I live in Fullerton, California. I own some property in northern California. I have always seen these huge shiny black ants crawling all around the forest ground. I have caught two queens in two old peanut butter jars about 6 1/2" tall and 4" wide. I don't have a photo, but I have studied it enough to find the name, they are Giant Carpenter Ant (Camponotus laevigatus) queens. I do not have any more information about them. I really need help from someone that has more experience in taking care of a colony or someone that knows more about this species. I have found some websites with caring for ants but nothing for caring for a colony. I want to know if it would be safe to move them into bigger containers (without disturbing they're laying process if possible) so the colonies will have more room grow if so, I would like to know the substrate that should be used. And I would really like to know the diet of these ants for obvious reasons. Your advice, links or information in helping care for these queens would be much appreciated.
P.S. I heard some good things about something called an Antworks Antarium if I could modify some of these to connect to each other would this be suitable for my species?
Thank you.
