31 replies to this topic

[futurebird]

• Ant Habitat for Live Ants with Nutrient Rich Gel
• NAVADEAL Ant Farm Castle 2.0
• Educational Insights GeoSafari Day 'N' Night Ant Factory
• EXBEPE Ant Farm for Kids Large Double Layer

If you want a broken heart read the reviews on amazon for gel farms. I don't know how amazon calculates the number of stars... but there are far more one star reviews than one would expect for a product with 5 stars. I know, of course, that gel farms are basically death traps for ants, but I decided to look at the purchase numbers and reviews as I was trying to figure out how many people have pet ants. 

 

We've now had this death trap for a week. There are ant body parts in some places. I've removed at least 5 dead ants. There is NO tunnel digging and the few that have tried to go down the started tunnels have died. It's awful, instead of watching them dig I'm watching them slowly die. It looks like a slow torturous death too!

I never thought I'd care so much about ants but this is absolutely awful to watch!

 

 

 

1) It wasn’t clear where to acquire the ants 2) the ants don’t seem to be healthy in the environment.

They were busy for the first couple of days but then became very still. They dug about one length of a tunnel before their activity just stopped. They seem to move only when the air hole was opened and we gently blew into it. They stay motionless, piled on top of each other - seemingly to get away from the gel.

 

 

 

Awful. The ants went in and went right to work digging tunnels.. but then after the 2nd day, I could see them just huddling on top of a pile they dug... And a bunch huddling in the bottom area where they had dug a tunnel down to... They weren't moving much and I realized after looking more closely, that the tunnels they dug had collapsed, into a gooey thick mess, and they were all trapped.

 

 

I was very excited about this purchase for my daughter. We set it up and followed the instructions.

Four days later and there was no tunneling observed. Every time I looked, there were more dead ants. I’ve probably scooped out 25 dead ones already.

The light died after 3 days. I’m not sure if I want to try another gel habitat or a sand. I’m at a loss.

As you can see in the video, there is a pile of dead ants on the left. The ants gather up the dead ones and put them in a pile.

 

 

There are so many reviews like this! Parents trying to help their kids. Dead ants. Even the "good" reviews are disturbing. Mostly "I just set it up and my kid loves it" one even said something about the ants being dead after just two months "but worth it for the smile it put on my kid's face"



What if someone made puppies or some animal people don't treat like disposable entertainment live in this mess??????

(Getting a little protective and worked up I guess. And it's not a perfect analogy, but I think you get my point here.)

But more seriously what makes me most sad is that these experiences can make people give up on ants. The sadness of my ants dying in my "uncle milton" farm stayed with me for decades. It was that long before I saw better nests... and wanted to try again. Though, the milton farm is at least... possible to to use. It's just fiddly, and it's easy to over feed or underwater the ants. At least a sandwich with sand is a viable option. 

 

I did find one review where someone got a Lasius neoniger queen to lay some eggs. She dug down to the bottom and made a little pocket. Maybe if that person feeds  protein she will make it. The gel contains no protein. 

I ended up writing my own review. 
 

Gel farms claim that they provide humidity and food for ants to live. This is true for a few weeks, maybe a few months. Then the ants will die. The gel contains no protein. Just sugars and corn starch. Almost all ants need protein to live.  Many species of ants will not do well in a medium so damp and potentially sickly. Smaller ants will escape. The ants will struggle to keep their home clean as the months pass.  A queen ant can live for up to 15 years. Workers can live for up to 2-3 years. Ants will place garbage in the part of their outworld furthest from the nest. They are very clean.

They will build a grave yard. They will need it. 

 

If you buy the ants sold without queens on this site it's not really colony. So, the ants won't have much to do.  You will miss some of the most fascinating ant behaviors. It's just a group of scared lost ants in an unsuitable environment. They will still try their best to survive. They will try their best to escape and find their queen.

