@freemo @mngrif I've been watching hours and hours of Ant keeping videos on YouTube, and joined an Ant Keeping discord server.

It's a very supportive and kind community of enthusiasts.

@Surasanji @freemo @mngrif I keep bees... I am not sure what one gets from keeping ants though. Or is it just voyeuristic?

@Absinthe @freemo @mngrif Partially, I also just find them extremely interesting. How they act and work- in Ant Keeping, a lot of set ups are designed so you can see the ants in their nest and observe them being ants.

They don't give you honey or anything like that. It's just, for me at least, fascinating to watch an insect with such a complex social life.

@Surasanji @freemo @mngrif Would not work in my home. One ant showing up provokes enough chemical warfare that I am surprised to have survived this many years. I can ignore them. Not so for everyone in my home. :)

@Surasanji
First, I didn't know ant keeping was a thing. Looks awesome.

When I was in Australia there were this green bottom ants, people ate that green part. It wasn't that bad frankly, i tried quite a few of them (You won't get your belly full, but it's something)

@Absinthe @freemo @mngrif

@arteteco

I'd try it :)

@Surasanji @Absinthe @mngrif

@arteteco @Surasanji @freemo @mngrif Actually, seems if you look for them online, Australia is where you can easily buy queens. Imagine that. There are so many cool looking ants, some of them must be delicious. :)

@Absinthe @Surasanji @freemo @mngrif

Honestly, I think it would make a good business too... I'd personally buy ants to eat.

@arteteco @Surasanji @freemo @mngrif these look delicious:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honeypot_ant

@Absinthe @Surasanji @freemo @mngrif they do, indeed.

@Absinthe

That is insanely cool. I wonder if you can keep them in a colony

@arteteco @Surasanji @mngrif

@freemo @arteteco @Surasanji @mngrif If you can find a queen I assume they are social ants. I don't know if there are a lot of solitary ants, but I guess there could be. The old cow-killer is definitely one, and thank goodness. :)

@Absinthe @freemo @arteteco @mngrif Cow-Killers are a solitary wasp, not an ant. I do not believe there are any truly solitary ants.

@Surasanji

My Aunt Martha hasnt come to a single solitary family gathering in years. I think she would count!

@Absinthe @arteteco @mngrif

@freemo @Absinthe @arteteco @mngrif I come from the land where we pronounce the U in Aunt.

That's right: a-YOO-nt.

@Surasanji @freemo @arteteco @mngrif I think if you don't say AUnt you should ad a Y (ie) to the end and say antie. Like "Bob's your uncle and Fannie's your auntie!"

@Surasanji @freemo @arteteco @mngrif not "dodah"?

@Absinthe @freemo @arteteco @mngrif English is my native tongue, so not typically. :P

@Surasanji @freemo @arteteco @mngrif well mine too, I had to even look it up. Vowels, why can't I have vowels!!!?

@Surasanji @freemo @arteteco @mngrif "velvet ant" is in fact flightless wasp. But she has ant in her name :)

@Absinthe @freemo @arteteco @mngrif Valid.

@Surasanji @freemo @arteteco @mngrif ant, wasp, they are both hymenoptera, if they want to share names, who am I to tell them not to.

@Absinthe @arteteco @freemo @mngrif It's very easy to get ants in parts of Europe (Germany has one of the most fantastic Ant related stores in the world.) and in the US you can send mated queen ants through the mail in most situations.

@Absinthe

You harvest the ant-poop and make pie out of it. Its delicious :)

Plus lets not forget the army of millions venomous soldiers ready to do your bidding!

@Surasanji @mngrif

@freemo @Surasanji @mngrif Okay, our ideas of delicious may not coincide.

There was a petstore that had those "Arrow" frogs. The kind that are supposed to be poisonous (and venomous too, yes I know the diff :) )

I asked the guy why these were safe for pets. He said they develop their poison from their diet of fire ants. And since you wouldn't provide that they were perfectly safe.

He went on to add, that there was someone who setup a huge indoor environment containing many of these and the requisite ant colonies. There was some strange accident where he slipped and fell into a group of these frogs and was dead before he could right himself.

Sorry, that was very tangential. Ooh, math, tangents. :)

@Absinthe

You are giving me some great ideas for my ant farm :)

@Surasanji @mngrif

@freemo @Absinthe @mngrif We can always get Escamoles.

And yeah, fire ants (Solonopsis) are pretty nasty, particularly the south american sorts.

@Surasanji @freemo @mngrif I am not sure I care about their nationality, I just know they are mean and have a good reason for their name. Ouch.

