So I logged in and just kinda jumped into the mix but didn't do a formal intro. Figured I should maybe do that, since some of you are thinking...Who the !@#$ is that!?
Who I am:
Real Name: Stalling Hale
DOB: 25 MAR 1972
Location: Apache Junction, AZ (Just east of Metro Phoenix)
Ant History:
Well I would have to go back to my child hood as far as I can remember growing up in Selma, AL. My first introduction to ants I was still wearing diapers and sat down on a Solenopsis Invicta/Xyloni mound, I am pretty sure it was a match made in heaven after that!
Later as a kid who collected everything that could be caught in a backyard, a field, or at the creek...Ants have always been something I never grew out of, I am pretty sure it is because of all those stings I got while in diapers, they always make my Formicidae senses tingle!
My exposure to the species has been relatively limited, as a kid I kinda went with what was most common, of which I can identify all but two definitively.
- Solenopsis Invicta
- Solenopsis Xyloni
- Monomorium minimum
- Lasius neoniger or perhaps Lasius americanus
- Formica biophilica (not sure on this one, was a light orange ant fairly decent sized was fairly translucent, no stinging)
- Pheidole metallescens
- Trachymyrmex septentrionalis
- On a few occasions solid black carpenter ants, not sure of species
Back in the day it was find the largest sized pickle jar or at one point a 30 gal aquarium for them.
The most common and frequently caught for me was the first 4 on the list and the first two far exceeded any of the others in terms of availability. My method and technique was simple, dig into the mound and scoop all the queens and workers you could find, if of course there were queens to be found or gather up literally a few hundred after a nuptial flight as they roam around the yard looking for a place to start a colony.
One thing I never had patience for as a kid was waiting for a new queen to start her own, I always found a way to add workers from a neighboring colony and walla, and ant farm.
As I grew older and moved to California, ants kinda became a distant childhood memory and so life happened, including 6 years in the U.S. Navy, Marriage, Kids, Divorce, Marriage, and well here we are...I watched an AntsCanada video and my Formicidae senses went wild! The technology for keeping ants has changed drastically and the available options for formacariums is overwhelmingly awesome!
My Formicidae senses and the timing of this is just terrible as it is still "winter" and for the most part everything except a few REALLY SLOW moving Solenopsis Invicta workers I have located in my yard, there is nothing to satisfy my Formicidae senses!!! UGH!!
So, I am looking to purchase ants in Arizona so that I can at least get something going! So if you are here and you have a testube or small colony to sell or adopt, PLEASE let me know! Otherwise I am impatiently waiting for summer....is it here yet! and if you know anything about Arizona, we don't WANT summer to come faster than it normally does, however we would love to just skip over it and move straight to Monsoon Season!
Anywho, that's me in LARGE sized nutshell!
Formicidae senses are tingling,
Xanuri
Nice to see someone new who's actually older than me for once. 