 

It would be better to get your child some test tubes and cotton balls. It's also less expensive. An excellent healthy ant habitat can be made using these items along with a plastic tub with a secure lid with securely taped fine mesh to let in air. What you feed the ants will depend on their species. But almost all ants like dead insects (freeze 'em in a plastic bag and put one in now and then) Ants also like sugars of course. 

 

Search for "tube and tubes ant-keeping" This is a cheaper and more sustainable method. 

 

Insects are living things and when you see them close up it's remarkable how complex they are. They are not disposable toys! Enjoy keeping pet ants by doing just a little more reading and keeping them so they have a chance to thrive and show you how amazing they are.

[FloridaAnts]

If someone made a gel ant farm that worked(even if you still had to feed them, water them, etc)…

And if your kid wants ants that badly they can’t wait to find queens, their is plenty of sites that sell ants for a good price. Sure is cheaper than a gel farm.

Edited by FloridaAnts, July 28 2022 - 10:48 AM.

[SleepyAsianAnter]

The point of a gel ant farm is for young children to clearly observe the digging behaviors of worker ants. Usually they're provided with Pogonomyrmex workers, which don't live anywhere close to the 2-3 years you claim. And it doesn't really matter that they die in months, worker ants exist to be disposable. The second they're separated from their colony their existence loses all meaning. 

 

I disagree with encouraging young children to start collecting queens or buying colonies. As we see with young AC fans, they certainly try their best but lack the capability to properly care and provide the constant heating, regular feeding, nest upgrades, etc etc and the colony would just die all the same. 

 

In the end, it's a toy meant to entertain children for a little while, not a legitimate nest that can host colonies.

[Serafine]

The second they're separated from their colony their existence loses all meaning.

Yeah... you could make that argument for neutered cats as well.
 
You know, there are vertical nests that allow to observe digging behavior in pretty much the same way without murdering the ants in the process (usually they come with sand-clay mix or cork inlays).
And while I don't think they're the best nests - ventilation and mold growth can become an issue, particularly with very messy ants - they are fully functional nests, not ant death traps.



 

In the end, it's a toy meant to entertain children for a little while, not a legitimate nest that can host colonies.

Rats live for an average of 2 to 2 1/2 years, mice even less. I don't think anyone would describe rats and mice as toys for children.
 

I disagree with encouraging young children to start collecting queens or buying colonies. As we see with young AC fans, they certainly try their best but lack the capability to properly care and provide the constant heating, regular feeding, nest upgrades, etc etc and the colony would just die all the same.

Antkeeping really isn't that hard, I've seen 11 year olds pull it off pretty much by themselves.
The issue is more that AC does a bad job at warning their viewers of some easy to avoid pitfalls that can quickly kill off a colony and generally provides them with a very romanticized picture of antkeeping that is fairly different from *actual* antkeeping, especially when it comes to the maintenance aspect.

Edited by Serafine, July 29 2022 - 5:55 AM.

[futurebird]

Vertical nests can be great. Especially for Pogonomyrmex. The whole selling point of the gel is that the ants can eat it (true) and you don't need to do anything else just throw the ants in there (false, it's not a complete diet, it's not always going to perfectly manage humidity)

As for keeping a group of workers with no queen? That group is going to at first keep trying to escape to get back home. They don't know their queen is halfway across the country or dead. Once they realize they are trapped they just sit in a pile checking if anything has changed that might let them escape or get better food than the blue gel. Some of the reviews describe how the ants do this and "become boring" --without a queen there just isn't much for them to do but wait and hope they can escape and get back to their colony.

Lost ants never "forget" their home colony.

Their digging is exploratory and to make a hiding place. They don't make seed chambers or brood chambers as they do when building a nest to live in. They do dig around and try to see if they can get out.  

