I've always had the sense these would be hard to keep in captivity, because they're so speedy and require higher tempreaturess for optimum activitiy and health than most other ants.
Keep us posted on how it goes with maintaining this colony.
They are actually really easy. Just keep them with a heat lamp and a warmer place like a garage and they thrive. One of the easiest ants I've ever kept.
However, they need a combination of fluon+olive oil as separate barriers or they do escape. Usually I do fluon on top and olive oil underneath. Use a towel (not a napkin, but a dish towel) to rub the olive oil and then dry it off slightly. Doing that, the olive oil itself lasts for months. I've tried other cooking oils but they don't work nearly as good. Maybe olive oil just by itself is fine (and I've done just that), but I really like adding that extra defense of fluon.
But, yeah Forelius pruinosus/mccooki like to escape if given a chance, but are easy enough to contain. They grow at a good speed (and not so fast like Solenopsis invicta), fun to watch, eat pretty much everything (so diet isn't an issue at all) and probably the easiest to care for ant species I've ever kept. I can't really think of an ant species (in Southern California) that could be any easier.
Edited by Vendayn, October 27 2016 - 10:00 PM.