225 replies to this topic

[ConcordAntman]

So, I live in this old farmhouse in New England. We’re having some renovations done and I get called outside by our contractor. He asks “Hey, you got any ant spray?”   I’m thinking like, “What, I’ve got 4 Camponotus colonies in the house, why the heck would I have ant spray?!?” Followed by,   “This might be a problem.” Having replied in the negative to his question, my contractor headed off to acquire a supply of ant spray. He returns and I’m puttering around in the house when I hear him yell, “Hey, you might want to come out here!” Yeah, this might be a problem… Our front door has been taken off its hinges and replaced by a 1” thick sheet of plywood, the nearly century old carved wood transom over it has been removed to reveal galleries and galleries of Camponotus freakin’giganticus  with pupae the size of a Tic Tac!

 

 

 

Armed with his can of ant spray, he foams the galleries in the exposed wood and it starts raining ants!! Minors, majors, super-majors, alates. It felt like all the giant ants between here and Cleveland were in the wall over my front door

 

 

 

I didn’t have it in me to speciate them, I’m trying to add up how much the repair is gonna cost

 

 

 

[11.11.00]

I started my ant hobby in elementary school when I brought home a tetramorium queen and threw it in a flowerpot. It ended up starting a colony. 

Was known as the ant guy after that. I remember getting in trouble with a few friends after digging up a tetramorium colony and throwing it on an argentine trail to see what would happen during recess. Spoiler: Argentines won. 

[Leptomyrmx]

Time to bring another thread back from the dead.

 

I was on a school camp and saw 3 queens of different species, one Camponotus, one that I forgot and one Pheidole (they're common here though : P) I guess I was in the wrong place or something so this teacher just said 'GET OVER HERE WHAT ARE YOU DOING', so I managed to scoop up the Pheidole and get on the bus, she didn't want to get in the test tube though so I just released her. Not that embarrassing but super annoying.

 

I never have and never will forgive that teacher. 

[NancyZamora4991]

I would have just dealt with detention, lol.

[Chickalo]

Okay I'm going to make an attempt too, then.

 

I was with my friend over by Lodge Park, Nahant, which is around the Northeastern University Marine Science Center (long title).  It's only about a 6.5 mile bike ride from where I live.  It's pretty nice, a sign saying their not responsible for your death, signs saying it's illegal to go into the research area, etc etc.  Anyways, we were sitting when a thicc ant walks by.  As the responsible ant keeper I am, I kept some d r u g bottles on me.  I was there for at least 5 minutes (felt like 30) scooping dirt from under the bench, getting stung by Tetramorium, and looking stupid, all for an infertile Camponotus nearcticus queen.  

[Leptomyrmx]

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

 

Boring?

Actually, I've had a lot of positive social interactions with average citizens relating to ants. I just sneak in a scientific name somewhere and they respect you. 

hmmm maybe I should actually make that thread...

[ANTS_KL]

Got a funny story. Its not embarrassing but its a good memory. So one time I was walking around at school and I saw like an entire nuptial flight in front of me. And as I was failing to catch any queens, running her and there, teachers kept walking past me and their faces were like "wth is that kid doing?" After one of them pulled me off to the side to ask what I was doing, I told them and they've let me do my thing ever since. I'm also the only anter in the school so every teacher knows who I am. Actually I still get weird looks from the other students in the school too lol

[NancyZamora4991]

A termite literally flew into my ear a couple seconds ago and I freaked out because I thought it was stuck in there.

Edited by NancyZamora4991, October 25 2021 - 4:02 PM.

[ANTS_KL]

A termite literally flew into my ear a couple seconds ago and I freaked out because I thought it was stuck in there.

what a chad termite

[NancyZamora4991]

 

A termite literally flew into my ear a couple seconds ago and I freaked out because I thought it was stuck in there.

what a chad termite

 

lol

[ExponentMars]

 

Not to mention that time in elementary school when my classmate found an American and brought it to me in a container because he thought I would want to keep it lmao

 

 

Your classmate brought you an American in a container?

 

LMAO - 

[ANTS_KL]

Ahaha I just remembered this one. I had just started the ant keeping hobby, and was looking for my first queen ant. I ended up finding a Preno queen at my school (This was when I was in elementary school lol). I was about to catch it but the teacher walked outside and was like, "Leave that ant alone!"

I was like, ok and I stepped away but I was still watching the queen. The teacher said that I couldn't bring the queen into the classroom, and I didn't have any containers outside, so this other person in my class gave me a pencil sharpener to put the queen in, like the ones with the bottom where the pencil scraps fall into.

So I put the queen into the pencil sharpener and went into class. At the end of the day, the teacher saw me with the queen (inside class) and I got a note sent home to my parents lmao

I had to release the queen tho

for some reason i just saw this post. Anyway the teachers in my school don't care anymore. Every teacher knows what I'm doing somehow and actually its gotten pretty common for people to catch insects in my school now. Ever since I started to do that lol. I'M A BIG INFLUENCE GUYS! OVER 100 PEOPLE STARTED TO INJURE INSECTS THINKING THEY ARE HELPING! AND ITS ALL MY FAULT! YAY

[SYUTEO]

 

Ahaha I just remembered this one. I had just started the ant keeping hobby, and was looking for my first queen ant. I ended up finding a Preno queen at my school (This was when I was in elementary school lol). I was about to catch it but the teacher walked outside and was like, "Leave that ant alone!"