[FinWins]

Vertical nests can be great. Especially for Pogonomyrmex. The whole selling point of the gel is that the ants can eat it (true) and you don't need to do anything else just throw the ants in there (false, it's not a complete diet, it's not always going to perfectly manage humidity)
As for keeping a group of workers with no queen? That group is going to at first keep trying to escape to get back home. They don't know their queen is halfway across the country or dead. Once they realize they are trapped they just sit in a pile checking if anything has changed that might let them escape or get better food than the blue gel. Some of the reviews describe how the ants do this and "become boring" --without a queen there just isn't much for them to do but wait and hope they can escape and get back to their colony.
Lost ants never "forget" their home colony.
Their digging is exploratory and to make a hiding place. They don't make seed chambers or brood chambers as they do when building a nest to live in. They do dig around and try to see if they can get out.

When I was little I owned an ant gel farm and the ants never made any chambers they just tunneled through the gel.

[SleepyAsianAnter]

Yeah... you could make that argument for neutered cats as well.

No, no you really can't. Cats are intelligent and capable of selfish actions. The average ant worker exists for her colony, she will drown herself to act as a bridge, she will throw herself into battle hoping that whoever comes after she dies can finish the job and feed the brood, she will selflessly fight off surrounding colonies just to expand her colony's territories. Of course, none of this is deliberate. Ants are most similar to tiny computers, they do not act on emotion or thought. They act because what they do might benefit the colony and therefore increase the chances of their queen's survival. Cats on the other hand, will act in their own best interests. I assume you are making the argument of "neutered" because they lose the ability to procreate and therefore fail in Darwin's eyes, but I really need you to elaborate on this because it makes zero sense. 

 

 

You know, there are vertical nests that allow to observe digging behavior in pretty much the same way without murdering the ants in the process (usually they come with sand-clay mix or cork inlays).
And while I don't think they're the best nests - ventilation and mold growth can become an issue, particularly with very messy ants - they are fully functional nests, not ant death traps.

Sure, it's true that they exist and are accessible. But look at the price difference. The specific nest you posted retails for over $300 usd, while basic gel ant farms can be bought on amazon for as low as $20 usd. Why would someone wanting to watch ants tunnel for a little while fork over so much extra.

 

Rats live for an average of 2 to 2 1/2 years, mice even less. I don't think anyone would describe rats and mice as toys for children.

 

Sure, they're not. But rats are not equal to ants. The average rat is infinitely more intelligent than the average ant, this matches with the argument earlier with cats. Ants are not smart, ants are not sentient, ants are unthinking little computers that we keep because it interests us. 

 

 

 

Besides those three arguments, I do agree with your AC point. If the hobby develops and info becomes more accessible and easy to reach (which it slowly is), even children will be able to raise ants.

But right now I'm talking about dedication, a young child will want a puppy because it's cute, he doesn't understand that he will need to clean up feces, wipe urine off the floor, take daily walks, and feed on a regular basis for the next 10-15 years. 

TLDR: Ants are stupid and we really shouldn't get sentimental over them and think they have some form of "consciousness"

Edited by SleepyAsianAnter, July 29 2022 - 3:26 PM.

[Leptomyrmx]

*sniff sniff* I smell drama!

 

Alright, I guess I may as well give my thoughts...

 

I disagree with encouraging young children to start collecting queens or buying colonies. As we see with young AC fans, they certainly try their best but lack the capability to properly care and provide the constant heating, regular feeding, nest upgrades, etc etc and the colony would just die all the same. 

 

I do agree with this. Parents need to help if young children are going to get a pet of any kind. (see next post in this thread by me)

 

 

TLDR: Ants are stupid and we really shouldn't get sentimental over them and think they have some form of "consciousness"

 

A philosophical argument discussion! My favourite!

Well, no, ants don't really have feelings, and no, they probably can't think about which replete they're going to grab some food from for dinner, I agree with that. 

But I do think they can be classified conscious. According to the Oxford English dictionary, consciousness is "the state of being aware of and responsive to one's surroundings".

