So, I've been thinking about getting into ant keeping. Anyone have any idea when Nuptial Flights happen in Israel? I imagine no, but better to ask!
Ants are intensely interesting to me and have only grown more-so as I've studied ant keeping and ants in general. A lot of what I thought I knew has turned out to be exceedingly basic and narrow in focus.
I'll keep you guys up to date once I get things rolling.
@Surasanji I was just talking to @mngrif about wanting to get into ant keeping myself!
@Surasanji @freemo @mngrif I keep bees... I am not sure what one gets from keeping ants though. Or is it just voyeuristic?
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!
@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. :)
@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 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.