Hi from near Ottawa Canada

[Ikerrilove]

I'm a total newbie from a small town just a half hour west of Ottawa.
The closest thing to ants I've had were freshwater fish when I was much younger so this is all new to me.
Managed to catch quite a few queens so far and even have nantics so any advice would be great.

I think I have a couple camponotus species and some species with the most tiny nantics I've ever seen
I don't want to disturb them so I don't have pictures yet, paranoid I'll stress them out, I'm so nervous lol

I'm not good at feeding in the test tubes so when they get a few workers I put them in a small outworld so I hope that's not the same as moving them into a Formicarium to soon.

I'm lucky cuz I live on the Ottawa river right now, renting a room from my folks because of health issues so I have a lot of time to look for ants, take photos of ants, try and raise ants and all that. Our 2nd floor deck seems to be a magnet for a lot of new queens so I'm very lucky. We're in a slightly wooded area which is even better. I have lots of different ecosystems all right here.

Glad to meet all of you and look forward to learning more and more with everyone's help

a few of my photos
https://kerrilove.smugmug.com/2018-Ant-ident/n-Rg8Wh2/i-pgpSw7T/A
https://kerrilove.smugmug.com/2018-Ant-ident/n-Rg8Wh2/i-tgGQgBC/A

if you know the species of the 2nd one, I'd be curious to know your guesses

[idahoantgirl]

Beautiful pics! You should introduce your colonies to an outworld as soon as the first workers arrives. Feeding in the tube causes stress and mold outbreaks. Use a one inch section of drinking straw wedged between the exit cotton and the side of the tube to act as a cozy tunnel. Then feed them in the tube. The size of the outworld does not matter as in the wild the ants literally have the entire world.