A human is conscious, because we say we are. We are aware of our surroundings, have memories, can think about the future, and we invented the word conscious. Seems pretty conscious to me.

A chimpanzee is the closest thing to a human, and they're aware of their surroundings, have memories, and can think about the future. (I think-)

An ant is definitely aware of it's surroundings. And according to the Oxford English dictionary, that's all that matters.

 

I wish I bought some of my old philosophy assignments home with me...

Edited by Leptomyrmx, July 29 2022 - 6:38 PM.

[SleepyAsianAnter]

I do agree with this. Parents need to help if young children want a pet of any kind.

 

Lmao most definitely not, like I explained, young children rarely understand the consequences and needs of a long term pet, and parents are not obligated to fork over hard earned cash, time, or other resources to satisfy the child's whim unless that child has adequately proved themselves capable of providing their pet with a happy life. A lot of the time it just ends up as the parent taking care of a pet they never wanted. If the child can show that they did enough research to justify their confidence, then that's a different story. 

 

A philosophical argument discussion! My favourite!

Well, no, ants don't really have feelings, and no, they probably can't think about which replete they're going to grab some food from for dinner, I agree with that. 

But I do think they can be classified conscious. According to the Oxford English dictionary, consciousness is "the state of being aware of and responsive to one's surroundings".

A human is conscious, because we say we are. We are aware of our surroundings, have memories, can think about the future, and we invented the word conscious. Seems pretty conscious to me.

A chimpanzee is the closest thing to a human, and they're aware of their surroundings, have memories, and can think about the future. (I think-)

An ant is definitely aware of it's surroundings. And according to the Oxford English dictionary, that's all that matters.

 

mmmmm that's the hard part. If we go by your interpretation of oxford dictionary's definition, does this mean a virus is conscious? A virus will seek out hosts within their surroundings and attach themselves, the reprogram the host to produce more of them. Does this mean that they're aware of their surroundings? Surely they must know that what they're doing is reproducing right? No, viruses are not conscious, they aren't even classified as "living" 

 

At birth, a human child has around 100 billion neurons, 4 hundred-thousand times more than the average ant. Yet they don't exert any form of consciousness or memory until they're around 5 months old. So what are they before this time has passed? They cry when they want to be fed, or when their diaper needs to be changed, they sleep when they feel tired and they're silent when they deem it necessary. Where do these actions come from? They don't think "hey I'm getting hungry let me cry so I can be fed". It's instinctual and purely a response to the sensation known as hunger. I believe ants to be the same. They go out to hunt food because they instinctively know they need to, it's in their blood haemolymph. At the very most maybe the colony as a whole can be taken as conscious, but the individual ant, definitely not.  

Edited by SleepyAsianAnter, July 29 2022 - 5:24 PM.

[futurebird]

Personally I don't think it matters if ants are "conscious" or if they have "feelings" in the same way that humans do. Most likely they don't. I doubt we could translate the ant experience into anything that would make any kind of sense for us. This extreme distance is also what makes them interesting and unique. "being conscious like a human" isn't the only thing that makes living creatures important.   I'll give an example: Let's say you are in the nearest *real* old growth forest. Not a little park, a big proper, "you could get lost and die,"  forest. And someone shows you the oldest tree in that forest.

Is it wrong to cut that tree down? 

I'd say yes. Is it because it's conscious? Nah.
 

[Leptomyrmx]

 

I do agree with this. Parents need to help if young children want a pet of any kind.

 

Lmao most definitely not, like I explained, young children rarely understand the consequences and needs of a long term pet, and parents are not obligated to fork over hard earned cash, time, or other resources to satisfy the child's whim unless that child has adequately proved themselves capable of providing their pet with a happy life. A lot of the time it just ends up as the parent taking care of a pet they never wanted. If the child can show that they did enough research to justify their confidence, then that's a different story. 

 

That was probably worded wrong, I meant if they have a pet parents need to help, not if they want a pet parents need to support them.

