181 replies to this topic

[RushmoreAnts]

1. You can’t make a bad test tube.
2. The ant tower is the closet thing to a terrarium he sells. However, I still don’t see how it’s any better than one of those Uncle Milton things, except for the fact that it doesn’t look quite as childish and more naturalistic.

[Temperateants]

The ant tower is actually a really good idea, it's everything in one. But everyone I know who cares about my hobby talks about AC's terrariums, I think that's kind of a problem, since their getting a misleading idea of what antkeeping is. If you can sustain the mini ecosystem, good on you. It's very amazing, but most people don't have enough equipment and dedicated space to make these things. The formicarium and outworld design is more for scientific study, and better IMO.

1. You can’t make a bad test tube.
2. The ant tower is the closet thing to a terrarium he sells. However, I still don’t see how it’s any better than one of those Uncle Milton things, except for the fact that it doesn’t look quite as childish and more naturalistic.

It has decent watering/moisture system

[RushmoreAnts]

Norm to mention the countless thousands of dollars he’s spent.........

[Alabama Anter]

I don't really understand all the unnecessary (in my opinion) hate that Mikey and AC are getting. For me personally as a beginning ant hobbyist maybe 4 years ago, I stumbled upon AC and was mesmerized by how ant queens and later colonies could be kept in little tubes for me to observe in. I feel like a lot of hobbyists had their "gateway" into the hobby through AC. A lot of the arguments I have seen on this thread is that "oh he's not an expert and he claims to be" He has been keeping ants for a VERY long time now and I'm sure he has knowledge beginners can learn from in his years of experience. Also to the comment on how AC is attracting "normies" to the hobby and how that is supposedly affecting the hobby negatively is in my opinion ridiculous and ignorant. "Normies" are everyday people who are interested In this hobby, and for the hobby to expand, we need to help the "normies" instead of belittling them. 

[NickAnter]

I personally learned how to keep ants from watching his old tutorial videos. I personally think of the more dramatic videos as simply very poorly produced movies. I do agree it is very foolish to release invasives, but, really, in an area full of invasives I do not find too much issue with releasing natives. However, if the area does have lots of natives, I do find it slightly unsavory.  That's my first and final word on this thread.

[RushmoreAnts]

The mere power and aggression of wild Formica colonies got me aboard.

[Da_NewAntOnTheBlock]

I became interested in anting because of him, but his recent drama and the whole fact that it's unnecessary just makes me despise him. There are more calm, and more reasonable approaches than to what he did and whilst I may be a little dramatic at times, I do things that make sense. If he thought about it, the colonies he couldn't keep he could lower the temperature and then keep them because of the slowing! But he made it a whole dramatic affair for next to no reason because he used to care about quality, but now he cares about fame, and his most recent video is an example of it.

[AntaholicAnonymous]

To be honest I was watching the whole video thinking it was a April fools joke I didn't expect this to be real at all

[Barristan]

[Temperateants]

I don't really understand all the unnecessary (in my opinion) hate that Mikey and AC are getting. For me personally as a beginning ant hobbyist maybe 4 years ago, I stumbled upon AC and was mesmerized by how ant queens and later colonies could be kept in little tubes for me to observe in. I feel like a lot of hobbyists had their "gateway" into the hobby through AC. A lot of the arguments I have seen on this thread is that "oh he's not an expert and he claims to be" He has been keeping ants for a VERY long time now and I'm sure he has knowledge beginners can learn from in his years of experience. Also to the comment on how AC is attracting "normies" to the hobby and how that is supposedly affecting the hobby negatively is in my opinion ridiculous and ignorant. "Normies" are everyday people who are interested In this hobby, and for the hobby to expand, we need to help the "normies" instead of belittling them. 

I was also hooked by Antscanada. That was back when his fire ant colony was set up in simplistic Hybrid Nests and outworlds setups. AC is an expert, people don't like that he is putting his ants at risk for publicity. I'm not saying that "newbies" are bad, I'm saying that people who don't do research are bad. If you are genuinely interested in the hobby, you do research, more power to you. Many people in this great community do research and AC isn't the only source of fascination of ants for them. Not mentioning names, many people dive head-first into the hobby, doing little to no research. Ants are a throwaway pet to them, which is just cruel. 

Edited by Temperateants, April 5 2020 - 4:55 AM.

[ANTdrew]

That looks like my kids’ room. I never understood the freak out about releasing colonies either. I think the ant community should freak out about removing established colonies from the wild, especially rare species.

[RushmoreAnts]

AC puts things in a way that can be misinterpreted by most people. He doesn’t mean to, but he’s kind of telling them that all these ravenous invasives are SO COOL. He barely mentions ants native to where most of his viewers live, only Philippine natives and invasives.

[ANTdrew]

So don’t watch his videos. I certainly don’t.

[Temperateants]

So don’t watch his videos. I certainly don’t.

His videos are actually pretty entertaining, if you haven't heard,  the original fire ant colony that brought him to fame died out, because the queen reached her natural life span. Even though AC raising a fire ant dealate into an ecosystem wrecker could get hate, it's still taking a step back and going back to relating to most "regular" antkeepers.

[RushmoreAnts]

All I’m saying is that we should take his content with a grain of salt. Don’t believe everything he says, but I think we all here are capable of correctly interpreting his videos.

[Temperateants]

All I’m saying is that we should take his content with a grain of salt. Don’t believe everything he says, but I think we all here are capable of correctly interpreting his videos.

Exactly.

[ANTdrew]

He’s a genius. He figured out how to sell plastic tupperware for big bucks and get YouTube revenue.

[RushmoreAnts]

AND created a cheap, spam ridden forum that he never even visits.

[TennesseeAnts]

So don’t watch his videos. I certainly don’t.

His videos are actually pretty entertaining, if you haven't heard,  the original fire ant colony that brought him to fame died out, because the queen reached her natural life span. Even though AC raising a fire ant dealate into an ecosystem wrecker could get hate, it's still taking a step back and going back to relating to most "regular" antkeepers.

He killed that colony by something he did wrong. Solenopsis queens can live for more than 15 years in captivity. A measly 5 years was the result of something he did.

[RushmoreAnts]

And he claimed he discovered the true life span of the species............ genius way of taking credit for himself.