225 replies to this topic

[KitsAntVa]

I love that this thread has been brought to life. 

[KadinB]

One time i went to the Sacramento zoo with my family. There was prenos dark variety flying there. We were sitting at tables eating lunch then next to me i see a queen. I went down to get it and then i got it and look up there's a couple sitting at a table next to us looking at me weird. Then after i kept looking around the table why sitting down. I found another one and got some looks again. Then when we were later on that day we went to the ape exhibit and sat down on some benches to watch them. There was another queen near me and i went to get it and then there was some old lady and some girls looking at me weird. Then i still got the queen anyways. Later we were in line to get some ice cream and a queen landed on the diaper bag that was in the stroller. There was a ton of people in that area because it was where the entrance and exit and souvenir store. I went to get it and there were some people behind me that saw be collect it and went quite after they were talking. Why i was there i caught 2 fertile queens and then 3  infertile queens. Then about a few weeks later 1 of the queens died. Then i only had one queen out of all that. I had another queen i got at my house so i decided to put them together and currently they are doing great and now have larva!  

[NickAnter]

I wonder how a thread titled, "Anting Stories Involving Positive Social Interactions with Average Citizens" would go???

 

Boring?

Edited by NickAnter, May 31 2021 - 8:27 PM.

[SYUTEO]

I have one very funny (and stupid) story I'd like to share:

 

About two years ago, parents went took me to their friend's house for an important meeting, and then me and my friend spotted a weaver ant nest not to high up in a tree. He then told me he wanted to remove that nest to keep the colony as a pet, I got him a chair and then he climbed onto the chair to get the weaver ant nest (there was a balcony next to the tree so he didn't need to climbed the tree). Since we didn't have any thing to cut the leaves, we just have to pull it of the tree, unfortunately it was unsuccessful and the nest broke in two and fell onto the balcony, all the ants rushed out and attacked us. In the end, we had to put the nest back since there was no queen. As you can probably tell, it was NOT a pleasant feeling. Luckily no one but our friends saw us.

[Antcatcherpro3]

I have one,

So back last year, I wanted to find a Tetramorium queen, so I walked along my street lifting up rocks along the sidewalk. I found a really big colony, and freaked out cause I couldn't find the queen. So I ran home to get a bucket and shovel, and tried to dig up the whole colony. 

Some people didn't know what the heck I was doing. And I didn't even know they stung.. (I didn't even find the queen).

[Chickalo]

So this one is short but:

I was out in the woods, doing what one would whilst making an attempt to find Camponotus queens.  Honestly, I was really paying attention to my surroundings, kinda went into an "anting trance".  Flipping a rock, a giant colony of Formica subsericea, and in turn I shouted out "Oh f###, holy s###, yeah okay that's Formica sub!"  And of course, an group of women had to be walking down the trail below me at that time, but all they did was give me the strangest look.

[Antkeeper01]

So this one is short but:

I was out in the woods, doing what one would whilst making an attempt to find Camponotus queens.  Honestly, I was really paying attention to my surroundings, kinda went into an "anting trance".  Flipping a rock, a giant colony of Formica subsericea, and in turn I shouted out "Oh f###, holy s###, yeah okay that's Formica sub!"  And of course, an group of women had to be walking down the trail below me at that time, but all they did was give me the strangest look.

same with me i was walking around the colorado alligatior farm i flipped a rock and low and behold, Manica hunteri queen as you can tell I whispered some things under neath my breath, the wierdest thing is I didntbeven expect to find any thing i just enjoy flipping rocks

[NPLT]

Just happened to me, because my house is basically in the middle of the forest, I can go anting just by walking out of it, so, today is the first day of (servi)formica season, and was hoping to catch some early flying Formica rufibarbis, the only queens I found was a Formica rufa-group ( AKE server confirmed it ), and L. fuliginosus, the latter I managed to promptly loose ( I would have released her anyway, so, not much of a loss ), and because being the forgetful me, I managed to walk out onto the sidewalk with garden shoes, but also lock myself out of my garden by closing the gateway to my garden, thankfully, I managed to scale my fence, but people kept giving me strange looks and some teens laughed at my garden shoes... and of course I found no F. rufibarbis.

Edited by NPLT, June 1 2021 - 8:25 AM.

[ANTS_KL]

I have very strange experiences. One time I was catching a dolichoderus queen when some kids ( I'm a kid too but they were like 5? ) started yelling at me and saying " what are you doing? " and after I got them to go the queen was gone... Also one time at school a teacher made me stand in front of everyone my age in the school because I was catching ants in the canteen and apparently that is not allowed. I got quite mad . And my mom thinks I have lost my mind...

Sent from my CPH2201 using Tapatalk

[ANTS_KL]

Oh and one more! I claimed a tree to get a Nylanderia queen. Guess what, I lost her...
Lmao everyone was giving me strange looks

Sent from my CPH2201 using Tapatalk

[SYUTEO]

I just remembered another one! One time at school, I found a Carebara diversa queen in the school toilet, when I reached out to pick it up a student went pass me and gave me a strange look, then I showed it to a teacher I had the closest relationship with, my teacher didn't do much since I told her about interesting fact about ants but everyone passing by are like "what are you doing with that thing!?" and all of them gave me strange looks before leaving... and grossed out almost all of them... and the fact she climbed out of my pocket as soon as I reach my classroom, and if I remember correctly, a few of my classmates pointed at me and they are like "what is that black thing climbing out of your pocket!?" I ALMOST lost her because of them.

