Ask someone who's working on raising ants anything (part 2)

i wasn't here for part 1
so....
>>729809763
what is the economic value of ants?
or is this purely for entertainment purposes?

>>729810310
Purely for entertainment. It costs literally no money and I have the shit at hand and time so why not?

>>729810513
What's your plan?

>>729811309
Well I have a terrarium out back with soil in it and I'm gonna place a few weeds I pull up from my garden in it in order to grow an aphid population then I'm gonna place in some woodlice in order to build a population of those. All while this is going on I am going to be growing my colony within this test tube until the first generation is completely hatched. From then they will be released into the terrarium and I'm just gonna watch them from there.

I came to this thread ready to abuse you for being retarded... now im afraid im retarded because this sounds like fun.
Fuck
I caught the tardness.

>>729812447
It's honestly not even a hobby with how little effort it takes. It's just something to look at when I'm out back and it's pretty neat to see an ecosystem form. Like, I'm leaving my terrarium out back in order to give them the most natural light and weather I can while still keeping them as "pets" in a sense. So, I'm hoping maybe I can get some grass and/or moss and maybe some live plants in there in order to give more bugs more things to create an ecosystem with. Like, I regularly got flies, spiders, and aphids in the terrarium before I restarted my colony.

>>729809763
Which one is you favorite?

>>729812754
Sorry, I'm assuming the terrarium is like a fish tank?
>I'm retarded
What is the end goal here?

>>729813272
Yeah, a fish tank. There is no end goal except to keep the colony alive. I'm just fascinated by watching a contained box of nature thrive and grow its own ecosystem.

>>729813237
Well right now I only have the queen, which I have named Danny DeVito.

>>729809763
How many times have you cum on the ants?

>>729813585
69

>>729813822
damn dude dubs of truth

What should I call the colony when they are of age? I was thinking "the Horde" as a cheesy nod to World of Warcraft.

I'm severely allergic to ant bites
So fuck you, OP

>>729813822
ummm... do they use your "gift" as food?

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How did you catch the queen?

>>729814064
The banana nut muffin brigade

>>729814212
Roommate's mom was watering the front yard and she just found it put it in a container and handed it to me. I guess she flooded them out lol

>>729814249
Considered.

How long have you had the queen, and also what kind of maintance does it involve?

>>729809763
Had one of those thin ant "fish" tanks when i was younger. Have to say it is pretty fucking cool watching those little bastards make something out of nothing. Always thought it would be cool to have a really big one that could hold multiple colonies of ants so i could watch them fight for territory and shit.

>>729814633
Had her for like half a month now but the colony wasn't prospering the way I wanted so I placed her inside a test tube setup (which is just half a test tube filled with water and plugged with cotton and the other half dry with her in it and plugged with cotton)

As of now it's literally no maintenance whatsoever. I just make sure she doesn't get direct sunlight until she lays her first generation of workers and they hatch.

>>729814900
What I would do in your case is get a few 20 or 40-gallon aquariums and connect them with piping that the ants can crawl through after having raised them for a while. That'll definitely start a colony war.

sounds pretty dope anon
do you follow the guide of a website ?

>>729815204
I watch AntsCanada's videos.

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>>729809763
Ever fuck them?

>>729815418
Once or twice, who wants to know?

Any ideas in a makeshift tank? How big does it need to be?

>>729815697
I would use a 20-40 gallon tank. I'm using a 20 gallon one right now.

Imagine this now:

It's filled up about 3/4 the way with soil and in one corner there's a crater with a weed from my garden planted in it. Placed on the crater itself is a branch that the ants use to get from one side of the nest to the other quickly and, at the end of that branch, is a bit of a palm tree that I intend them to use as a trash pile location. There are various rocks and leaves scattered around.

>>729809763
Posts pics of your terrarium

ever considered releasing them with malicious intent ?

>>729816669
Can't atm, it's getting dark out.

>>729816676
Fuck no.

>>729816866
Don't you have flash on your phone negro

>>729816321
Where does one acquire a tank? Also do you keep them inside or outside? Also, if outside, will they die when it snows?

>>729816998
Ye, but I also just don't wanna go outside atm because I'm tired as fuck.

>>729817215
My friend Igor brought a tank over for me like a week ago, you can get them at any Wal-Mart or pet store, my dude. I keep them outside under the overhang of our patio so they don't get rained on or anything. We live in the center of California so it doesn't snow for us.

>>729809763
antman, you're on the wrong board. we both know where you belong.

Have you ever considered inseminating the queen to create a race of hybrid insect men?

>>729818035
I already did that.

>>729818211
How big are you boi

>>729818211
How do you tell a queen from normal Ants?
And will you post more on here when you've actually set up a tank?

