33 replies to this topic

[Rrar]

Hi everyone! Just wondering, what's your favorite ant shop?

mine is tar heel ants because their nests are so cool

[Ernteameise]

I am from Europe, so my stores are all European ones.

 

I have so far only bought from:

 

- Anthouse, Spanish company, they do some great acrylic nests and outworlds. My Messor barbarus are so much in love with their acrylic nest, they do not want to leave, even when offered a more fancy heated AntCube from the Antstore. And my Temnothorax live in a cute little decorated outworld made by this company. Anthouse also offers some nice feeders and foodstuff. Products from AntHouse are quite a bit cheaper than from other companies and yes, their materials are not as high quality and Antstore- question is, do they need to be when the ants are happy? Their delivery time to Germany is amazing- they deliver from Spain in just 4 days. This is the same (!!) time that Antstore (Berlin, Germany) needs to send their stuff to me. Plus, their customer service is amazing. Seriously, no complaints about the company whatsoever.

 

- Antstore (Berlin)- biggest store in Germany. Home of the amazing looking Antcubes and the Digfix nests. I saw these online and immediately had to buy a starter set. They are expensive. But these Antcubes just look amazing and they are one of my display pieces in my living room. My Messor barbarus surely love their arena, and they are digging around in the Digfix, but so far have not really moved in and stay in their acrylic nest for some reason. I also got my Temnothorax colony from Antstore, and the queen and most workers arrived alive and they are a joy to watch. But I have the strong suspicion that the store sent the ants to me directly after hibernation and without feeding them before sending them here- hence so many dead workers in the tube and they were starving when they arrived here. Otherwise, friendly story, fast delivery of about 4 days, and they always send a packet of gummi bears with a delivery and a nice thank you note. Very professional store with quality product.

 

- Foranto- they are the ones selling these utterly beautiful and amazing wood ant nests. They had a sale the other week, and I ordered one of the tiny wood nests which could eventually used for my Temnothorax if the colony grows eventually. The nest has not arrived yet, but all the nests are individually produced and unique and hand-made, so quality takes it's time. I will report with pictures as soon as the delivery has arrived.

 

- And my Messor barbarus colony I got from a German antkeeper, who sells self-collected and grown colonies as private seller on Ebay. He was amazing, really caring for the animals and I had to send him pictures of my setup first before he agreed to sell me a colony. The colony is very healthy and I had only a single casualty from transport.

Edited by Ernteameise, April 16 2023 - 1:04 PM.

[AnthonyP163]

I have a biased take.

[T.C.]

I feel like that's a broad question. Like for ants Anthony's is the best. For nests I do feel like THA has taken that spot. But these days I would rather just build my own.

[SleepyAsianAnter]

Me. I am my favorite ant shop.

[KadinB]

Me. I am my favorite ant shop.

same here

[Manitobant]

Canada ant colony

(This message is totally not sponsored)

Edited by Manitobant, April 16 2023 - 5:29 PM.

[Amatty76]

Statesideants.com

 

(I wonder who runs that shop, but I do know a guy named Anthony)

[United-Ants]

Statesideants.com for ants tar heel ants and arthropodantics for nests

[Flu1d]

Canada ant colony

(This message is totally not sponsored)

Isn't that the company that the kid Zack is constantly bringing in illegal ants and selling them for a fortune and doesn't care for the colonies, customers but only money? I have heard plenty enough from other Canadians about him. He also uses his pull to spread lies about smaller Canadian companies to keep them down, all the while doing what he claims they're doing. I'm actually shocked you back them, and I find it hard to believe you wouldn't know about that stuff.

Edited by Flu1d, April 17 2023 - 1:46 PM.

[ANTdrew]

I’ve never heard any of this negative stuff about them.

[Flu1d]

I’ve never heard any of this negative stuff about them.

I know a couple guys from a Canadian Discord server that live near him, I have seen quite a few of his illegal ants (pictures, but not with the guys face so I guess that's not 100% solid evidence) and I have heard the rumors spread about several independent sellers in Canada who now have trouble selling ants because he told folks they were selling ants illegally among other things.

I am only going off of what others say, however it seems pretty convincing, being more than one person and then meeting one of the guys he supposedly spread that rumor about.. It starts to become a lot of people. Maybe just the people closest to him know? I just assumed more people knew, seeing as I'm new to the community AND am about as far from Canada as you can be, geographically in the continental U.S.A..

I guess if you were receiving and then selling illegal ants, you wouldn't announce it to the world lol

[cocdeshijie]

Me. I am my favorite ant shop.

[ColAnt735]

Canada Ant Colony.

[T.C.]

 

I’ve never heard any of this negative stuff about them.

I know a couple guys from a Canadian Discord server that live near him, I have seen quite a few of his illegal ants (pictures, but not with the guys face so I guess that's not 100% solid evidence) and I have heard the rumors spread about several independent sellers in Canada who now have trouble selling ants because he told folks they were selling ants illegally among other things.

