95 replies to this topic

[Aliallaie]

As everyone has mentioned AntsCanada formacerium are not ideal for ants. Another thing I have noticed about AntsCanada is that 90% of his videos are about fire ants, which are highly destructive species. His products are especially made for fire ants. If you check out Tar Heel Ants his products are built for any species especially native to the United States. I recommend checking out their website. 

[RushmoreAnts]

SHUT IT DOWN 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

SHUT IT DOWN

[Serafine]

Well I don’t agree with cats being let outside but that is just cruel to say they should be killed just because they were let outside. I am honestly sickened that someone would even suggest that. I don’t think a cat killing a squirrel or bird would do much seeing as there are tons of those.

We don't need to kill them, we just need to breed less of them and make sure the ones that ran away from their owners don't multiply like crazy.

One squirrel at a time might not look that bad but if it's millions of cats killing billions of squirrels it becomes an issue. Cats have in fact already exterminated around 50 species in total.

"[...] the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service found that free-ranging domestic cats (mostly unowned) are the top human-caused threat to wildlife in the United States, killing an estimated 1.3 to 3.7 billion birds and 6.3 to 22.3 billion mammals annually."

 

Now that's an impressive ecological footprint.

 

Removing them from the ecosystem entirely isn't really an option either though as they may keep other smaller predators in check that could each develop into a problem of their own when cats are suddenly removed from the equation (also they're eaten by some larger predators like jackals and coyotes which might switch their attention to more endangered animals or human garbage should cats be gone all of a sudden).

It's more about finding a better balance - the damage done is already irreversible as it is with most invasives once they managed to establish themselves - from there on it usually becomes an annoying game of population management draining huge amounts of money indefinitely with no real solution available.

 

As for antscanada nest, that is just a formicarium designed to kill ants. I've never seen a longterm nest succeed in one.

What? On what grounds are you claiming that?

The hybrids even though significantly overpriced aren't inherently bad designs and in fact Mikey himself as well as others have successfully kept larger colonies inside those. The Simants nests I'm using are very similar designs (with a water tub below the nest body), the main difference is that they're 3D-printed products and not plastic casts.

 

 

Both AC nest lines (omni and hybrids) can also be tremendously improved by just adding sand-loam mix or grout to the bottom of the nest chambers (as I did with the Simants nest shown above).
 

 

And here's a massive Messor barbarus colony in one of those "bad" acrylic nests:

 

 

The main connection between AC nests and failure rate isn't that the nest designs are that bad, it's a very young customer base that tends to make serious care mistakes or even loose interest in antkeeping entirely when they reach adolescence.

And large colonies are actually a rare sight no matter the nest they're housed in. Antkeeping in it's current extend is a very young hobby, many people don't keep ants for long and the overall failure rate is still enormously high.

 

 

Natards being natards...

I really love how these days every self-entitled Karen comes up with a stupid insulting term for any type of people with an opinion they don't like...

 

 

(sorry to all the good Karens, Susans, Shannons and Beckys out there, your peers are really doing their hardest to drag your name through the mud)

Edited by Serafine, July 29 2020 - 7:37 AM.

[to_be_announced]

Yeah, I don't get the hate for the AC nests either.  If you're going to criticize AC nests because they're plastic, then you're basically negating any nest that is 3d printed, as well as other formicarium companies like Aus Ants and Ant-Shack as well.  I like THA formicariums too, but sometimes people act like if it's not THA then it's garbage.

[ANTdrew]

I’m of half a mind to name one of my new 2020 queens Karen.

[Serafine]

Yeah, I don't get the hate for the AC nests either.  If you're going to criticize AC nests because they're plastic, then you're basically negating any nest that is 3d printed, as well as other formicarium companies like Aus Ants and Ant-Shack as well.  I like THA formicariums too, but sometimes people act like if it's not THA then it's garbage.

People are hating Mikey for a variety of good reasons - he's not as good of an antkeeper as he claims to be (his success rate over the last years has been pretty meh except with the virtually indestructible invasives), he doesn't do his research (as could be seen in the Carebara dumping incident that unnecessarily killed off a perfectly healthy colony), he does things that are absolutely despised by the more professional and educated antkeepers (like releasing a mite-infested colony of invasive Pharao ants at a local trash dump), he projects a fake image of antkeeping into the heads of his mostly underage audience by only presenting fast-growing easy-to-care-for invasive ants in videos geared towards drama rather than education, he's selling overpriced products to clueless kids who don't know better (seriously, the test tube prices are ridiculous), he's a massive hypocrite (he made a video in which he shat all over keepers of non-native ants (even dividing antkeepers into "team exotic" and "team native" as if it was some kind of civil war and you had to pick a side) while at the same keeping a desert reptile on an island country with stupendously humid climate where those regularly suffer and die from respiratory infections), etc. etc. - but some hate him to a point where they are no longer capable of looking at the products he sells and give an objective evaluation.

 

No, most of his products aren't bad for most ants (and if your decide to keep Trapjaws in an omni nest that's really your fault for not doing your research as a petkeeper). Yes, most of them are quite overpriced (although the new hybrids aren't even that outrageously expensive compared to similar products) but that's basically what every major market leader like Nike or Apple does. You're not just paying for the product, you're paying for the brand name, too. Of course his audience being mostly underage kids pestering their parents to buy them cool stuff they saw on the internet helps a lot.
 

Edited by Serafine, July 29 2020 - 7:47 AM.

