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.
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@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. :)
@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 As for the stings, I always liked the particular descriptions of Schmidt
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.
@freemo @Surasanji @mngrif is he the same one that did the bullet ant mittens too? That was insane!
@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.
@freemo @Surasanji @mngrif Wait, is it insensitive to say people are crazy for that?
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.
@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.
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 @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