36 replies to this topic

[Nylanderiavividula]

My mom is used to it. Thankfully, my wife is a bug-nerd, too, so I don’t have to hide my field guides and whatnot. She IS getting a little concerned that there are now three founding formicaria on the kitchen table...and I keep looking for more ants when I get back home from work...

[Thebrute99]

Thank you everybody this is great

[Rstheant]

Ha, if I get a girl-friend, I’ll give her a sheet that says:

GET USED TO IT,

ants everywhere
Bugs in bedrooms
Mashed insects




Just kidding I won’t do that.

Edited by Rstheant, February 21 2019 - 1:40 PM.

[FSTP]

Encylopedia Britannica. In the family library we had two compete sets of them one from 1983 and one set from 1992. They both had a great section on ants and insects in general. That is were I first learned of ants and just how interesting they were. So then I went and caught a colony I found under a rock just kept them in a mason jar with dirt/sand. Then my mom got a Uncle Milton's ant farm then went to HS and stopped keeping insects in general, then started again around 213 and then joined this place in 2016.

[Ants4fun]

It started with reading the book "Ant Cities" by Arthur Dorros in kindergarten. I would check out that same book every week. I was most fascinated with the back, which explained how to keep ants yourself. Kept ants ever since. Now I'm graduating this year, and I'm still keeping ants.

[Jadeninja9]

An Antscanada video on how to catch a queen ant. The idea in the video of going out and catching the local species in your area reminded me a lot of Pokemon, and I thought that was awesome. 

Edited by Jadeninja9, February 22 2019 - 1:31 AM.

[sirjordanncurtis]

YsTheAnt got me into it. All his fault.

 

 I just noticed the connection between ur usernames

[Rstheant]

He is my cousin. We build awesome formicariums together. He gave me the Liometopum and we caught the aphaenogaster together. Mine are doing better than his. YS has been keeping ants about a year longer than me.

Edited by Rstheant, February 22 2019 - 11:06 AM.

[mallonje]

Mr. Wizards World -- Yeah I'm that old. 

I watched an episode where they collected pond water and viewed it all under a video microscope. I was intrigued. I started getting into biology - taking out animal books for free reading from the school library. 

A few episodes later, he talked about ants and ant farms. And about how he had made his own. I thought it was brilliant. So I did the same thing. However - at that time it wasn't all about collecting a queen and starting a real colony so much as collecting samples to view in a habitat. So like Don Herbert did - I put a sugar cube on a small piece of paper, and left it for a bit. When I came back it was covered in sugar ants. I used my homemade aspirator and sucked up about 60 or so of the little buggers. They lasted almost 10 months. 

This lead to me having other insect pets, on top of the odd menagerie I seemed to keep. 

Flash forward to just last year - we had a huge ice storm with a blackout that lasted days. I had been stream science videos on youTube when I came across Ants Canada. It kind of rekindled that love of bugs, and sparked the desire to host a real colony, queen and all.    

[FSTP]

OMG I loved Mr. Wizard. Far superior to the later Bill Nye. Used to watch him every day on PBS before and after school.

[Wa.Va]

This à great read xd

[mallonje]

I love the internet - I found the clip! 

[FSTP]

I wish I could like your post more tehn once. I remember that episode!

[Nylanderiavividula]

Holy moly, you’re THAT OLD, eh? I never got to see this series (born in ‘85), but it would have been something that would have had my twin brother and me transfixed to the television. I also wish I could give these posts more than one like!! Great thread.

[Hightlyze]

There was a YouTube video where someone was trying to trick an ant into thinking it's dead

[ponerinecat]

There was a YouTube video where someone was trying to trick an ant into thinking it's dead

what

[ponerinecat]

I found a queen (I thought it was just a fat ant) and threw it into a terrarium. Then little ants popped up. Then I found Mikey Bustos(who has degraded.) End of story.