This area is lousy with pogo colonies. They are scattered all over the desert. I did not know about the honey pots till Nepenthes metioned them. A little research shows them to be quite abundant. I will pursue this a little later when it warms up. Our highs are in the 30s and lows single digit.Few months ago I was the one recieving the PM's and posts. lol too bad I left...
Pogo's are no easy ant to raise. I've had many queens fail, but when they succeed its great. They are also probably one of the easiest queens to " boost ". Or in other terms, add pupae to the queen so she doesn't have to lay her own eggs and start her own colony, she has them right there for her. Also speeds up the time from 1-2 months to a weeks max. After u get a queen, just look for a pogo nest, most of the time the pupae are right inside the nest entrance, not real deep in the nest so you can aquire them easily.
Central Columbus. Go Bucks! lol!I believe you about the pine sol smell, but a few things, where do you live? At least down to state would be fine (like "Im in South Western Ohio" would be fine), if you're worried about that kind of thing. Now when was the swarm? And where was it? It sounds allot like Lasius umbratus but I cant be certain!
Its not a pheromone, just a deafens mechanism to keep predators away, allot of people describe the smell as Citronella.