The AntsCanada Ant Forum's

My preference is to cut or crush.

I expected the response above, take it with a grain of salt. It’s an often-repeated knee jerk reaction to the suggestion of feeding wild caught insects. It’s up to you on how you would like to raise your colonies. I would actually argue that it is more rewarding to feed wild caught insects to your c...

I've done it, they will eat it. Crush or cut them to help the ants get at the meat. Spiders will be appreciated. They have a broad palette..

Lasius alienus possibly? I've found Lasius alienus in Montreal this time of year before. My finds were mid day, not early though.

I think it's a Camponotus novaeboracensis

I'm not familiar with your area, but it Toronto they are long over... over by a month to the week actually. You are a bit north, so it's possible flights are later than here, but I would still think you have missed them.

Just guessing though, hopefully someone closer to you will respond.

From my experience, Tetramorium immigrans is fool proof. Fast growing, tolerant of light and vibrations and will eat anything. They are also pleomatrotic, so you can put multiple queens together for the founding stage. Put 7 - 10 queens in a tube and you'll have 100+ workers by the end of the summer.

It happens, they could have been injured prior to you catching then, or when you handled them catching and placing them into the tube.

You still have 2, so you are doing it right so far...

It looks like a Camponotus pennsylvanicus queen to me

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