181 replies to this topic

[Da_NewAntOnTheBlock]

and fame...

[Canadant]

Well I don't get the first post, ts. I hope we do not speak in ambiguities and metaphors on this site in the future.For one it leads some to not be part of the discussion and two, well some of us don't understand what is being said.

So what is this 'release colony' tale? What did said person (air conditioner) do?
And why do you disagree?

Also, all ant products are overpriced. Lol. I find canada ant colony very reasonable though here in canada.

I also feel Mikey Bustos deserves some respect. he's good for the hobby and through him (my 'gateway drug') I found here - a great place to share info. To me that's a positive thing so thanks mikey.

Sincerely

Canadant

[TennesseeAnts]

Well I don't get the first post, ts. I hope we do not speak in ambiguities and metaphors on this site in the future.For one it leads some to not be part of the discussion and two, well some of us don't understand what is being said.
So what is this 'release colony' tale? What did said person (air conditioner) do?
And why do you disagree?
Also, all ant products are overpriced. Lol. I find canada ant colony very reasonable though here in canada.
I also feel Mikey Bustos deserves some respect. he's good for the hobby and through him (my 'gateway drug') I found here - a great place to share info. To me that's a positive thing so thanks mikey.
Sincerely
Canadant

Air Conditioner IS Mikey. AC = Air Conditioner. I disagree. I don't think he is good for the hobby at all. Always spreading misinformation, making antkeeping seem more dramatic and complicated than it really is and taking attention away from the actually good and informative ant channels on YT.

[Temperateants]

Is AntsAus aware that this forum exists? I would like to see him here.

[RushmoreAnts]

Someone could comment on his videos, social media, or elsewhere.

[Temperateants]

LOL

[TheMicroPlanet]

I just wish Ants Australia had more videos.

[Manitobant]

speaking of AC and Ants Australia, here is a meme i made about the two:

 

 

 

 

 

[TennesseeAnts]

That is actually pretty accurate...

[RushmoreAnts]

Are we sure that 'AC' doesn't stand for 'ArthroCanada'? A nature channel about tarantulas, beetles, cockroaches, and termites? And don't forget about the fish and frogs! Am I missing anything? I forget- did he feature ants at one point? 

[RushmoreAnts]

"I had my housekeeper release these colonies into a local park."

 

 

Me-

 

Edited by AntsDakota, April 5 2020 - 1:54 PM.

[RushmoreAnts]

A little something I made:

 

JVR58rV

Edited by AntsDakota, April 5 2020 - 2:06 PM.

[Manitobant]

Also something else that doesnt make sense is why AC doesn't just go collect wild insects himself, or at least leave his window open to attract insects to his terrarium lights, which we have seen him do before.

[TennesseeAnts]

Also something else that doesnt make sense is why AC doesn't just go collect wild insects himself, or at least leave his window open to attract insects to his terrarium lights, which we have seen him do before.

Again, cuz publicity.

[Serafine]

Wouldn't domesticated feeders be cleaner than outside? Like wild cockroaches wouldn't eat carrot, they'd eat garbage.

Actually most roaches eat (often decomposing) plant matter. Many of them certainly won't say no to something like cat food (my Dubias don't) but it's not like every species of raoch loves to live in trashpiles and is a wandering pestilence dispenser. There's like thousands of different species of roaches and many don't even look like roaches (there's some that mimic beetles, ants and a lot of other organisms and technically termites are roaches as well).
 

I also thought this, do the parasites and diseases come from the various feeder insects? Also, He didn't have any feeder insects, not sure what he was supposed to do.

Actually breeding roaches and mealworms is super easy and it saves you a lot of money. They don't smell, they don't make noise (unless you have too many male roaches and they start to fight) and many of them have a hard time escaping (Dubias for example cannot fly or climb glass). Just make sure to not breed any of the houshold pests (german roaches, generally roaches that can fly are bad). Mealworms in a plastic can even be left open and they won't escape.
I remember that AC had a big raoch farm at one point, it should have been enough to feed most of his colonies.
 

What I don't understand is why he couldn't have just slowed their intake of insects. The ants would be hungry, but they wouldn't die. And wouldn't they adapt by slowing their brood production?

Exactly. This shouldn't be an issue with most of his species. Potential trouble might be the Carebara (not sure if they are like meat ants which basically have a binary behavior between massive growth and swift collapse) and the weavers (not because they can't survive but because they will massively ramp up their escape attempts and at some point they will succeed and probably raid the other colonies in the room). But then the weavers never were feasable to be kept in the long run and shouldn't be kept by anyone in a country where they aren't native anyway (or just not at all).
 

His outro should be this: "so head on over to the AntsCanada shop to get high quality pieces of overpriced plastic that don't even work for the vast majority of the ants you're gonna find! There's a reason why I use terrariums for my ants! Ant love forever!"