[Swirlysnowflake]

So this one is short but:
I was out in the woods, doing what one would whilst making an attempt to find Camponotus queens. Honestly, I was really paying attention to my surroundings, kinda went into an "anting trance". Flipping a rock, a giant colony of Formica subsericea, and in turn I shouted out "Oh f###, holy s###, yeah okay that's Formica sub!" And of course, an group of women had to be walking down the trail below me at that time, but all they did was give me the strangest look.

Haha, something similar happened to me. I was hiking looking for ants, flipping logs and stuff when I flipped a piece of wood. A absolutely ginormous hibernating wasp queen flew straight at my face, so like any reasonable person I whipped out a net and tried to catch it, while a small group of hikers stared at me like I was crazy

Edited by Swirlysnowflake, June 3 2021 - 5:15 PM.

[ANTS_KL]

I just remembered another one! One time at school, I found a Carebara diversa queen in the school toilet, when I reached out to pick it up a student went pass me and gave me a strange look, then I showed it to a teacher I had the closest relationship with, my teacher didn't do much since I told her about interesting fact about ants but everyone passing by are like "what are you doing with that thing!?" and all of them gave me strange looks before leaving... and grossed out almost all of them... and the fact she climbed out of my pocket as soon as I reach my classroom, and if I remember correctly, a few of my classmates pointed at me and they are like "what is that black thing climbing out of your pocket!?" I ALMOST lost her because of them.

That happened to me to but the species in question was much rarer. Mesoponera rubra. She died sadly.

Sent from my CPH2201 using Tapatalk

[SYUTEO]

 

I just remembered another one! One time at school, I found a Carebara diversa queen in the school toilet, when I reached out to pick it up a student went pass me and gave me a strange look, then I showed it to a teacher I had the closest relationship with, my teacher didn't do much since I told her about interesting fact about ants but everyone passing by are like "what are you doing with that thing!?" and all of them gave me strange looks before leaving... and grossed out almost all of them... and the fact she climbed out of my pocket as soon as I reach my classroom, and if I remember correctly, a few of my classmates pointed at me and they are like "what is that black thing climbing out of your pocket!?" I ALMOST lost her because of them.

That happened to me to but the species in question was much rarer. Mesoponera rubra. She died sadly.

Sent from my CPH2201 using Tapatalk

 

That's a sad loss...

[yaboiseth]

Okay so this one was just weird but I'm anting around the corner from my apartment, where massive Solenopsis and brachymyrmex flights go on, and I live in a meth infested city. So you can imagine the kinda methheads that come and talk to me at 9:30 at night on my hands and knees with a flashlight on my shoulder and holding suspicious glass tubes lol. Anyways one was like coming back and forth down the street all tweaked out and asks my name like 6 times, despite me clearly ignoring him, and I finally just told him my damn name afterwards and his only response was "Well you aint gonna find any rocks there" (As in meth rocks) and I was just about done anting around my place after that 

[KadinB]

Okay so this one was just weird but I'm anting around the corner from my apartment, where massive Solenopsis and brachymyrmex flights go on, and I live in a meth infested city. So you can imagine the kinda methheads that come and talk to me at 9:30 at night on my hands and knees with a flashlight on my shoulder and holding suspicious glass tubes lol. Anyways one was like coming back and forth down the street all tweaked out and asks my name like 6 times, despite me clearly ignoring him, and I finally just told him my damn name afterwards and his only response was "Well you aint gonna find any rocks there" (As in meth rocks) and I was just about done anting around my place after that 

hahahha wtf that's funny.

[cap_backfire]

On my first anting trip I was going out with a few guys from this very page.   They explained to me a few days ahead of time that we were going to a family friends' house to check and see if they had an invasive colony, not previously noted in Indiana (ValPo).   What they didn't mention until we got there was that the woman who was the family friend had SOLD THE HOUSE the January before (this was in May) so we basically walked up to a total stranger to ask permission to search her back yard for ants.   We explained that the fellas I was with were entomology students, and she asked for IDs... Like they had badges... We never found the ants but her yard had like... 12 different species in it.   

Then on the way around the sidewalks one of the guys randomly came across a wingless Pennsylvinicus queen so he scooped her up and of course we had no tubes on us.  On the way back to the car she fell down a storm drain, never to be seen again.  

 

THAT was an interesting day.   We DID collect a few colonies and it was fun as hell, overall.   

[Broncos]

I went anting with my mom and while she and I were looking for pogonomyrmex, thousands of solenopsis molesta started flying and mating right over my moms head. When she tried to move, they move with her. It was hilarious.

[strawnkayden1]

A few months ago when prenos flew I kept catching them in the same spot over and over, I was there for about half the day and our nehibors were just staring at me.

[Manitobant]

One time at my local greenhouse someone thought that the blunt tip syringe i was using to get ants out of small crevices was a legit medical needle and i got security called on me. Everything was fine in the end but it sure was traumatizing!