Here in Michigan the Carpenter ants do not sting. It's like Horned Lizard Eden. I can drop ants into the cage with my fingers. I used to live in Arizona where the butterflies sting (OK, so maybe not the butterflies but pretty much everything in AZ stings or pokes or burns--I truly did run afoul of some stinging caterpillars in southern AZ that left me in a lot of pain for days)and I had to work with Pogonomyrmex, the Desert Harvester Ant. Pogos sting like a big dog, as if that even needed to be said.

The DHLs I'm working with are blessed with non-stinging ants to eat. I just use the ribbed hose that came with the vac and I can stand right in the ant perimeter while suctioning ants. I still don't care for ants on my feet but at least I don't get stung. The hose and PVC tube on the collection assembly would be OK for stinging ants too, although I would want a longer PVC section.

One of these days I'll get a colony of these big non-stinging Carpenter ants in captive culture so I don't have to keep going out and raiding nests. There are hundreds of thousands of ants in a mature nest so it's not the impact on the wild ants that concerns me, it's using gasoline at over $4 per gallon to drive someplace to suck up ants that has to end someday.

My HLs continue to do very well on a diet of mostly ants and some small crickets. The lizards get sun on the patio most days of the week for hours a day. I'm glad they eat native ants, and now I'm going to try some SHLs. The climate here is perfect for SHLs and it may be possible to keep them outdoors in an enclosure. With adequate brumation sites, they could probably overwinter outdoors too.

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