Honestly the Hybrids aren't bad designs and will work for most common ant species as long as QA does its job and they don't deliver damaged/misscast products (this was quite an issue in the past, apparently got better though), and the water tower (aside from it's tiny size) isn't bad either - both nests are functional designs and have good hydration systems. The Hybrid's greatest downfall imo is the lack of screws for the glass (this puts inexperienced people at the risk of unknowingly using toxic glue that can harm the ants).
Their prices are something else entirely but that doesn't change the overall functionality of the product.
 

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.

From what I've read in several studies the usual lifespan of a Solenopsis geminata queen is something around 7 years, so 5 years isn't entirely out of this world. Fire ant queens do not live as long as Lasius, Camponotus or Messor queens. In the wild monogynous Solenopsis geminata/invicta colonies often have one or two "spare queens", dormant mated queens that joined the colony at some point to take over when the original queen dies - that way colonies can appear to live much longer than they should as they outlast their dying queens.

[Serafine]

Are we sure that 'AC' doesn't stand for 'ArthroCanada'? A nature channel about tarantulas, beetles, cockroaches, and termites? And don't forget about the fish and frogs! Am I missing anything? I forget- did he feature ants at one point? 

Honestly, diversifiying is never a bad thing.

Too many Youtubers have put all their eggs in one basket only find their head chopped off by the algorithm when Youtube once again changed things without bothering to inform their content creators (hint: Youtube doesn't give a crap about those and prefers to rely on a dysfunctional algorithm that keeps screwing over creators instead of hiring humans actually capable of understanding basic things like context, parody, satire, facts or anything else that requires some utmost form of common sense).

 

Also if Ants Australia made a video about ants once a week (right now we can consider us lucky if we get a video once every 6 months) for 3+ years even he'd run out of content ideas at some point. There's only so much to talk about ants that the "regular" antkeeper can be bothered to care about - I doubt most antkeepers are interested in how larval wing discs shape the growth of major castes or how some australian Camponotus species can cover their nitrogen requirements by extracting dried animal pee from sand.

 

"I had my housekeeper release these colonies into a local park."

Which probably sealed their fate. Captive colonies rarely make it in the wild unless provided with a really good spot featuring great food sources and little competition from other ants. Most of the time they just die off quickly.

 

Problem isn't so much him releasing native colonies into an already disturbed environment (city parks are anything but "nature"), problem is the example he sets to his mostly underaged audience which then proceeds to dump their Solenopsis invicta and other invasives into their backyard (when they grow too large to be sustainable or just become boring) "because Mikey showed that it's okay to do that".

Edited by Serafine, April 6 2020 - 4:15 AM.

[Temperateants]

 

Wouldn't domesticated feeders be cleaner than outside? Like wild cockroaches wouldn't eat carrot, they'd eat garbage.

Actually most roaches eat (often decomposing) plant matter. Many of them certainly won't say no to something like cat food (my Dubias don't) but it's not like every species of raoch loves to live in trashpiles and is a wandering pestilence dispenser. There's like thousands of different species of roaches and many don't even look like roaches (there's some that mimic beetles, ants and a lot of other organisms and technically termites are roaches as well).
 

I also thought this, do the parasites and diseases come from the various feeder insects? Also, He didn't have any feeder insects, not sure what he was supposed to do.

Actually breeding roaches and mealworms is super easy and it saves you a lot of money. They don't smell, they don't make noise (unless you have too many male roaches and they start to fight) and many of them have a hard time escaping (Dubias for example cannot fly or climb glass). Just make sure to not breed any of the houshold pests (german roaches, generally roaches that can fly are bad). Mealworms in a plastic can even be left open and they won't escape.
I remember that AC had a big raoch farm at one point, it should have been enough to feed most of his colonies.
 

What I don't understand is why he couldn't have just slowed their intake of insects. The ants would be hungry, but they wouldn't die. And wouldn't they adapt by slowing their brood production?

 

 

 

Yeah, you make a good point, he could just capture bugs that don't eat garbage and are more clean. Unfortunately, roaches might carry mites, or pesticides. I read somewhere that termites are VERY sensitive to any pesticides, so any that are alive are fairly clean. I also breed mealworms, it's fairly easy. My tetras like baby mealworms.

[Temperateants]

 

Are we sure that 'AC' doesn't stand for 'ArthroCanada'? A nature channel about tarantulas, beetles, cockroaches, and termites? And don't forget about the fish and frogs! Am I missing anything? I forget- did he feature ants at one point? 

Honestly, diversifiying is never a bad thing.

Too many Youtubers have put all their eggs in one basket only find their head chopped off by the algorithm when Youtube once again changed things without bothering to inform their content creators (hint: Youtube doesn't give a crap about those and prefers to rely on a dysfunctional algorithm that keeps screwing over creators instead of hiring humans actually capable of understanding basic things like context, parody, satire, facts or anything else that requires some utmost form of common sense).

