11 replies to this topic

[ZATrippit]

Antkeepers seem to have a disdain for AC. Why is he so controversial? I don't think there's anything bad that he's done beyond having a video style that isn't to the liking of some, so could you guys please chip in with your opinions?

[100lols]

Personally I enjoy his videos. I don’t take him as an ant thesaurus, but anything that’s about ants I’m fixated on. I think it’s easy to admit him/his team make quality videos, no matter what you don’t like about his style. It all comes down to preference in my opinion. I think he’s earned his spot in the community as someone who has inspired many to at least take a second look at ants.

I’m also interested to hear from people who dislike him.

[AntsCali098]

I definitely agree that it all comes down to preference. I personally prefer the smaller YouTubers who tell it all and give a real experience of ant keeping, like ants hood and antsant, but if you like the more dramatic ac style videos, watch them.

Mikey doesn't really show the ant keeping experience, and makes keeping species like solenopsis geminata look easy, which might be misleading for beginners. He should probably explain how hard they are to keep.

I think what really skyrocketed the ac hate was the "7 colonies 1 arena" thing, where he attempts to merge multiple Camponotus colonies. This makes me really iffy about him as an ant keeper. He should know better that Camponotus is rarely poly, and this was just a really clickbaity move and something he probably did for views. With how long he's been a keeper, he should have that knowledge about Camponotus.

Before that video was released I didn't see a big problem with him. I don't really hate the guy, I'm just kind of iffy about him. If he does something like that again, I'd probably be on the ac hate train. I personally don't enjoy the dramatic style anyways.

Id like to see others veiws as well.

[Ernteameise]

Well, he is a great ambassador for ants and his videos are like flashy Marvel blockbusters.

Are they informative and scientific? Heck no. But they are exciting and engaging.

Some of his setups are stunning and absolutely amazing.

I especially love his dragon setup for the Carebara diversa.

I would actually love to visit his ant house and see all these amazing setups in person.

I think he might be one of the most important people who made ant-keeping as popular as it is today.

When I speak to people about my ant keeping hobby, those that are even a little bit receptive and interested know of Ants Canada and have seen his videos.

 

I personally think Mikey is cool, I did not know he also does music and acting, but someone shared his music videos with me (without knowing it was Ants Canada) and I was amazed- he does an amazing immitation of Michael Jackson! So I learned about his other talents. He for sure is an extremely talented entertainer.

 

However.

According to the more experienced ant keepers on here (I am new myself, so please take this with a grain of salt since I am no expert myself) he made some severe mistakes and some of the things he did was close to mistreatment of his ants. Many experienced keepers said in the past (this might have changed) that Mickey is just NOT a very good and observant ant keeper. If you look around the WWW, you will have no trouble finding posts about these issues.

 

Personally, I am also not very happy with his video STYLE. I hate all the click-bait ("I  have started an ANT WAR!"), I hate cliffhangers, I hate all the "And then THIS happened", "Little did they know....".

I am more in love with traditional animal documentary.

A little bit of drama in nature documentaries is okay, but these videos are ALL drama and nothing but drama.

Not a fan.

But the close-ups of the ants themselves and the setups are amazing, no discussion about that.

Edited by Ernteameise, October 1 2023 - 1:20 AM.

[ANTdrew]

At least on this forum, 95% of keepers first got into ants thanks to his videos. AntsCanada has done much more good for the hobby than bad. A lot of the criticism of his videos is valid, but I also sense a strong bit of jealousy for his success. Everyone should just follow their own preferences to watch or ignore the videos as they see fit. Spilling more digital “ink” trashing his work is not needed on this forum, since there are more than enough threads about AC on here already.

[Rrar]

To tell the truth, I believe AntsCanada was the person who brought me into antkeeping.

 

However, it's annoying how he adds all those cliffhangers and the "And then THIS happened", "Little did they know....", and that he did that seven colonies war.

I honestly believe if he stops all those videos for subs and likes, and also those stuff in his videos, I think lots of the hate towards him will disolve.

[Locness]

I was much younger when I came across AC and I was hooked by his enthusiasm and charisma for ants. I thought his products were awesome too since I was used to seeing sand and dirt containers. He made ant keeping cool. Now that I'm older, I can't stand his videos lol, but I think that's the point. They are for kids and kids love it.

[Serafine]

- He mostly keeps easy-to-maintain invasive ants that do horrendous things to local ecosystems if they escape and promotes these species to his easy-to-impress underage audience, the majority of which is clearly not capable of keeping these species.

