4 replies to this topic

[futurebird]

I was talking to my husband today about antkeeping and in the course of explaining a complex colony rehoming (a colony nearly 2k strong and CRAZY for more space) I happened to say "anytime you open a port to a space that contains ants, ants come out of it."

He found this VERY funny for some reason and is now calling it

 

"The Ironclad Law of Antkeeping: anytime you open something full of ants, ants come out."

 

I mean... he has a point. I guess.

[ANTdrew]

Also Myrmy’s Law, which states that, all things being equal, ants will always do what you don’t want or expect them to do.

[Locness]

Ant that something.

[Ernteameise]

Well, not true for my Acanthomyrmex- when shining a light on them and accidently opening the nest cover to take pictures- the ants freeze.

I got good pictures, though.

 

But every rule in nature has some kind of exception, I guess.

Edited by Ernteameise, April 21 2024 - 1:11 AM.

[OhNoNotAgain]

I kind of observed to myself that very small ant colonies, you can pretty much treat each ant as an individual and it makes watching them easy and interesting.

However, once they reach about 500, even more over 1000 or 2000, they start to act like a liquid (at least when kept in an enclosed formicarium). It is a liquid that is always trying to leak through the smallest gaps. Once they hit about 2000+ they feel so much like a semi-intelligent, hungry fluid they creep me out a bit. I try to keep my larger colonies bonsai'ed to about 1000-2000 max.