I am only going off of what others say, however it seems pretty convincing, being more than one person and then meeting one of the guys he supposedly spread that rumor about.. It starts to become a lot of people. Maybe just the people closest to him know? I just assumed more people knew, seeing as I'm new to the community AND am about as far from Canada as you can be, geographically in the continental U.S.A..

I guess if you were receiving and then selling illegal ants, you wouldn't announce it to the world lol

 

 

It's common practice as a "business owner" to do your best to suppress competition. What your saying sounds dramatic and like the truth has been expanded. I've known him for many years and have had many discussion's with him. He' always been decent and professional. There is always BS rumors being spread and I thoroughly believe this is another one. 

[rptraut]

I have only had good experiences when dealing with Zack at Ant Colony Canada.  I'm not plugged into the rumour mill, I can only relate my personal dealings with him and his company.  He has always been approachable, not something you can say about every owner of a company,   He always responded quickly to my emails.  I have purchased queens and small colonies and found them healthy and in good condition when I received them, sometimes even though they had to endure longer delivery times than they should have.  In a situation when the ants had been flooded out, he replaced them quickly at his cost with no questions.  In my personal dealings with Zack, he has always been very professional.

RPT

[Canadian anter]

Canada ant colony

(This message is totally not sponsored)

Isn't that the company that the kid Zack is constantly bringing in illegal ants and selling them for a fortune and doesn't care for the colonies, customers but only money? I have heard plenty enough from other Canadians about him. He also uses his pull to spread lies about smaller Canadian companies to keep them down, all the while doing what he claims they're doing. I'm actually shocked you back them, and I find it hard to believe you wouldn't know about that stuff.

Hi there!

I am Zach, and this is the first time I'm hearing of these rumors as well. Could you let me know (preferably via DM) where you're hearing this from?

Legality-wise, it is true that I do import ants from outside of Canada, and I have all the respective permits required, both from the US and from Canada.
Canada Ant Colony Import Permits - Google Drive. <- I have a google drive of most of my relevant import permits here.

I can send pdfs of the US permits on request. For many species, we're the first, but not the only people importing them. I know a couple other vendors or even competitors who do the same, but I'm on pretty good terms with most of the sellers I know in Canada. I think Por Amor Art, FormiStudio, AntsOntario, Nugs Bugs, etc could attest to this. I can also show records of my inspections with the government to prove the legality issue.

I have no idea what I could do to respond to the allegation that I sell ants for a fortune nor that I don't care for them. For many of the species of ants I sell, I regularly have colonies for sale up to sizes of 50-100 workers. Many Canadian ant-keepers sell ants to me, and by far most of them sell colonies to me as single queens, and I think that I have larger colonies for sale would be evidence that I care for them.

To be fair, I don't personally care for most of my colonies as of this year-- I had to move for college fall 2022 and most of the care currently is being managed by employees, retail partners (e.g. pet stores who stock our items), and family who help me (though this will change as soon as I finish moving everything out completely). Based on the progress I see, I can promise that the ants themselves are doing fine. In the future (within the next couple months) there will be a visitable facility which should lend more credibility to the claim. I'll follow up in a bit in this post by editing this post with photos of colonies we're currently rearing.

Normally we offer a 1-month minimum guarantee (assuming that the ants are cared for properly) even after receipt. In a lot of cases (some community members can attest to this, we will offer partial credit if colonies suddenly lose their queen, at times up to 4 months after receipt). Our returning customer rate for the past month has been roughly 41%.

I think the largest reason for dissatisfaction is probably due to our winter shipping policies, which requires a 13$ heat pack + insulation charge + Xpresspost shipping to guarantee DOAs during the winter.

There's a couple Canadian discord servers and facebook groups that are 500+ members strong that could probably speak on my behalf, and most of the people on AAK and AKE probably don't have that much negative to say either.

A lot of folks in the states will argue that my prices are overpriced, which is fair, since my prices are expensive relative to US prices, but I suspect that currency conversion, having to accomodate for pet stores, and paying import/export costs on US to Canada factors into that more than people think. (I was quoted $850 USD to ship/clear a Miami to Toronto package just last week on Camponotus castaneus), in addition to the 150 paid on permit fees already.

I'm happy to respond to any specific questions, although anything non-store related should go in DMs.


Separately, I'm going to give a +1 to byFormica, I find that he's been by far the easiest to work with and the most accomodating, plus I think the products he makes are pretty consistently great

Edit:
Myrmica americana colonies all raised from single queens collected in September-November 2023 (we have roughly 75 of them). They are fed on a diet of fruit flies, crickets, mealworms, Sunburst nectar, dyed green sugar water, chicken, egg yolk, and (currently testing) various seeds and nuts

Edited by Canadian anter, April 19 2023 - 12:09 PM.