[FloridaAnts]

I do agree with this. Parents need to help if young children want a pet of any kind.

Lmao most definitely not, like I explained, young children rarely understand the consequences and needs of a long term pet, and parents are not obligated to fork over hard earned cash, time, or other resources to satisfy the child's whim unless that child has adequately proved themselves capable of providing their pet with a happy life. A lot of the time it just ends up as the parent taking care of a pet they never wanted. If the child can show that they did enough research to justify their confidence, then that's a different story.

That was probably worded wrong, I meant if they have a pet parents need to help, not if they want a pet parents need to support them.

I think a child should have some sort of pet or responsibility to teach them. I see your point though, so here, let me rephrase also.

But first, I fully agree with you. But would a group of worker ants be considered a colony? Depends who you ask. But either way, those workers likely as a whole have no will to live, no purpose. If you ask me, a group of workers is a “sterile colony”, with no purpose, unless of course they have brood to feed.

If a child proves themselves, they may attempt to have a pet that has little care and effort(With parental approval), like a group of worker ants. If the child then goes on to prove that they have knowledge of the animal and possible situations, then they may attempt to keep an actual colony. Usually, worker ants in the little dirt ant farms live a few months, and children usually use interest in about 3-6. If the child does lose interest, the colony should be sold or disposed of.

I am not arguing, just making a point. I honestly hate participating in drama so this will probably be my last “dramatical” post

Edited by FloridaAnts, July 30 2022 - 5:30 AM.

[ColAnt735]

It’s lose by the way not loose. Sorry if you are offended Floridants I have a habit of pointing things out.

Edited by ColAnt735, July 30 2022 - 4:57 AM.

[Serafine]

 

Yeah... you could make that argument for neutered cats as well.

No, no you really can't. Cats are intelligent and capable of selfish actions. The average ant worker exists for her colony, she will drown herself to act as a bridge, she will throw herself into battle hoping that whoever comes after she dies can finish the job and feed the brood, she will selflessly fight off surrounding colonies just to expand her colony's territories. Of course, none of this is deliberate. Ants are most similar to tiny computers, they do not act on emotion or thought. They act because what they do might benefit the colony and therefore increase the chances of their queen's survival. Cats on the other hand, will act in their own best interests. I assume you are making the argument of "neutered" because they lose the ability to procreate and therefore fail in Darwin's eyes, but I really need you to elaborate on this because it makes zero sense.

 

Just because an ant happily sacrifices itself for her colony doesn't mean she's unable to be conscious or aware of herself. There are other animals (including humans) who sacrifice themselves for their children, siblings or even their country. Self-sacrifice is a really bad argument in this.
Also while insects often act on instincts and don't exactly have what you would describe as complex thought processes doesn't mean they're not feeling anything. There's more and more research indicating that insects can to a certain degree experience states like happiness, excitement, sadness and possibly even boredom.

https://www.frontier...2017.00157/full

https://www.newscien...ions-and-moods/

https://www.sciencea...-logical-manner

https://royalsociety.../rsbl.2019.0015

Edited by Serafine, July 30 2022 - 9:04 AM.

[FloridaAnts]

It’s lose by the way not loose. Sorry if you are offended Floridants I have a habit of pointing things out.

Thanks for pointing it out. When I reply late at night I often type much faster than I should.

[Serafine]

Sure, it's true that they exist and are accessible. But look at the price difference. The specific nest you posted retails for over $300 usd, while basic gel ant farms can be bought on amazon for as low as $20 usd. Why would someone wanting to watch ants tunnel for a little while fork over so much extra.

The nest i posted is a high quality glass product designed to run for years. You can have something similar for a lot cheaper, some of the chinese acrylic sheet vertical nests (particularly the ones with grout hydration inlays) are even decent designs.
Or you can go the DIY route with IKEA Godmorgon boxes or acrylic coffee/jewelry storage containers and end up even cheaper.
 