@Absinthe @freemo @mngrif The most venomous insect in the world is an Ant. The Maricopa Harvester Ant (Pogonomyrmex maricopa) in the western US. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pogonomyrmex_maricopa

@Surasanji @freemo @mngrif Hmmm, well as long as they stay out west that'll be fine with me. We do, however, have these kcuffers here:

https://www.insectidentification.org/insect-description.asp?identification=Cow-Killer

@Surasanji @freemo @mngrif As for the stings, I always liked the particular descriptions of Schmidt

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schmidt_sting_pain_index

@Absinthe

There is a guy on youtube who intentionally gets stung by all the most painful venomous creatures in the world (mostly insects)... dude is an idiot but its fun to watch.

@Surasanji @mngrif

@freemo @Surasanji @mngrif is he the same one that did the bullet ant mittens too? That was insane!

@Absinthe

I think so.

@Surasanji @mngrif

@freemo @Surasanji @mngrif the idea that every male of that village does it as a right of passage, but one full grown adult coldn't ... it must massively suck to become a "man" in a lot of cultures.

@Absinthe

Yea I saw the video, it was crazy!

@Surasanji @mngrif

@freemo @Surasanji @mngrif Wait, is it insensitive to say people are crazy for that?

@Absinthe

It would depend on how the word "crazy" is used. If you mean it to be clinically insane and not a healthy person mentally, then yea that might be rude.

However if you use it to mean "wow" or "I cant beleive they do that" or something similar then I'd say no, it isnt insensitive.

Politeness in language, IMO, is more about intent than a specific choices of words.

@Surasanji @mngrif

@freemo @Surasanji @mngrif I mean, I recognize this is a cultural difference, and definitely one that is foreign to me. Certainly, these folks have decided that this is something important and I would not mean to cast aspersions on such things.... As long as I am not asked to participate :) It is odd that intentional infliction of pain and potential bodily injury is so much a part of some cultures. Some of which we embrace, and other we call our as human rights violations.

@Absinthe

As someone with Native American blood I have deep respect for aboriginal traditions such as these. I am just not particularly delicate with my words is all.

@Surasanji @mngrif

@Surasanji @freemo @mngrif never eaten Escamoles. I have heard that the French will do drone larva in some sort of fried dish. I don't have much opportunity to eat bugs that don't live in water.

@Absinthe

I've tried a few bugs. Mosty just a novelty for me, They taste like nuts roasted.

@Surasanji @mngrif

@freemo @Absinthe @mngrif I've enjoyed many insects as food. There is very little in the food realm I won't at least try.

@freemo @Surasanji @mngrif I have found that ants at least raw have a sour quality to them.. not sure why. Definitely not my bag, and would certainly take a lot to make a meal.

@Absinthe @freemo @mngrif Probably the formic acid. Very like vinegar.

@Surasanji @freemo @mngrif or oxalic as well, since that is definitely in the dietary realm for them. Now that I think of it, kind of reminds me of shamrock or sorrel in a way.

@Absinthe

I love plants with Oaxalic acid in them. We have Yellow Woodsorrel that grows all around here (it really grows all around the world).. I get excited finding it and love eating it.

@Surasanji @mngrif

@freemo @Surasanji @mngrif rhubarb is sufficient for me :)

@freemo @Surasanji @mngrif can they be trained? Maybe they can be like guard dogs or something. I know people have tried tarantulas, though I think the sign was sufficient.

@Absinthe @freemo @mngrif If you could figure out the whole pheromone mixture, yes. You could "train" your ants. I don't think we're going to be able figure that out any time soon, though.

@Surasanji @freemo @mngrif do they dance like bees?

@Absinthe @freemo @mngrif Some do. There are several types of ants, and they're often grouped based on how close or far they are from the wasp-like ancestors they descended from.

Some dance, some use vibration, pheromones are common. A few use visual communication- this is a bit more rare as most ant species have terrible eye sight.

@Absinthe @freemo @mngrif Partially. In most cases with Ant Keeping you're not really getting a product from the ants. It is possible to get products from ants, of course, but that is not typically the case with hobby level Ant Keepers.

For me, I just find them intensely interesting, amazingly complex and interesting insects that have- like humans- created a social society that acts much like a direct democracy with the colony as a whole acting as a single organism.

@Absinthe @freemo @mngrif I don't know why I answered this twice. But I did. Horray!

@Surasanji LOL

@Absinthe @mngrif

@Absinthe Yes. But not in Israel that I've found.

@Surasanji well one could certainly dig up a wild colony to find her, but like the tardis those things are much larger on the inside :) Ever see the molten aluminum things they do with them.

Probably don't want introduction of foreign species or anything like that.