when I got bored of my colony Ill let them go and spray the wild argentine ant colony around me so they have a higher chance of living..
You should never release a captive colony.
Outside of releasing non-native ants (which is a very bad thing to do), and depending on if not if the ants would naturally be found in the area if there wasn't Argentine ants or another invasive ants. So like taking Camponotus modoc up from Northern California, bringing them to Southern California is also bad. But, taking a local ant or an ant that would be there if not for invasive ants and releasing it...
I'm pretty sure the governments of the world spraying for mosquitoes do way more harm to the environment by an immense amount more, than someone releasing a native ant. Which doesn't harm the environment in any way.
More than likely, Argentine ants would kill them anyway if Antkeeper has to spray for them. And if by chance the captive colony got a 0.00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000001 chance of some weird disease only found in captivity. Good riddance, hope it infects the Argentine ants!
I personally release native ants. Not like they can do any harm than Solenopsis invicta and Argentine ants. And people do way more harm to a huge range of creatures and wildlife killing mosquitoes than anything else. The environment around me isn't even natural anyway, its all terraformed human made urban environment. However, I only release native ants I find in walking distance. I don't release ants I get out in the desert or even local mountains. Since that isn't very natural, and I'd say that makes them not native to the local area. I'd say releasing is completely fine, but ONLY if they are native to the local area.
Edited by Vendayn, November 30 2016 - 6:56 PM.