 

Sure, they're not. But rats are not equal to ants. The average rat is infinitely more intelligent than the average ant, this matches with the argument earlier with cats. Ants are not smart, ants are not sentient, ants are unthinking little computers that we keep because it interests us.

Rats and cats are more similar to us. They think in a very similar way, so it's easy for us to compare them.
The main problem is the intelligence of social insects is working in a different way - we don't really have a proper method to actually measure it and everytime we really try they surprise us and we discover that our idea of intelligence doesn't really apply to them as we thought.
 
By now we know that for example paper wasp queens can watch rivals fight and estimate the strength of multiple individuals relative to their own which greatly affects their behavior towards their rivals - and generally social wasps are capable of transitive learning (using experiences they made in the past and applying them in unfamiliar situations). This is pretty advanced behavior usually only found in pretty smart animal groups like mammals, birds and cephalopods.
 
When i did an internship at a museum they had dragonfly larvae someone caught in south america (they were found in bracky water which is kinda unusual and they couldn't ID them, so they just collected them to wait for them to turn into adults which took many months) and the people feeding them actually started to train them to do small tasks for snacks (they didn't get quite to the burning hoop but hoops got involved at some point). It's quite impressive what even dragonfly larvae can figure out when they're motivated.

 

 

Besides those three arguments, I do agree with your AC point. If the hobby develops and info becomes more accessible and easy to reach (which it slowly is), even children will be able to raise ants.
But right now I'm talking about dedication, a young child will want a puppy because it's cute, he doesn't understand that he will need to clean up feces, wipe urine off the floor, take daily walks, and feed on a regular basis for the next 10-15 years. 

TLDR: Ants are stupid and we really shouldn't get sentimental over them and think they have some form of "consciousness"

I'm not blaming children for having no idea what keeping a pet for 10-15 year means - they're simply incapable of grasping a timeframe like that and that's fine (I do blame AC for not educating them properly though).

 

However even children aren't dumb and can be taught to value life and that every animal - even one as insignificant as an insect - is a living being with some form of consciousness and capability to experience basic feelings, and that if they get one as a pet they should care for it to the best of their ability.

Just because you're not planing to keep yout ants forever doesn't mean you have to keep them in a crappy way. The sooner a child is taught to treat other living things properly the better.

Edited by Serafine, July 30 2022 - 5:50 AM.

[futurebird]

In Camponotus fellah a study found that socially isolated workers have a greatly reduced life span relative to ants kept in groups of ten individuals. My personal observation is that ants move less, are slower to react to stimulus, and just generally depressed when they don't have brood to tend or lots of nest mates. I don't know if ants have emotions as we might think of them, but there is an observable generalized impact on the quality of life for ants based on the size of their colony, the presence of brood and the ability to explore. 

That last one has caused me to rotate my outworlds and their decorations from time to time for my larger colonies. It's upsetting for them to experience change, but I've also noticed increased brood after swapping the outworld. I also try to find new foods for them to try. Ants can learn in the simple sense of association (oprant conditioning) they remember landmarks and the map of the region around the nest. I think they benefit from simple new experiences. 

Edited by futurebird, July 30 2022 - 11:12 AM.

[Serafine]

I can confirm that, both my Myrmica and Lasius workers didn't live very long after their queen died (maybe 3-4 months until the last one had passed with Lasius niger workers having potential lifespans of up to 5 years).

 

The Myrmica were barely active and appeared fairly unbothered by pretty much anything, the Lasius were still active and curious to a point where one could call them entertaining but anyone who has ever seen a healthy Lasius niger colony could tell they weren't the caffein-addicted crackheads workers of that species use to be.

Edited by Serafine, July 30 2022 - 9:03 AM.

[Serafine]

At birth, a human child has around 100 billion neurons, 4 hundred-thousand times more than the average ant. Yet they don't exert any form of consciousness or memory until they're around 5 months old. So what are they before this time has passed? They cry when they want to be fed, or when their diaper needs to be changed, they sleep when they feel tired and they're silent when they deem it necessary.