[Froggy]

SHUT DOWN THIS THREAD

No need to shut it down, we could just stop arguing and actually help this person

[Temperateants]

I’m of half a mind to name one of my new 2020 queens Karen.

Let's see, a queen that puts her children in danger, get's easily triggered, is super demanding, I'd say most myremica queens are Karens LOL

[ponerinecat]

He lives in the Philippines, so many ants he keeps can’t be natively found in North America.

Lives in one of the most highly diverse areas but focuses on keeping invasives. 10/10.

[RushmoreAnts]

 

SHUT DOWN THIS THREAD

No need to shut it down, we could just stop arguing and actually help this person

 

The thing is, from past experience with these same people, they will not stop and will continue to ruin this thread.

[Froggy]

We are in Columbia, SC.  We bought our Nephew, who is 10, the starter set ($80 one).  He needs to get ants and is interested in Black Crazy ants.  If he can't get these what should he get and how should he get them?

Lets start over, Black Crazy ants are invasive, keeping invasives is a controversial subject that I won't get into, but if you do end up keeping them, I would not recommend releasing them, but if you end up keeping native/naturalized species, Camponotus (Carpenter ants) are hardy and easy to keep, but they take a very long time to get to a good size, about 1 year for 100 workers, another fairly common species is Lasius, small ants, faster growth, but they are small (not that that is a bad thing), another one (that everyone has been recommending) is Tetramorium immigrans, a naturalized species, fast growing, medium-small size, hardy, common, really an all around good species for beginners, there are many more ants in your area but those are all the common and easy to keep ones (that I know of), I'm sorry if we gave you a bad first impression, not everyone in the community is like this, and I wish you luck for your future ant keeping!

[Froggy]

 

 

SHUT DOWN THIS THREAD

No need to shut it down, we could just stop arguing and actually help this person

 

The thing is, from past experience with these same people, they will not stop and will continue to ruin this thread.

 

true, true

[TechAnt]

S h u t - i t - d o w n - f o r - g o o d n e s s - s a k e. This thread has showed the bad side of the forum, I’m actually disappointed how this thread turned out.

Froggy’s explanation is good enough, no point in making a war zone out of it over again.

Edited by TechAnt, July 29 2020 - 9:40 AM.

[Spazmops]

 

He lives in the Philippines, so many ants he keeps can’t be natively found in North America.

Lives in one of the most highly diverse areas but focuses on keeping invasives. 10/10.

 

I’m not defending his choices, simply saying that if they had their heart set on a colony of yellow crazy ants for example, they’d be hard-pressed to find them

[Manitobant]

The OP now probably thinks badly about this forum cause of the cesspool of native vs exotic and endless "praise tar heel bash AC" circlejerk. She was just asking a simple question and it devolves into this. People on both sides of the argument need to stop.

[Froggy]

The OP now probably thinks badly about this forum cause of the cesspool of native vs exotic and endless "praise tar heel bash AC" circlejerk. She was just asking a simple question and it devolves into this. People on both sides of the argument need to stop.

I agree

[Vendayn]

The OP now probably thinks badly about this forum cause of the cesspool of native vs exotic and endless "praise tar heel bash AC" circlejerk. She was just asking a simple question and it devolves into this. People on both sides of the argument need to stop.

You can see what people think of antscanada here, even manitobant made a thread about him and suddenly says "bash AC circle jerk". The people here are just trying to placate you because you are new, when they've always hated antscanada.

 

https://www.formicul...-hit-a-new-low/

 

Manito is trying too hard, but was caught with their pants down in a lie when he made the exact same "bash AC" thread he is complaining about.

Edited by Vendayn, July 29 2020 - 11:56 AM.

[RushmoreAnts]

 

 The people here are just trying to placate you because you are new

Umm.... and you haven't???

 

 

Should throw away the antscanada nest, its not good for any ants and it isn't good to support him since he keeps invasive ants and releases invasives to the wild. Any pet kept indoors should NOT go outdoors and should be killed native or not, and antscanada teaches the opposite. For formicariums, you should buy a tarheel formicarium which are a ton better. Or instead make your own and you can have a project to work on with your kid.

This screams hypocrite right here.

[Vendayn]

 

 

 The people here are just trying to placate you because you are new

Umm.... and you haven't???

 

 

Should throw away the antscanada nest, its not good for any ants and it isn't good to support him since he keeps invasive ants and releases invasives to the wild. Any pet kept indoors should NOT go outdoors and should be killed native or not, and antscanada teaches the opposite. For formicariums, you should buy a tarheel formicarium which are a ton better. Or instead make your own and you can have a project to work on with your kid.

This screams hypocrite right here.

 

Nice try at trying to get your good friend/brother/boyfriend (all good with me if he is your boyfriend, I don't judge) manito ignored with his hypocrisy by trying to put the focus on me. Try harder.

 

Also as a tip, when you try to change focus to another person when one person was caught in a lie, much like trump does, that means that person is guilty and can't be actually successfully defended against because they know they were in the wrong. So they try to put the focus on someone else. And in that thread, besides manito, sure is a lot of AC haters there.

 

But yeah, don't be like trump. that's always a losing side. He always blames someone else when he is caught in a lie, instead of admitting he lied so he just says "well see...this person did this and that so its okay I did this" and various versions of it or just doesn't admit it at all.

Edited by Vendayn, July 29 2020 - 12:34 PM.

[RushmoreAnts]

Nice try at trying to get your good friend/brother/boyfriend (all good with me if he is your boyfriend, I don't judge) 

 

And nice try at attempting to insult your opponent instead of facing their accusation.