Ant keeping like bee keeping is a real thing

I was over someone's house and they were keeping ant hives. The guy had several species. I did not know this but apparently ant keeping is a real thing. Since each hive had its own queen, this brings Uncle Milty's Ant Farm to whole new level. This guys formicariums were amazing. Despite my initial shock and thinking where's the RAID, it was actually really cool:

a reply to: dfnj2015

I imagine it might be a bit interesting, but where's the point?

Bee keeping produces honey.
Bee's help pollinate flowers etc.

What about ants?

originally posted by: Freeborn
a reply to: dfnj2015

I imagine it might be a bit interesting, but where's the point?

Bee keeping produces honey.
Bee's help pollinate flowers etc.

What about ants?

No point other than it's kind of like collecting Pokemon in real life. Some of the ants give birth to specialized ants that only chop stuff up and are extra large. It was like something out of the movie Aliens. It's was weird but kind interesting.

The guy had a bunch of colonies in test tubes. And he fed them honey.

a reply to: dfnj2015

Your post freaked me out. It was just today while mowing at work I was attacked by these buggers.

Thanks to Wiki:-

Jack jumper ant

Myrmecia pilosula, commonly known as the jack jumper, jumping jack, hopper ant, or jumper ant, is a species of venomous ant native to Australia. Most frequently found in Tasmania and southeast mainland Australia, it is a member of the genus Myrmecia, subfamily Myrmeciinae, and was formally described and named by British entomologist Frederick Smith in 1858. This species is known for the ability to jump long distances. These ants are large; workers and males are approximately the same size: 12 to 14 millimetres for workers, and 11 to 12 millimetres for males. The queen measures approximately 14 to 16 millimetres in length and is similar in appearance to workers, whereas males are identifiable by their perceptibly smaller mandibles.

Their bite is akin to Fire Ants but the bludgers jump. I could not understand after reading your post why anyone would try to keep ants like these. It isn't the first time these ants have jumped me in the bush. Not much I could do. Bit right through my socks and trousers. Then my fingers as I attempted to brush them off. After calming down. I picked the blighters off.

I carry a fuel can with the mower. This nasty colony and surrounds copped it. Not revenge but I was mowing around a play area for kids and in an overgrown patch of grass I chopped the top of a mound spraying dust and ants. Not noticing at first I began to feel the stings and burning. Hopping around, much to the amusement of my coworkers.

Each to their own but I couldn't see myself growing a colony of these nasties.

Funny to see the video after today's experience. Hope I don't dream tonight.

My regards,

bally

I've always been fascinated with ants and spent sometime looking into setting up a leaf cutter colony, as per the video they're available online.

Did you know that ants are the only creatures other than humans to farm for food? Leaf cutter ants take the leaf pieces to select chambers with the right conditions, and the mold spores that they carry around on their bodies begins to grow on the rotting leaf matter, it's this mold that is their food source.

Another type of ant, can't remember the name, herds around colonies of small aphids which secrete a honeydew type substance, this is those ants food source. They protect the aphids from predators and have even been observed herding them under tree leaves to protect them from rainfall.

They're seriously fascinating creatures. Your video was a great watch, and opened my eyes to the ethical debate surrounding the hobby, so thanks for sharing!

Well, I never considered raising ants, but I raise them anyway even without my consent. The variety I raise is the nastiest of all the varieties too...the FIRE ANT! And lemme' tell ya, if you don't watch where you step around here, and a few hundred of those buggers run up your leg you'll know it!! And how!! And here's something I've discovered which makes it even worse:

The fire ants all start biting at once! Now, let me be clear about what this means...they don't start biting when they start running up your leg, or arm, or back...no, they wait until there's a few hundred of them all the way up your leg before they start biting...all at once!!! Last summer I actually slapped my own self in the man sack (four or five times) trying to get those bastages off!

But in every cloud there is a silver lining, right? This particular variety of ant makes some massive nests in the ground under their ant hill. People pour molten aluminum down these holes and then dig out and wash off the solidified aluminum. The resultant ant hill sculptures sell for thousands of dollars.

a reply to: Flyingclaydisk

I once was had a bunch of fire ants attacking my leg when I was in Florida. Painful as hell!

originally posted by: Freeborn
a reply to: dfnj2015

I imagine it might be a bit interesting, but where's the point?

Bee keeping produces honey.
Bee's help pollinate flowers etc.

What about ants?

Formic acid is quite useful.

Google « formic acid »

Lags

You can cook bacon and eggs on those ant hills!

a reply to: Flyingclaydisk

originally posted by: Lagomorphe
You can cook bacon and eggs on those ant hills!

AND if you are not a city boi with your « man bun » then you will know that formic acid is used (natural) from for disinfectant purposes of livrstock breeding facilities.

Lags

a reply to: Flyingclaydisk

a reply to: Lagomorphe

Huh???

I didn't write that.

I know what formic acid is.

originally posted by: Flyingclaydisk
a reply to: Lagomorphe

Huh???

I didn't write that.

I know what formic acid is.

I buggered up my answer mate... apologies the most sincerest.

originally posted by: Lagomorphe

originally posted by: Freeborn
a reply to: dfnj2015

I imagine it might be a bit interesting, but where's the point?

Bee keeping produces honey.
Bee's help pollinate flowers etc.

What about ants?

Formic acid is quite useful.

Google « formic acid »

Lags

I got straight-up tagged in the eye with a jet of that stuff one time.

I was on a woodland exercise (Europe) with the army cadets, we took a quick rest and I noticed this big brown mound covered in these big black ants, decided to squish one, and the rest is history, lol

Ladybugs is where the big money's at.

Box of Ladybugs

If it fascinated you, there is a YouTube channel called AntsCanada. The guy keeps all kinds of ant hives in both closed and open terrariums. It's sort of like a soap opera channel for Days of Our Ant Lives. Right now, he's doing a series on rhino beetles, but he just got done having to deal with a parasitic mite infestation in his yellow crazy ant super colony.

He has a whole serious up about discovering the parasites, being afraid he was going to lose them all, discovering that the mites on the rhino beetles would predate the parasites on the yellow ants so he could save a queen and few workers to start again, discovering a large number of mostly parasite free yellow ants, seeding those ants with predatory mites off his beetles, turning the yellow ant habitat terrarium into a toad habitat so the last parasitized ants could be eaten before the parasites spread to all his other ant colonies ...

Anyhow, he makes his ants entertaining with story.

a reply to: Blue Shift

An often under-utilised tool in the horticulturists toolbox, 👌

a reply to: ketsuko

If it fascinated you, there is a YouTube channel called AntsCanada.

OP's main selling point was a video, from AntsCanada, lol 🙂

a reply to: MerkabaTribeEntity

Yeah, but I didn't want to say anything because he was on a roll.

a reply to: MerkabaTribeEntity

You know how it is when you post in the middle of doing something. You see the video, but don't have time to do more than glance at it to get an idea of the subject. I read the post and responded to that. Then I moved on to other things. I tend to hop in and out while taking care of other business around the house in the afternoons, so I can miss stuff like that easy enough.

a reply to: Blue Shift

We have used Ladybug as predators against mites.

As for keeping an ant colony, same kinda thing as having a fish tank. I keep tarantula's.