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Ever had the cops called on you while collecting?


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#1 Offline Adrielm - Posted June 22 2018 - 4:43 PM

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Funny story that had me thinking if anyone has experienced something similar. 

I was doing research for an undergraduate entomology course that required me to collect and identify ants in various locations spread out over a semester-long period. I could be frequently seen in the parking lot near the student dorms with a lunch box filled with vials and an aspirator in my hand crawling on the floor collecting as many ants as I could find. One day, I was going about my daily ant collecting business when I was approached by a campus police officer. He approached me quite aggressively and demanded that I state my name and business and show him the alien apparatus in my hand (aspirator). I calmly complied and told him I was collecting ants for a biology class (I doubt he would have known what entomology meant) and that I had done so for a long time unprovoked. He realized I was no threat with my staggering 5'10 153 pound build that was expected of a junior level biology student with no interest in exercise. He eased up and still demanded to see what I was holding. I handed him my aspirator and explained to him that it was a suction device used to collect small insects. He looked at me confused and was even more confused when I opened my lunch box and had at least 20 vials each with 25+ ants crawling inside of them. The look he had was of both disgust and intrigue for the skinny biology student with a lunch box filled with ants. He apologized for bothering me and told me that he had received multiple calls over a period of time about a suspicious individual who would hang out in the parking lot engaging in weird behavior. I'm assuming that meant me looking at the floor for long periods of time and randomly crawling to use my entomological tools effectively. I guess it doesn't help that I frequently wore a hoodie given their comfortably sized pockets used to hold my gear. Unfortunately, an aspirator also vaguely resembles a hookah or a bong.  :lol:


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#2 Offline akaant - Posted June 22 2018 - 6:24 PM

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A few years back I went to check out a new ant hunting area. A few days later I decided revisit the area and to my surprise a black police charger was waiting for me. Fortunately I had some ants in the containers to corroborate my reason to be there. He told me a  resident thought someone was growing marijuana. I never went back.


Edited by akaant, June 22 2018 - 6:28 PM.

AKA's Ant adoption.

http://www.formicult...achusetts-only/

Youtube. https://www.youtube....Hbsk2xiarcfGTmw

Keeper of...

Aphaenogaster sp

Camponotus americanus, castaneus, chromaiodes, novaeboracensis, pennsylvanicus.

Crematogaster sp

tetramorium immigrans

Formica sp

 

 

 





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