I've been around the block and was a member of several forums back in the day (going back 10 years now!) so some people may recognize my username. I know some people on the Discord have said they recognize it.
I haven't kept/raised ants in a decade. I was big into this back in 2007-2010 and still have photos from those days. I just got back into it and I'm thrilled. I missed it so much! A lot has changed in what's available, it's a lot easier now and obviously AntsCanada (Mikey, if you see this... we go WAY back my man, I remember helping you start off and build your first pumice nest! =)) and others have helped spread and develop the hobby.
I remember how hard it was to track down bricks of Ytong in 2009 and driving 4 hours down to Syracuse to get some from one of the only contractors I could find who was using them!
I'm back in it because my gf pointed out some male ants on our window 2 months back. I couldn't ID the species based on the males undersides so I went out to check, found some Camponotus novaeboracensis queens hiding and grabbed 3. They're doing well, one has her first nanitic. The others should have theirs shortly. And by pure random luck, while driving off from home 2 weeks back I saw a very tiny queen on my windshield. I pulled over, collected her, and returned home to set her up in a tube. For over a week she kept her wings and I figured it was a bust, but just a few hours ago I checked on the novaes and noticed my tiny queen had ditched her wings and had some eggs. Some macro pics later and discussion on Discord and I realized I have a Temnothorax sp. (likely curvispinosus). Pretty fun ending up with one of the biggest and one of the smallest queens where I live. Now to get some in-betweens!
Glad to be back. Hope to find some people I knew from back in the day. And to be of help where I can be for new ant-keepers, all while continuing to learn myself.
Cheers