>>729818619
The queen is just huge basically and you can tell because she tries to get back underground as quickly as possible rather than looking around for the source of invasion.

I will post more indeed.

>>729811847
Are you going to make them have a war

>>729819464
Nah. I wanna keep them around for as long as possible.

>>729813237
Made me chuckle

>>729814914
She's fine just living in half a test tube for long periods of time? What does she eat?

This thread is way more interesting than I expected it to be

>>729821131
It simulates her claustural chamber, which is where she stays and lays her eggs until they burrow out of it and build the nest upwards. She doesn't mind at all. She doesn't eat either because she has enough in her energy reserves to last her until her first generation comes in.

>>729821418
Cool, what sort of timeframe is a generation and how many ants do you expect in the first generation? Do ants reproduce sexually or through parthenogenesis or something?

Could you type out the basics step by step,or post a vid or something? this sounds fucking cool

>>729822037
From what I can remember it can take about two weeks for her to lay eggs once put into the test tube setup and a month for them to hatch. Not sure how many to expect from the first generation, though.

In order to reproduce what happens is queens will lay special eggs that hatch "alates" which are male ants who are sexually viable and sexually viable queen ants. They will fly out of their colony once a year and breed intensely enough to where the female has enough sperm in her to last her lifetime. The males die off after this.

>>729822475
this time on:threads i did'nt think would give me an erection

>>729822463

1.) Get yourself an aquarium that's about 20 gallons at the least.

2.) Fill it up about 3/4 the way with soil

3.) Decorate the ground level however the fuck you want but you want to make it feel like it's the natural habitat you got the ants from. So, if you're from Arizona and you've got fire ants, you wanna make it feel like Arizona in that terrarium.

4.) Find your queen ant. This is the difficult part. Look up the "nuptial flights" of the species of ants in your area and, if you don't wanna wait for that, you can essentially just flood out a colony with lemon water until the queen appears. The ants hate citrus for some reason.

5.) Place your queen ant in a test tube setup with one half full of water. Plug it with cotton. Your queen will drink from this cotton and potentially drag some of the excess out as a sort of bedding, like mine has. They like to build with it sometimes. After you have plugged the water end, place your queen in there and plug the free end.

6.) Leave her be in a dark place like your closet, checking on her daily, until her first generation of workers hatches then transfer her to your tank.

>as a bonus I like to create ecosystems using different kinds of bugs and plants to make it feel better for them

>>729822922
thanks OP

>>729822463
>>729822922
To feed them, you wanna place unprocessed honey or small, pre-killed bugs in their tank near the entrance of their colony. However, once it gets big enough, you can place live bugs in there and watch them go at it since the ants will be focused more on foraging than building.

>>729823102
thats fucking hardcore, ants are fucking awesome.

>>729823218
Yeah it's cooler when you've got red ants because they're designed to be naturally aggressive.

Here is a video of a great ant terrarium.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jOac4N34sA0

>>729823358
the fuck are these mites

>>729823689
He's just giving an update on one of his previous videos before introducing the terrarium because it's set up kinda like a documentary/series thing.

>>729822922
test tube setup?

>>729823866
The test tube setup is the name for the thing I explained after.

>>729824093
ah, got it

>>729823866
>>729822922
>>729818333
>>729818211
>>729816866
>>729815500
>>729814900
>>729814633
>>729813822

This is also a get thread it seems.

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>>729815418
Yep, that's enough internet for me today!

holy fucking shit, this is dwarf fortress with ants.

>>729824852
Yeah ant keeping is a lot more interesting than people think at first.

>>729825070
you should keep an ant journal or something online, probably would be entertaining

>>729825350
I'mma keep /b/ updated and I might upload videos on YouTube.

>>729825480
these honeypot ants look really cool

>>729825604
I think his Golden Empire in the Hacienda del Dorado are my favorites so far. They've got a sick little ecosystem in there now.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g1FVMUfP2RI

fuck yes honeypot ants live in california, time to get started!

This is great

Anyone else here on this board keep ants?

>>729813524
thats a lovely name

How do you capture a queen in nuptial flight?

>>729827148
You just have to wait for her to land and rip off her wings, basically.

>>729827270
Oh..

>>729827345
Yeah, once she has ripped off her wings she will be searching for a place to start a nest. Typically they'll start their flight two days after it rains.

>>729827270
>>729827466
so how do you find them?

>>729827547
Check on the pavement two days after it rains in certain times of the year or flood out a colony on your own using lemon water. Different species of ants have different nuptial flight patterns. If you wanna get a red ant, check sometime in the late spring and early summer, for example.

>>729827964
got it. thanks!

>>729823358
I love that this is another anon that watches ants cannada