Upon research and wanting to have a great first experience I have come to the conclusion i wanted my first colony to be tetramorium...High energy, fast growing, and common to find. I wanted to be able to see everything my first year from queen, to eggs, to colony bustling around. I also had a dream ant of the honey pot ants only to find out i could not get them in my area, but no worries. maybe one day ill move to one of those areas. For my area I would like to have a large camponotus colony in a large out world set up one day.
Watching the AntsCanada videos served a lot, but my only problem was my interest revived when it was still chilly outside. I did not let that discourage me and i went out looking for queens anyways in my own back yard around Jan or Fed of 2017 in Virginia. So i searched mainly under rocks hoping to find something (i'm not sure what). Upon further looking, we had some lumber laying down on the ground and i lifted it to see what was under only to find a strange looking ant that only kind of resembled a queen. (This was around late Fed early March) I bottled it and then saw another one...then another one till i found about 12 in one area all showing the sighns...larger than a typical and, seeming to have a platued back (but i never seen a queen up close and some normal ants at this time i mistook for the same thing), and slower moving. I did not think queens did this and i have never seen one in person. Excitedly i gathered them all and took pictures. (I, at this time owned no anting tools other than Tupperware and a spoon to dig). I put them them in a semi natural set up since i had no test tubes and observed for a few days to see that they dug shallow holes resembling claustral chambers. I then quickly posted on the forum to see if anyone could help me know if i lucked out and found 12 queens, or if i just dug up a colony of medium sized ants. (Only had a canon camera with no magnifying lens or macro lens). Thanks to the forums we have identified them as Lasius Claviger queens.

