Let's talk about Ants (The Animal)

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clakclak
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Let's talk about Ants (The Animal)

Post by clakclak » Sun, 21. Feb 21, 10:09

Hey everyone,

so with Covid going strong for some time now and me being mostly confined to my (very) small flat I was going a bit crazy and needed a hobby. So I got into ant keeping. While doing so I learned a lot about ants and must say that I am more an more fascinated by them every day. There are so many interesting different ant species and they significantly differ in behaviour depending on the ecological niche and the climate they live in. Especially with this forum we might have very different ideas about how ants and humans interact and also different species we commonly. Here in Germany one pretty much everyone will know (without being familiar with what they actually are) are Lasius Niger. They often can be found in cities, building their nests between pavement slabs or in old walls. What not everyone knows is that common ant is a type of ant that will tend to cattle in the form of aphids. The aphids secrete a sweet fluid and in turn the ants protect them from danger. Another well known ant species we have here are Formica Rufa, which are mostly known for creating these giant ant mounts in forrests.

Those of you who live in other countries probably are familiar with other species, be they the dreaded red (imported) fire ant (Solenopsis invicta) which are brilliant at dealing with water, the majestic leafcutter ants of South America that harvest leaves they use to feed a fungus which is both their nest and main food source, or the weaver ants of South East Asia that use their own bodies as cords to pull leaves close to each other and then use the silk of their larvea to form giant balls of leaves in which they live.

I know many people probably do not think about ants that often, but as they make up for roughly 15%-25% of (land) animal biomass in any given ecosystem, they are something (almost) every human no matter their culture of upbringing is familiar with. (The only places they can not inhabit are those that are always cold)
"The problem with gender is that it prescribes how we should be rather than recognizing how we are. Imagine how much happier we would be, how much freer to be our true individual selves, if we didn't have the weight of gender expectations." - Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

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Re: Let's talk about Ants (The Animal)

Post by Gavrushka » Sun, 21. Feb 21, 11:11

I'm not surprised to learn just how many ants there are, by weight, and they are truly remarkable creatures. I took a few pictures of them in the summer after they hijacked the sugar crystals I'd put out for a tired bee... I'll try find them, upload them to OneDrive, and put the links here.

Locating ant nests here is simple... The crows do it for you, spreading their wings and collapsing their undercarriage atop their home so the residents come out and give them a good 'ol acid bath. I'd suggest there was 20 or more nests within 10 meters of where I live.

And they get ever so cross when I cut the grass... There must be a lot from different ant nests end up in my composting bins. - I often wonder if they cooperate, or fight to the death once they've lost contact with their home.

I'll go look for some ant photos on my hard drive now...

*edit* - Uploaded a small directory of ants. Can you identify them? What is the one with the striped abdomen?
“Man, my poor head is battered,” Ed said.

“That explains its unusual shape,” Styanar said, grinning openly now. “Although it does little to illuminate just why your jowls are so flaccid or why you have quite so many chins.”

“I…” Had she just called him fat? “I am just a different species, that’s all.”

“Well nature sure does have a sense of humour then,” Styanar said. “Shall we go inside? It’d not be a good idea for me to be spotted by others.”

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Re: Let's talk about Ants (The Animal)

Post by Rug » Sun, 21. Feb 21, 11:41

Gavrushka wrote:
Sun, 21. Feb 21, 11:11
Can you identify them? What is the one with the striped abdomen?[/url]
A mutAnt?

Ahem.



Sorry.....
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Re: Let's talk about Ants (The Animal)

Post by Gavrushka » Sun, 21. Feb 21, 12:09

Rug wrote:
Sun, 21. Feb 21, 11:41
Gavrushka wrote:
Sun, 21. Feb 21, 11:11
Can you identify them? What is the one with the striped abdomen?
A mutAnt?

Ahem. :shock:



Sorry.....
Well, grANTed it was a nice bit of wordplay, but I'm still gonna have to rANT. :rant:

And this is how I spend my Sunday mornings... :oops:
“Man, my poor head is battered,” Ed said.

“That explains its unusual shape,” Styanar said, grinning openly now. “Although it does little to illuminate just why your jowls are so flaccid or why you have quite so many chins.”

“I…” Had she just called him fat? “I am just a different species, that’s all.”

“Well nature sure does have a sense of humour then,” Styanar said. “Shall we go inside? It’d not be a good idea for me to be spotted by others.”

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Re: Let's talk about Ants (The Animal)

Post by greypanther » Sun, 21. Feb 21, 13:27

I too am fascianted by ants, but forget which species is which, even though we appear to have three species in our garden. One species of red ant in the front garden, which is rather small and lives on the sorry excuse of a lawn that we have, one species of larger, black ant, which indeed farms aphids, particularly on our Peony. The back garden has its own, and to my eye different species of black ant, which appears to be larger than the front garden variety.

