Hello, i'm Strawhat, USA, FL

[StrawHat]

Hello from the Florida Keys, rather new to keeping ants but not new to bonding with mother nature, I always loved watching Animals of every kind coexist together, and the amazing ecosystem that has been set up for us. The names Brandon but most just call me Strawhat since I'll always been wearing one. I hope to meet some cool fellow ant keepers/nature lovers and talk about cool experiences and all that good stuff.

My ant colonies i'm keeping currently.
2 Pheidole sp. Colonies
1 Odontomachus relictus queen, brood soon hopefully
2 Paratrechina Longicornis Colonies
1 Solenopsis Invita queen with some eggs

[StrawHat]

Hello, welcome to the ant community. I can't believe you have a Solenopsis Invita colony! When I lived in Florida, our backyard use to have dozens of Solenopsis Invita colonies. I was always warned not to touch them as a kid (of course, I do the exact opposite ). Oddly enough through, when I "played" with them, they would never sting me. Kinda of odd.

Wow that's insane! haha they definitely sting me but I don't mind, it's not as bad as a bullet ant that's for sure! XD Nice to meet you all, I should hopefully have some pictures of them when their colony starts.

[larynx]

welcome to the forum. what other ants do you guys have in FL?

[StrawHat]

Yea, weird isn't it. I look forward to hearing about your colonies. Right know, I only have a tetramorium colony, containing two queens, a dozen workers, and lots of brood. I'm looking forward to September because a lot of lasius neoniger fly at that time, your almost guaranteed to get a bunch of them.

That's awesome man, I wish we had lasius down here, there are a lot of building and stuff for them to go into to, so it's hard to track down some nests sometimes.

welcome to the forum. what other ants do you guys have in FL?

Well, I found have myself, Odotomachus (which I didn't think I was ever going to)
Solenopsis
P.Longicornis
and Pheidole
But here's what the AntWeb says is in the Florida Keys. https://www.antweb.org/taxonomicPage.do?rank=genus&project=floridakeysants&images=true

[WillWithAnts]

Hi strawhat! You sound like an awesome person! Good luck with your ant-keeping adventures and welcome to the forum!

[StrawHat]

You still have some pretty cool ants down there. I kinda of took advantage of the diversity of insects in Florida until I moved. That being said, I still love the ants up north. Living in two different regions has actually made me appreciate every regions unique wildlife!

I'm actually pretty jealous cause your in a sweet place to catch a wide range of ants, and plus there is like nothing to do down here xP but i'm probably gonna feel the same way if I ever move out.

Hi strawhat! You sound like an awesome person! Good luck with your ant-keeping adventures and welcome to the forum!

Hey thanks man same to yourself, I hope to share lots of ant adventures with everyone! (I'm especially happy today cause my Otodomachus has eggs!)

[StrawHat]

Be sure to feed her because she is semi claustral.

Yep, thanks Jonathan, I have been and she has been taking to it quite well. But alas, I checked on my queen Solenopsis today and she has fallen off her throne... well, she will be missed but not forgotten, and there are always more fire ants at our community park i'm sure they don't mind if I help out with the population levelisation. Here's to my first Solenopsis, but not my last!