same colony has also, much to my annoyance, insisted on keeping a small midden of what I assumed was trash in one chamber of their log. They have a big garbage pile far away in the outworld too … so I thought they were just lazy. But when I added the heating cable they moved the garbage… to another chamber (?) 1/
Here is the new “garbage chamber” carefully relocated to the cold side of the nest. The garbage here consists of small dark granules — the bigger outside garbage pile is less consistent… exoskeletons insects they eat, dead ants, and bits of plants and wood they dismantled in the outworld.
I get the impression this isn’t ordinary garbage and they want it for some reason. I’ve seen them put empty silk cocoons in this special pile. What do you think they are doing? #ants#insects 2/2
@futurebird My guess would be some form of gardening -- cultivating a stash of some form of beneficial bacteria, fungus, very small mites, or something of that sort. But I'm not really basing that on anything.
@futurebird
2 options I see:
Science Ant1: see, I told you, middens give off heat, we can warm the nest with them.
Science Ant2: I don't believe you, so let's move the midden over there, if that area gets warm too maybe you're onto something.
Or
Ant3: I bought this chamber on the cheap as no one wanted it. Perfect place to rent out industrial waste storage it was. Since climate change though it's now one of the most sought after chambers in the nest and I sold it for enough to retire on.
@futurebird I move my garbage piles around in response to changes in my environment too... Basement, garage, attic, an endless cycle.
Last time I moved house, I realized that I'd paid trash haulers almost as much as I'd paid movers, which was weird (cost a lot more per volume to dispose of trash than have it carefully transferred a few towns over).
@futurebird
Obviously moonshining... since their main hidey-hole is exposed they relocate in the woods.
If you're lucky they have a belgian beer recipe "fermentation basse" (chimay, kwak) at 15°c max.