I remember the very warm year of 1976, a drought and several of us very bad nine year olds, digging up numerous ant nests, after argueing which species was tougher. We put red ant nests, with queen, on top of a black ant nest, ( vice versa too, ) watched the ensuing warfare, until there was a victor. As far as I remember, the reds usually won. We were very naughty boys... :oops:

I find all species of hive minds fascinating, especially Bees. We had at least six species of Bees on our Lavender last year. Just a shame I had to cut it back. I hope I can replace it with good native English Lavender this spring. The Bees seem to dislike the French and other varieties.
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Re: Let's talk about Ants (The Animal)

Post by brucewarren » Sun, 21. Feb 21, 13:38

I learned more than I wanted to know about ants from Cinemaware's "It Came from the Desert"

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Re: Let's talk about Ants (The Animal)

Post by greypanther » Sun, 21. Feb 21, 14:15

brucewarren wrote:
Sun, 21. Feb 21, 13:38
I learned more than I wanted to know about ants from Cinemaware's "It Came from the Desert"
Well, I did just find this: https://store.steampowered.com/app/3265 ... _19861991/

Do you still have a Windows 7 PC hanging about though? :D
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Re: Let's talk about Ants (The Animal)

Post by brucewarren » Sun, 21. Feb 21, 14:20

Nice find, but sadly no I don't possess a Win 7 machine.

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Re: Let's talk about Ants (The Animal)

Post by clakclak » Sun, 21. Feb 21, 14:34

Gavrushka wrote:
Sun, 21. Feb 21, 11:11
I'm not surprised to learn just how many ants there are, by weight, and they are truly remarkable creatures. I took a few pictures of them in the summer after they hijacked the sugar crystals I'd put out for a tired bee... I'll try find them, upload them to OneDrive, and put the links here.

Locating ant nests here is simple... The crows do it for you, spreading their wings and collapsing their undercarriage atop their home so the residents come out and give them a good 'ol acid bath. I'd suggest there was 20 or more nests within 10 meters of where I live.
Yeah that makes a lot of sense. There is always more ants than one assume could possible inhabit a small area.
Gavrushka wrote:
Sun, 21. Feb 21, 11:11
And they get ever so cross when I cut the grass... There must be a lot from different ant nests end up in my composting bins. - I often wonder if they cooperate, or fight to the death once they've lost contact with their home.
Ants almost always fight other ants even those of the same species. There are some exception, for example Army ants will not fight other army ants and in some colonies of argentine ant (probably the most widespread ant of the world) genetic diversity is so low that they do not fight other argentine ants. (Because they were spread by humans and then rapidly reproduced they now form supercolonies at times spanning entire continents.) But usually ants will always go to war with other ants and consume their larvae when the win.
Gavrushka wrote:
Sun, 21. Feb 21, 11:11
I'll go look for some ant photos on my hard drive now...

*edit* - Uploaded a small directory of ants. Can you identify them? What is the one with the striped abdomen?
First up the question with the striped abdomen is easy to answer but it is also really interesting. That part of an ants body houses it's social stomach. Ants will consume food and then feed it to other members of their colony via something called trophallaxis, similar to how birds feed their young. In bees this is also relevant for the production of honey in ants it only helps to move and store food. The strips are there because when their social stomach fills the plates that make up that part of the body extend, revealing a thin and in many species of ants transparent layer of tissue. What you are seeing as stripes are in fact the ants stomach contents! The ant with the stripes simply has a full stomach. If they eat something else they will be coloured differently. Here is an example of that. looks cool right?

There are also ant species who have specialised casts of worker with large social stomachs that act as food storage units. They are called replete. Honeypot ants for example live in deserts and have repletes that look....well like honey pots. They are used as food by indigenous people as they often contain high amounts of carbs.

As for what species that is in your pictures, that is really hard to say. There are so many species and many look very similar. That being said they do look a lot like Lasius Niger. That could be very well the case as that is in many parts of Europe one of the most common species. In the south of the UK there are so many of them that their mating flights can be observed from space.
greypanther wrote:
Sun, 21. Feb 21, 13:27
I too am fascianted by ants, but forget which species is which, even though we appear to have three species in our garden. One species of red ant in the front garden, which is rather small and lives on the sorry excuse of a lawn that we have, one species of larger, black ant, which indeed farms aphids, particularly on our Peony. The back garden has its own, and to my eye different species of black ant, which appears to be larger than the front garden variety.
Depending on where you live that could be many different species, but one very common and worldwide well documented genus of larger ants is called camponotus. In English they are also called carpenter ants as the like to build elaborate nests in wood. Unlike termites they however do not eat wood and so preventing them from destroying your house is a bit easier than with termites. As long as the wood as dry, they will not be interested. Many of the species in that genus are black, but some can also be yellow, red or multicoloured.
greypanther wrote:
Sun, 21. Feb 21, 13:27
I find all species of hive minds fascinating, especially Bees. We had at least six species of Bees on our Lavender last year. Just a shame I had to cut it back. I hope I can replace it with good native English Lavender this spring. The Bees seem to dislike the French and other varieties.
Bees are also really fascinating. Some things that are prevelant in wasps and bees can also be observed in ants as all three are related.
"The problem with gender is that it prescribes how we should be rather than recognizing how we are. Imagine how much happier we would be, how much freer to be our true individual selves, if we didn't have the weight of gender expectations." - Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