- His old videos were fairly informative, but then his content shifted to ever more drama and ant fairytales with uncle Mikey (there's a bingo card with things he says/does in almost every video (OMG, you won't believe, you don't want to miss, watch till the end, needless cliffhanger, etc.), and it says quite a bit about the stale state of his content that it still holds up 8 years later).

- He did bogus fire ant population control attempts like putting spiders into his setups, when spiders are one of the primary arthropod groups that tend to get absolutely trashed by invasive ants like fire ants.

- He killed a colony of Carebara diversa (an ant very well known for being hypersensitive with nesting conditions which he should have known) by DUMPING them into a new setup, destroying their nest in the process.

- He released a mite-infested invasive pharao ant colony at a local trash dump and made a full video about it, setting an awful example for his easy-to-influence mostly underage audience.
- His GAN project for the longest time consistently failed at enforcing even the few rules it had (no single queens, no ants in inappropriate housings like bottles and tupper boxes).

- He took a massive dump on keepers of non-native ants (to the point of putting "team native" vs "team exotic"), claiming the moral high ground while keeping a bearded dragon - an desert animal known for being super prone to respiratory infections in humid climates - in the super humid climate of the Phillippines.

 

That's just a short highlights list.

[Full_Frontal_Yeti]

Antkeepers seem to have a disdain for AC. Why is he so controversial? I don't think there's anything bad that he's done beyond having a video style that isn't to the liking of some, so could you guys please chip in with your opinions?

easy.

1: yes the tone/style of video comes off as something intended for an audience in the 6-16 demographic. So clearly not what most adults have an ear to listen to right out of the gate.

 

2: I find it all a bunch of lame junk that significantly misrepresents itself as expert, when it is not. He posts a video of an 'experiment' only to find it fails utterly and has to be told by the commenters why it failed, and that had he done even just 10 minuets of decent research 'homework' he'd already known the outcome of the experiment is going to be failure.

 

So that instantly kills it for me. Anyone acting as if they have expertise, who revealed they don't do the minimum amount of due diligence research before hand, is no expert.

People should not emulate his behavior, or help fund it, it is poor and lowly behavior, that gives a bad example to the youth of how to behave professionally.

 

no need to make life chitty on the ants to find out that wet wood will mold. And rival ants will kill each other. And so on, and so on. These are not legitimate experiments, this is equivalent to the 12 year old's idea of making bugs fight is cool, or shaking the antfarm when they aren't entertaining enough on their own.

 

 

More or less if this channel were filled with 8-16 year olds doing this child version of  "ant science" it would be an honest channel.

but being run by an adult behaving this way, while acting the professional expert, is nefarious.

Even if he is honestly blissfully ignorant of his bad example behavior, that changes nothing about the damage bad examples being successful, does.

[rockaedward]

AC is the reason I first ever got interested in ants years ago. I'm sure most people here can agree that AC has introduced many people into the hobby and has done a lot of good to give it a larger audience and spread ant keeping as a hobby. I've begun to grow tired of the clickbait-ey titles and dragged-out runtimes in the recent year. But his content is still pretty nice. Yes, his ethics can be questionable sometimes, but I really do think he has done much more good for the community than bad. 

Again, he has dubious ethics. And his videos are clearly made for entertainment rather than properly keeping his ants. I'm neutral on AC, but I can't blame either side's points on whether he's good or bad. 

[AntPerson76]

I also became an antkeeper thanks to Antscanada, and I agree, his setups are amazing, "floating" islands connected by branches allowing the ants to travel through them? That's something that I'm jealous of, but I also agree with everyone who's posted here so far. Almost all of his expiriments fail, and sometimes when I'm watching, I say. "No! That's not going to work. Why would he even do that?" 

Recently I've lost interest in his videos because the quality of them has gone down in education and up in entertainment, and some of the things he's doing no antkeeper should do. He's made many mistakes in his career, but he made the hobby popular, which is important. 

[AntaholicAnonymous]

I also got into keeping ants because of him so I'll always be grateful for that.
I'm 25 now so I don't fit the target audience anymore which is the reason I don't watch many of his videos now.

Also the more I'm invested in my own projects the less I want to watch it on YouTube.
I agree with a lot of the criticism but I do think some people love to complain recreationally and get carried away a bit.

I'm not as much of a fan as I used to be but I'll always have a lot of respect for what he has accomplished. He's one hell of an artist for sure