Description

A medium-sized, active, well-adapted ant species commonly found in wetter habitats.
Their natural environments include wet meadows, marshes, fens, stream banks, and seasonally flooded grasslands, where they nest in the ground—often covered with moss, grass clumps, or decaying plant material. Even water is no obstacle for them! A characteristic behavior of this species is “rafting”: during floods, the workers link together and float on the water’s surface to survive the flood and even colonize new areas this way.

The queen mates in the autumn nuptial flight, overwinters after fertilization, and only founds a colony in the following year. This species establishes colonies via semi-claustral founding: the queen leaves the nest to forage during the development of her first brood, so protein-rich feeding is required from the very beginning.

Workers are about 4 mm long, reddish in color, with a strong exoskeleton and a stinger. Although their venom is potent, their sting is not dangerous to humans (at most, it may cause redness and itching similar to a nettle sting). In addition to honey, honey-water, or sugar-water, they require a high amount of insect prey, which is rewarded by the colony with rapid growth into several hundred or even thousands of workers.

Feeding: Honey and insects.

Reproduction: Reproduction starts slowly, then speeds up. In the first year after the nuptial flight, the colony raises 20–40 workers; in the second year, it can grow to several hundred. A mature colony can reach several thousand workers. The brood develops without cocoons, so the pupae are white and ant-shaped. From egg to adult worker, development takes approximately 6 weeks.

Hibernation: Recommended from late November to March at 5–8°C.
More information about hibernation is available in this video.