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Re: Let's talk about Ants (The Animal)

Post by BaronVerde » Sun, 21. Feb 21, 15:17

Fascinating ! The ants around here are very small. And they don't bite or whatever ants do that makes one's skin itch. They just "clean up".

But there are scolopendra. They can grow to 15cm and more in length. They are hunters, their venom paralyses the prey, can cause intense limb pain to humans when bitten. Fascinating creatures with a long evolution among arthropods, from late silurian on.

And cockroaches, oriental style (don't fly). Don't let leftover food lie around too long ...

Leaving arthropods, there are also a variety of lizards here, the males develop bright blue and yellow skin patterns. Some local species can grow to 50cm, though half of that is tail. And they are generally on the decline because humans.

Yeah, fascinating :-)

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Re: Let's talk about Ants (The Animal)

Post by Alan Phipps » Sun, 21. Feb 21, 15:32

Isn't there a species of quite large ants that have really strong jaws (a bit like Aussie bull ants) whose heads can at a pinch (no pun intended) be used as temporary stitches to hold mammalian open wounds together while far out in the wild and until proper medical/veterinary aid can be found?
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Re: Let's talk about Ants (The Animal)

Post by clakclak » Sun, 21. Feb 21, 15:34

BaronVerde wrote:
Sun, 21. Feb 21, 15:17
The ants around here are very small. And they don't bite or whatever ants do that makes one's skin itch. They just "clean up".
Bite and/or sting. Most are harmless to humans. Some have very painful stings. Rarely there are species that can have fatal stings even if people are not allergic, but I have only heard about such cases from Australia, which I guess fits in well with the rest of the flora and fauna.
BaronVerde wrote:
Sun, 21. Feb 21, 15:17
But there are scolopendra. They can grow to 15cm and more in length. They are hunters, their venom paralyses the prey, can cause intense limb pain to humans when bitten. Fascinating creatures with a long evolution among arthropods, from late silurian on.
Oh I have heard of them. Scary things. They often eat mice and sometimes even rats don't they?
BaronVerde wrote:
Sun, 21. Feb 21, 15:17
And cockroaches, the big brown ones. Don't let leftover food lie around too long ...
Always makes an annoying sound if you step on one. :lol:
BaronVerde wrote:
Sun, 21. Feb 21, 15:17
And lizards, the males develop bright blue and yellow skin patterns. Some local species can grow to 50cm, though half of that is tail. And they are generally on the decline because humans.

Yeah, fascinating :-)
Lizards are something I have come into contact with daily while living in Africa, altough where I lived they usually where all some shade of brown. One once was sitting on the toilette cover and absolutely refused to leave. We had a little standoff for about 5 minutes until I finally managed to grab a hold of it. I don't think I would have reacted the same way if it would have been blue or yellow.
Alan Phipps wrote:
Sun, 21. Feb 21, 15:32
Isn't there a species of quite large ants that have really strong jaws (a bit like Aussie bull ants) that can at a pinch (no pun intended) be used as temporary stitches to hold mammalian open wounds together while far out in the wild and until proper medical/veterinary aid can be found?
Yes, army ants (forgot the specific genus. Army ant is the trivia name for a bunch of species many of which are not related at all). Spoiler because they are a thing of nightmares:
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Re: Let's talk about Ants (The Animal)

Post by BaronVerde » Sun, 21. Feb 21, 16:10

clakclak wrote:
Sun, 21. Feb 21, 15:34
Oh I have heard of them. Scary things. They often eat mice and sometimes even rats don't they?
Not sure, small rodents yes reportedly, but I think they prey mostly on other invertebrates. I have only seen 2 of them in 4 years. I doubt they can have a Rat, but can't exclude it, maybe a cadaver ...

... oh, and I find Africa by far the most fascinating continent on earth !

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Re: Let's talk about Ants (The Animal)

Post by felter » Sun, 21. Feb 21, 16:18

If you are into ants, then there is one channel on YouTube that you should be subscribed too, AntsCanada. I think he is actually in Malaysia not as the name suggests, Canada. The reason for the name when he started the Channel he was staying in Canada, then moved to Asia but the name had already stuck. He keeps quite a few different ants, all native to where he stays he used to have more but due to the pandemic he couldn't continue feeding them all, as he was unable to leave his apartment so he released a lot of them back into the wild.