[NicholasP]

Hi everyone! Just wondering, what's your favorite ant shop?

mine is tar heel ants because their nests are so cool

Mine is my favorite.

[Flu1d]

Canada ant colony

(This message is totally not sponsored)

Isn't that the company that the kid Zack is constantly bringing in illegal ants and selling them for a fortune and doesn't care for the colonies, customers but only money? I have heard plenty enough from other Canadians about him. He also uses his pull to spread lies about smaller Canadian companies to keep them down, all the while doing what he claims they're doing. I'm actually shocked you back them, and I find it hard to believe you wouldn't know about that stuff.

Hi there!

I am Zach, and this is the first time I'm hearing of these rumors as well. Could you let me know (preferably via DM) where you're hearing this from?

Legality-wise, it is true that I do import ants from outside of Canada, and I have all the respective permits required, both from the US and from Canada.
Canada Ant Colony Import Permits - Google Drive. <- I have a google drive of most of my relevant import permits here.

I can send pdfs of the US permits on request. For many species, we're the first, but not the only people importing them. I know a couple other vendors or even competitors who do the same, but I'm on pretty good terms with most of the sellers I know in Canada. I think Por Amor Art, FormiStudio, AntsOntario, Nugs Bugs, etc could attest to this. I can also show records of my inspections with the government to prove the legality issue.

I have no idea what I could do to respond to the allegation that I sell ants for a fortune nor that I don't care for them. For many of the species of ants I sell, I regularly have colonies for sale up to sizes of 50-100 workers. Many Canadian ant-keepers sell ants to me, and by far most of them sell colonies to me as single queens, and I think that I have larger colonies for sale would be evidence that I care for them.

To be fair, I don't personally care for most of my colonies as of this year-- I had to move for college fall 2022 and most of the care currently is being managed by employees, retail partners (e.g. pet stores who stock our items), and family who help me (though this will change as soon as I finish moving everything out completely). Based on the progress I see, I can promise that the ants themselves are doing fine. In the future (within the next couple months) there will be a visitable facility which should lend more credibility to the claim. I'll follow up in a bit in this post by editing this post with photos of colonies we're currently rearing.

Normally we offer a 1-month minimum guarantee (assuming that the ants are cared for properly) even after receipt. In a lot of cases (some community members can attest to this, we will offer partial credit if colonies suddenly lose their queen, at times up to 4 months after receipt). Our returning customer rate for the past month has been roughly 41%.

I think the largest reason for dissatisfaction is probably due to our winter shipping policies, which requires a 13$ heat pack + insulation charge + Xpresspost shipping to guarantee DOAs during the winter.

There's a couple Canadian discord servers and facebook groups that are 500+ members strong that could probably speak on my behalf, and most of the people on AAK and AKE probably don't have that much negative to say either.

A lot of folks in the states will argue that my prices are overpriced, which is fair, since my prices are expensive relative to US prices, but I suspect that currency conversion, having to accomodate for pet stores, and paying import/export costs on US to Canada factors into that more than people think. (I was quoted $850 USD to ship/clear a Miami to Toronto package just last week on Camponotus castaneus), in addition to the 150 paid on permit fees already.

I'm happy to respond to any specific questions, although anything non-store related should go in DMs.


Separately, I'm going to give a +1 to byFormica, I find that he's been by far the easiest to work with and the most accomodating, plus I think the products he makes are pretty consistently great

Edit:
Myrmica americana colonies all raised from single queens collected in September-November 2023 (we have roughly 75 of them). They are fed on a diet of fruit flies, crickets, mealworms, Sunburst nectar, dyed green sugar water, chicken, egg yolk, and (currently testing) various seeds and nuts

My reputation in this community doesn't matter to me, so I don't mind bringing up what I have heard.. However I don't wanna call out other people. I will say this, I have no actual proof and am more curious than actually accusing as I have no dog in this race, but from what I have heard you get a LOT of illegal European ants and have a bunch at your home. Again, I won't say this is true, but you need to check your circle cause these people (say they) know you and are saying this, and they say they even live near you. I have only been anting since late 2022 and 2 of the 4 groups I have been in on Discord regarding ants specifically had folks who mentioned this. One of them even mentioned having gotten some from your home collection.

If these rumors are untrue, I apologize for even bringing it up, HOWEVER, that being said.. I still highly recommend looking at some of your close friends.

Edited by Flu1d, April 19 2023 - 5:10 PM.

[Canadian anter]

I have a few European species for sure, attached permits below if it clears things up

Namely Formica sanguinea, Monomorium floricola (obtained from Europe) https://drive.google...ew?usp=drivesdk

And Messor minor https://drive.google...ew?usp=drivesdk

I have Lasius niger, Myrmica rubra, and Tetramorium immigrans as well, but those are more invasive species which established from Europe and can be found in Canada