The reason babies cannot hold memories is because in humans memory depends on language. Our memory is built in a way that we need the language infrastructure to even begin to categorize our surroundings*.
Being unable to form memories however does not equal not having consciousness.

There are people who had accidents that took away their ability to form new memories, they're basically living in an eternal cycle of groundhog day.
There's even weirdly specifical cases where people lost the ability to tell apart faces (which is really hard to understand because we consider this part of our intuitive consciousness and expect that you could just deduce someone's face from certain features but apparently this is an ability so important to our existence that we have evolved a seperate specialized part in our brain to do that for us and if that goes black we can't do it anymore).
You probably also wouldn't count Alzheimer patients as being non-conscious even when they have forgotten most of what they once knew. They're still living beings capable of feeling, even if they've become incapable of complex thought.
 
*When you record a sentence and play it backwards even babies who are barely a month old can tell that that's not real language. They're also capable of detecting basic grammar like wrong sentence structure. They have absolutely no idea what the words mean but they are fully capable of telling if the basic components are in the correct order. That's pretty amazing brainwork for a human who can't even do proper facial expressions or control their sphincter yet.
 

 

 

Where do these actions come from? They don't think "hey I'm getting hungry let me cry so I can be fed". It's instinctual and purely a response to the sensation known as hunger. I believe ants to be the same. They go out to hunt food because they instinctively know they need to, it's in their blood haemolymph. At the very most maybe the colony as a whole can be taken as conscious, but the individual ant, definitely not.

Ants do not just act on instict, there are in fact multiple examples of ants teaching other ants - tandem running is one of them, where often an older worker with good navigation skills or knowledge of the area leads another worker (or sometimes an entire group) with less experience or worse navigation skills to an area of interest.

 

 

 

I've recently read a very interesting study about recursive controlling behaviour in social insects.

Basically social insects like bees, wasps and ants do not only just need to know which task they have to do at a given time, they also need to know how good they are at a given task.

 

Not all insects in a colony are equal, in fact they often are very different. Some are more bold, some are better carriers than others, some excel at navigation in complex environments, some are better at rearing brood or regulating nest temperature.

An ant with poor navigation wandering off into the great unknown might not find back home and become a dead ant very quickly. Not bad if it happens once but if it's a regular thing that's a problem.

 

The study concluded eusocial insect workers do in fact have a pretty good idea about their strengths and weaknesses and so far scientists have no idea how they're doing it.

They must have either some form of self-awareness that requires very advanced neural processing or they have a very sophisticated trick we have not even begun to understand.

Edited by Serafine, July 30 2022 - 2:15 PM.

[bmb1bee]

I can kinda see both sides of the arguments presented here, so here's my personal opinion. On one hand, we shouldn't allow ants to die miserable deaths in gel farms. But as Sleepy said, ants exist solely to protect the colony and should be expendable. I mean, some of us keep "colonies" of roaches and crickets just for the consumption of them to our pets right? So I can sort of see the point there. However, I believe that if you have something that you intend to raise or take care of, you should at least make some effort to do it right. With ants, at least do your research and don't just treat them however you like, which wouldn't bode well with raising them. On a different note, keeping ant farms provided by Uncle Milton and other brands with queenless Pogonomyrmex workers is clearly different from raising an actual colony, therefore not giving you the experience you need to actually raise ants. The workers, as mentioned above by futurebird, have nothing to do other than dig tunnels in hopes of finding the rest of their colony and occasionally eating bits of carrots and fruits you drop in. They don't do any actual foraging, don't have brood to tend, and don't behave as they normally do in a normal colony. I would say that starting an actual ant colony rather than an ant farm with only sterile workers would be far better, because at least you would get actual experience even if the colony dies or you can't take care of it right.