I was like, ok and I stepped away but I was still watching the queen. The teacher said that I couldn't bring the queen into the classroom, and I didn't have any containers outside, so this other person in my class gave me a pencil sharpener to put the queen in, like the ones with the bottom where the pencil scraps fall into.

So I put the queen into the pencil sharpener and went into class. At the end of the day, the teacher saw me with the queen (inside class) and I got a note sent home to my parents lmao

I had to release the queen tho

for some reason i just saw this post. Anyway the teachers in my school don't care anymore. Every teacher knows what I'm doing somehow and actually its gotten pretty common for people to catch insects in my school now. Ever since I started to do that lol. I'M A BIG INFLUENCE GUYS! OVER 100 PEOPLE STARTED TO INJURE INSECTS THINKING THEY ARE HELPING! AND ITS ALL MY FAULT! YAY

 

[Leptomyrmx]

So today I was collecting some brood to attemp to boost one of my millions of Rhytidoponera queens, and then someone walks up to me and asks 'are you rescuing ants?' and well, it's not particularly easy to explain brood boosting to a   n o r m a l   c i t i z e n

 

The explanation went for about 30 seconds but it felt like 5 minutes.

Edited by Leptomyrmx, October 30 2021 - 9:37 PM.

[Ecthelion]

So today I was collecting some brood to attemp to boost one of my millions of Rhytidoponera queens, and then someone walks up to me and asks 'are you rescuing ants?' and well, it's not particularly easy to explain brood boosting to a   n o r m a l   c i t i z e n

 

The explanation went for about 30 seconds but it felt like 5 minutes.

what did you say you were doing?

[Leptomyrmx]

'Collecting baby ants' 

[ANTS_KL]

'Collecting baby ants' 

Then they'll say "KIDNAPPER! SOMEONE CALL THE AUTHORITIES! THIS GUY IS COLLECTING BABY ANIMALS ILLEGALLY!" then the cops will get involved. Jk Jk

[KinmanRed777]

Had to cops called on me cuz i was in the bushes with my Aspirator, cops came and told me to get out and i straight up told them that whoever called them is a karen and if you think a pill bottle full of ant queens is drugs your gravely mistaken. they just looked at me funny and told me to get on the wall and searched me (of course all they found was a couple bottles of queens and brood for brood boosting) they just kept looking at me weird like i was this weird teenager doing kindergarden things, was hella Awkward, soon enough i found out who called the cops on me cuz they started to come out of there house bothering me. SSSSOOOOO i did something real evil cuz screw that karen (at this time i had 23 colonies of just Solonopsis and Tetras that i couldn't take care of anymore cuz all of them were reaching the thousands and thousands) anyways guess what i did? I'm sure you know what i did, i released all 23 colonies in her back and front yard soon enough she kept calling pest control but they never went away. i haven't heard from this karen in awhile now all i know is that house still mega infested, serves her right for calling the cops on me and putting me in a awkward situation, and then doing nothing but bother me. funny revenge story.

[Chickalo]

So today I was collecting some brood to attemp to boost one of my millions of Rhytidoponera queens, and then someone walks up to me and asks 'are you rescuing ants?' and well, it's not particularly easy to explain brood boosting to a   n o r m a l   c i t i z e n

 

The explanation went for about 30 seconds but it felt like 5 minutes.

Ugh, normies 

[Chickalo]

Had to cops called on me cuz i was in the bushes with my Aspirator, cops came and told me to get out and i straight up told them that whoever called them is a karen and if you think a pill bottle full of ant queens is drugs your gravely mistaken. they just looked at me funny and told me to get on the wall and searched me (of course all they found was a couple bottles of queens and brood for brood boosting) they just kept looking at me weird like i was this weird teenager doing kindergarden things, was hella Awkward, soon enough i found out who called the cops on me cuz they started to come out of there house bothering me. SSSSOOOOO i did something real evil cuz screw that karen (at this time i had 23 colonies of just Solonopsis and Tetras that i couldn't take care of anymore cuz all of them were reaching the thousands and thousands) anyways guess what i did? I'm sure you know what i did, i released all 23 colonies in her back and front yard soon enough she kept calling pest control but they never went away. i haven't heard from this karen in awhile now all i know is that house still mega infested, serves her right for calling the cops on me and putting me in a awkward situation, and then doing nothing but bother me. funny revenge story.

Hope this will turn into one message, but how old are you (not in a creepy way)?  Because if this is 12 or lower that's honestly impressive someone would've thought you were doing em d r u g s, if you're older that's more believable (a few people here are 12ish so that's why I'm asking)

(edit:  it didn't smh)

Edited by Chickalo, November 9 2021 - 9:52 AM.