 

Also if Ants Australia made a video about ants once a week (right now we can consider us lucky if we get a video once every 6 months) for 3+ years even he'd run out of content ideas at some point. There's only so much to talk about ants that the "regular" antkeeper can be bothered to care about - I doubt most antkeepers are interested in how larval wing discs shape the growth of major castes or how some australian Camponotus species can cover their nitrogen requirements by extracting dried animal pee from sand.

 

"I had my housekeeper release these colonies into a local park."

Which probably sealed their fate. Captive colonies rarely make it in the wild unless provided with a really good spot featuring great food sources and little competition from other ants. Most of the time they just die off quickly.

 

Problem isn't so much him releasing native colonies into an already disturbed environment (city parks are anything but "nature"), problem is the example he sets to his mostly underaged audience which then proceeds to dump their Solenopsis invicta and other invasives into their backyard (when they grow too large to be sustainable or just become boring) "because Mikey showed that it's okay to do that".

 

Part of the beauty of AntAus it that he dives deeper into the hobby than just making drama or misleading people new to the hobby. He has a smaller but more scientific and invested audience. I think it WOULD be good for him to explore the gray area between queens and minor workers, and explore camponotous eating urea. 

[TennesseeAnts]

Wouldn't domesticated feeders be cleaner than outside? Like wild cockroaches wouldn't eat carrot, they'd eat garbage.

Actually most roaches eat (often decomposing) plant matter. Many of them certainly won't say no to something like cat food (my Dubias don't) but it's not like every species of raoch loves to live in trashpiles and is a wandering pestilence dispenser. There's like thousands of different species of roaches and many don't even look like roaches (there's some that mimic beetles, ants and a lot of other organisms and technically termites are roaches as well).
 

I also thought this, do the parasites and diseases come from the various feeder insects? Also, He didn't have any feeder insects, not sure what he was supposed to do.

Actually breeding roaches and mealworms is super easy and it saves you a lot of money. They don't smell, they don't make noise (unless you have too many male roaches and they start to fight) and many of them have a hard time escaping (Dubias for example cannot fly or climb glass). Just make sure to not breed any of the houshold pests (german roaches, generally roaches that can fly are bad). Mealworms in a plastic can even be left open and they won't escape.
I remember that AC had a big raoch farm at one point, it should have been enough to feed most of his colonies.
 

What I don't understand is why he couldn't have just slowed their intake of insects. The ants would be hungry, but they wouldn't die. And wouldn't they adapt by slowing their brood production?

Exactly. This shouldn't be an issue with most of his species. Potential trouble might be the Carebara (not sure if they are like meat ants which basically have a binary behavior between massive growth and swift collapse) and the weavers (not because they can't survive but because they will massively ramp up their escape attempts and at some point they will succeed and probably raid the other colonies in the room). But then the weavers never were feasable to be kept in the long run and shouldn't be kept by anyone in a country where they aren't native anyway (or just not at all).
 

His outro should be this: "so head on over to the AntsCanada shop to get high quality pieces of overpriced plastic that don't even work for the vast majority of the ants you're gonna find! There's a reason why I use terrariums for my ants! Ant love forever!"

Honestly the Hybrids aren't bad designs and will work for most common ant species as long as QA does its job and they don't deliver damaged/misscast products (this was quite an issue in the past, apparently got better though), and the water tower (aside from it's tiny size) isn't bad either - both nests are functional designs and have good hydration systems. The Hybrid's greatest downfall imo is the lack of screws for the glass (this puts inexperienced people at the risk of unknowingly using toxic glue that can harm the ants).
Their prices are something else entirely but that doesn't change the overall functionality of the product.
 

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.

From what I've read in several studies the usual lifespan of a Solenopsis geminata queen is something around 7 years, so 5 years isn't entirely out of this world. Fire ant queens do not live as long as Lasius, Camponotus or Messor queens. In the wild monogynous Solenopsis geminata/invicta colonies often have one or two "spare queens", dormant mated queens that joined the colony at some point to take over when the original queen dies - that way colonies can appear to live much longer than they should as they outlast their dying queens.

That would explain why these invicta mounds out here last so darn long...

[RushmoreAnts]

I see nothing wrong with clickbait. The only thing that I see as wrong is feeding those who took the bait the wrong ideas, which AC does. He also uses it only to get more views and subscribers. Clickbait could be used in a good way, to spread good messages throughout the ant keeping community. For example, there could be a video about BARBARIANS!!! ALIEN INVASION!!! RUN!!!!! This will attract people's attention. Then, we tell them how destructive invasives can be, and that releasing them is a big NO. More people will see it, and get the idea.