Howdy folks,
Found this page by searching for Ytong in the USA on google. lol
I've been keeping ants off and on for a little over 2 years now, and unfortunately lost my first colony of Camponotus early this summer for some odd reason. The queen just suddenly died. She had about 14 workers and had been going strong all winter. Before that I had a couple formica species when I lived in Ohio, but when we moved I had to get rid of them.
Now I hope to travel a little to the east and get a few Pogomyrmex badius queens to found at least one colony, and then a little west to try gathering some Atta texana queens, when I finally have my building set up for them.
Currently I have a small starting colony of Solenopsis invicta (3 queens founding it) and a recently captured feral colony of what I believe are Prenolepis imparis that have a large colony around my house. I captured about 30 workers and a queen who were under a board I was moving. It was an interesting capture, I saw them and went inside to get a jar. I didn't have a jar so I grabbed my THA Mini Hearth and held it to the board, they moved right in. They've seemingly already settled, as I've seen two workers tending a huge pile of eggs that wasn't there when I captured them on Tuesday.
Any pointers on keeping the Prenolepis imparis will be greatly appreciated. I'm just excited to have finally captured a queen from them, I've wanted to keep the species since discovering them in the yard back when we bought the house.