Casting a Fire Ant Colony

I came across this clip, it's actually quite interesting. It shows a man making a casting of a Fire Ant hill with molten metal... I know, a colony of ants were harmed making this video/art work, but I do find the final product interesting and kinda cool... Curious if anyone else thinks this is neat?

Check this video out, let me know what you think...



Mods- ran a search didn't see it pop up

reply to post by jhn7537


Look up "Walter Tschinkel"... Pretty fascinating stuff, but some do not agree with the "ant genocide" even though it is in the name of science...

Gemwolf
reply to post by jhn7537

 

Look up "Walter Tschinkel"... Pretty fascinating stuff, but some do not agree with the "ant genocide" even though it is in the name of science...

I have a hard time feeling bad for the fire ants. I've felt the wrath of them down in Florida and wow does it hurt....They're a bug I can do without..

I just googled Walter Tschinkel, cool pictures for sure..

reply to post by jhn7537


That's pretty awesome. Could be used as a Christmas decoration, lol.

While I understand that ants serve a purpose, I have no problem eliminating colonies/hills when they are along my walkway, in my garden, or in my flowers, or anywhere else near my house or yard for that matter.

reply to post by jhn7537


Pretty cool, I would love to try that we have lots of ants out here in the desert. I wonder how much someone can sell one of those on Ebay.

desertguy
reply to post by jhn7537

 

Pretty cool, I would love to try that we have lots of ants out here in the desert. I wonder how much someone can sell one of those on Ebay.

On Ebay, just checked, there are castings of any colonies going for $100 and one has 14 bids and is at $450... Good money in this... I wonder how much the molten metal would cost and how hard it would be to melt it down...

reply to post by jhn7537


If you don't want to kill the ants I'm sure their are plenty of abandoned ant holes we have a lot of them around our place. I am sure they would work as well as one that is occupied.

desertguy
reply to post by jhn7537

 

If you don't want to kill the ants I'm sure their are plenty of abandoned ant holes we have a lot of them around our place. I am sure they would work as well as one that is occupied.

A guy on EBAY who sells them wrote this

This is a casting of a Big-Headed Ant (Pheidole megacephala) colony. We are careful to pour only one main entrance of the mound so that the entire colony is not killed and is able to rebuild in addition to sprinkling cayenne pepper around the mound the day before we pour to encourage the ants to relocate. The aluminum used in the casting process is 100% recycled (re-used / re-purposed aluminum cans) to further minimize environmental impact.

At least they don't kill ants...

jhn7537

desertguy
reply to post by jhn7537

 

Pretty cool, I would love to try that we have lots of ants out here in the desert. I wonder how much someone can sell one of those on Ebay.

On Ebay, just checked, there are castings of any colonies going for $100 and one has 14 bids and is at $450... Good money in this... I wonder how much the molten metal would cost and how hard it would be to melt it down...

Is this the one you are refering to ... Thats pretty cool.

desertguy

jhn7537

desertguy
reply to post by jhn7537

 

Pretty cool, I would love to try that we have lots of ants out here in the desert. I wonder how much someone can sell one of those on Ebay.

On Ebay, just checked, there are castings of any colonies going for $100 and one has 14 bids and is at $450... Good money in this... I wonder how much the molten metal would cost and how hard it would be to melt it down...

Is this the one you are refering to ... Thats pretty cool.

I saw that one, but there's this one too Ebay

reply to post by jhn7537


I did some looking on Ebay as well lots of cool ones. We have small ones out here I thought about maybe melting solid silver and pouring it in to make a casting.

They probably got the idea from this old BBC documentary. These guys poured 10 tons of cement into an
abandoned giant ant mound for a similar effect - but on a much larger scale

Gemwolf
reply to post by jhn7537

 

Look up "Walter Tschinkel"... Pretty fascinating stuff, but some do not agree with the "ant genocide" even though it is in the name of science...

I dont typically agree with killing things like this.. but theyre FIRE ANTS! Kill them all!! Ever been attacked by fire ants? Evil things. My first experience with them was after a tornado and my dad and uncles cutting up a huge willow that had been uprooted. Holy cow.. those ants are bad bad bad.
My mother in law sat near some fire ants at a family thing we were having. In shorts. I know now why we locally call them "Piss Ants" now..

Hi, art fans.

This is NOT art. He used the work done by the insects.
He should pay them a % of his $$$. B-)
Art is when the PERSON does it ALL !!

Art would be a person doing a similar thing with. . . a 3D printer !!
Be inspired, and then do something outside the inspiration's object !!
THAT is art !!!

Blue skies.

C-JEAN
Hi, art fans.

This is NOT art. He used the work done by the insects.
He should pay them a % of his $$$. B-)
Art is when the PERSON does it ALL !!

Art would be a person doing a similar thing with. . . a 3D printer !!
Be inspired, and then do something outside the inspiration's object !!
THAT is art !!!

Blue skies.

Well, I guess it comes down to your own personal definition to what "art" is. Granted, this guy didn't create the tunnel system underground, but he did go through the steps of melting metal, casting the colony and turning it into a sculpture. I'm not some art major, I know what I consider art, and I consider this art on some small scale, but I get where you're coming from too...

Gemwolf
reply to post by jhn7537

 

Look up "Walter Tschinkel"... Pretty fascinating stuff, but some do not agree with the "ant genocide" even though it is in the name of science...

Funny how bug genocide idealism never seems to cross over into life sustaining crops we need to survive… Organic and all.

(What, some of you thought they don't kill bugs for organic crops?)

I'm more worried personally about the cockroach and bedbug genocides as of late. Dear god what will we do without them…