Dear futurebird;
I've enjoyed reading your posts and watching your videos. I agree that Camponotus pennsylvanicus and Tetramorium immigrans are very resilient and hardy ants to keep. Probably their biggest advantage is mine can survive quite nicely with little hydration and simply drinking water. This eliminates the potential to lose a colony when you forget to hydrate them or go away on vacation, and they dry out. They also accept a wide variety of foods, many of which come off my dinner plate, making them easy to feed. I have colonies of both types that I've kept for four seasons. They've all overcome hardships and bounced back proving to me that they're resilient and make good candidates for a long-term colony.
I also have three Tapinoma sessile colonies that I've kept for four seasons. These ants, I feel, are the most underrated ants that can be kept. No fooling! Their common name "Odorous House Ant" really does them a disservice so in this age of enlightenment I call mine "Fragrant House Ants". The colonies I keep have all the desirable characteristics noted above, but they have the added advantage of being easy to obtain. They're also easily contained with heavy mineral oil. The only problem I ran into with one colony was when they produced a large crop of alates, the workers were severely depleted. The other colonies have all kept to a reasonable size in their formicaria. I've never experienced the horror stories of raiding of other colonies, or even any serious escape attempts. They seem to be happy just doing their ant thing and I really enjoy just watching them.
I obtained all of these Tapinoma colonies by luring/capturing them in my lawn and garden. I really don't need any more colonies, but just for fun, I thought I'd see what I could collect this year. I knew the general location of a Tapinoma colony that lived around my picnic table last summer. I also knew they were fairly mobile because I'd seen the whole colony last year, when they moved under a sundial that was warmed by the sun. The whole colony was there, queens, eggs etc. So, this year I put a used formicarium under the table in a spot that would get some sun, but not get baked. We'd had a lot of rain, and they were moving brood into it within a day. We had two beautiful sunny days and they had lots of time to explore, because on the third day we had torrential downpours, one after another, to the point where everything was saturated. I knew that if there was ever going to be a time when the whole colony was in the formicarium, this would be it, so I plugged up the entrances and brought them inside. The photos below show the colony, moved in, tending brood, and queens are there because I see eggs in the top, left hand corner. This may offend purists who feel colonies should only be raised from queens, I do that too, but having an instant colony to occupy the ant lover while those queens do their work certainly makes ant keeping more interesting in the early years.
There are a few other characteristics that make these ants a pleasure to keep. They don't seem to mind light in the nest, but queens need a dark secluded place to lay and tend their eggs, so you may not see much of them, the rest of the colony will make up for it as they are very active inside and outside of the nest. They will readily transport pupae to a heat source during the day, and then return them to the nest at night. I enjoy watching them, especially on sunny days, and I think, this is a critical aspect of keeping a colony long term. Call it entertainment if you like, but I'll keep one of my active colonies that gives me something to watch, even when I'm in a nursing home!
If you have Tapinoma ants in your yard, you may be able to lure some into a trap. Some people can set one up in their own home. Putting a small test tube of sugar/water inside will be guaranteed to attract something and there may be other kinds of ants equally as mobile as Tapinoma, but I'm sure these girls are resilient and will still be around after the next meteorite making them an excellent candidate for your long-term colony.
RPT