At the start of the Pandemic he had a large fire ant colony that died out, but he was fortunate to be given another fire ant queen and we have been following the progress of that fire ant, as it went from a single queen living in a test tube to a large colony of millions that it is today living in a customised tank.

Currently he is also building a house that is based around the keeping of ants, and a lot of his current videos are about the ants that live in what will be his new backyard. this weeks video was all about him suspecting that he has discovered a new species of ant in that backyard. The video is worth watching it even has a little bit of a didn't see that coming at the end.

Of course he isn't just about ant videos, he also has his own website and shop called antscanada.com. The site has everything you need for keeping ants, from starter setups to where you can get a certain queen ant, but more than that it also has a forum where you are able to find and ask anything you want about the keeping of ants. If you are into ants, this is the place to go.
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Re: Let's talk about Ants (The Animal)

Post by clakclak » Sun, 21. Feb 21, 16:45

felter wrote:
Sun, 21. Feb 21, 16:18
If you are into ants, then there is one channel on YouTube that you should be subscribed too, AntsCanada. I think he is actually in Malaysia not as the name suggests, Canada. The reason for the name when he started the Channel he was staying in Canada, then moved to Asia but the name had already stuck. [...]
Just a small correction here. He is a Canadian citizen (born in Toronto) with a Filipino background who currently lives in Manila (Philippines) not Malaysia. :)

I strongly agree with you. His channel is a good recommendation for anyone who is interested in the topic, altough his way of presenting his videos is something that not everyone enjoys. I personally really like his stuff.
felter wrote:
Sun, 21. Feb 21, 16:18
Of course he isn't just about ant videos, he also has his own website and shop called antscanada.com. The site has everything you need for keeping ants, from starter setups to where you can get a certain queen ant, but more than that it also has a forum where you are able to find and ask anything you want about the keeping of ants. If you are into ants, this is the place to go.
For those of you who happen to live in North America this is a great site. I in fact have some of their equipment and the quality is really good. However due to high import fees I would recommend choosing shops in your local economic zone. Ant keeping Depot for example is an Australien shop, then there is the Ant Store, MyAnts and Sim Ants in Germany or Antkit in the UK. All these are reliable and have good products, altough their ideas and the materials they use differ greatly. I strong advise against buying anything from Wish or Etsy. It is bad quality and also potentially toxic.

If money is however not an issue you will never be wrong if you buy from Ants Canada.
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Re: Let's talk about Ants (The Animal)

Post by greypanther » Sun, 21. Feb 21, 21:36

clakclak wrote:
Sun, 21. Feb 21, 16:45
Antkit in the UK. A
Interesting, thank you. :) Much easier to arrange than bee hives, which unfortunately we are not allowed here.
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Re: Let's talk about Ants (The Animal)

Post by berth » Sun, 21. Feb 21, 22:05

greypanther wrote:
Sun, 21. Feb 21, 14:15
brucewarren wrote:
Sun, 21. Feb 21, 13:38
I learned more than I wanted to know about ants from Cinemaware's "It Came from the Desert"
Well, I did just find this: https://store.steampowered.com/app/3265 ... _19861991/

Do you still have a Windows 7 PC hanging about though? :D
Not familiar with that game but I do remember enjoying SimAnt on the Amiga, although I never completed it.

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Re: Let's talk about Ants (The Animal)

Post by greypanther » Sun, 21. Feb 21, 23:14

@brucewarren: It would seem that in 2017, they made a film based on the game, comedy horror they called it. It is on the Horror channel tonight at 10.55, Freeview 68.
https://www.horrorchannel.co.uk/shows.p ... the+desert
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Re: Let's talk about Ants (The Animal)

Post by mrbadger » Tue, 2. Mar 21, 20:54

Get yourself a copy of the Clifford Simak book City

I won't spoil it, and I urge you not to read any wikipedia stuff or summaries of it before reading it. Try to experience it without knowing anything beforehand. this is hard to do now when information is a mere mouseclick away, but try not to.

It has a robot, and ants, and it's one of my all time favourite Science Fiction books.

It's on Audible if you have an account there.
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Re: Let's talk about Ants (The Animal)

Post by clakclak » Wed, 3. Mar 21, 10:55

mrbadger wrote:
Tue, 2. Mar 21, 20:54
Get yourself a copy of the Clifford Simak book City

I won't spoil it, and I urge you not to read any wikipedia stuff or summaries of it before reading it. Try to experience it without knowing anything beforehand. this is hard to do now when information is a mere mouseclick away, but try not to.

It has a robot, and ants, and it's one of my all time favourite Science Fiction books.

It's on Audible if you have an account there.
Just found a used copy and ordered it for around 4€. No idea when i will get around to reading it though. I have a large pile backed up. :lol:
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