6 replies to this topic

[Roachant]

Hi all,
I'm not sure if this post goes here or not but I was wondering if anyone here has recruited others into ant keeping or just in general raised people respect for these magnificent insects?
And by recruiting I mean getting people who had little interest in keeping ants to full fledged keepers and/or admirers.

My best luck so far has been to convince my significant other to appreciate ants in general and she even thinks they are cute now.

I'm working on some other friends but I'm not having much luck in that department, it's hard to shake ants image as pests.

[ctantkeeper]

when i first started, my mom had a "ant phobia" due to a few incidents where several camponotus colonies infested her house as a child. but after a while, she began to enjoy learning about and watching the ants (she also thinks there cute ). my mom's boyfriend just started keeping bees and when he first started, he would constantly undermine my hobby be telling me over and over about how "his bees make money while my ants don't". however, after a while, he showed great interest in watching them grow and would even brag about the colonies to his coworkers lol

[Crystals]

I have an add on Kijiji (like a canadian craigslist) offering colonies and proper nests for sale.  People often looking for one of those Uncle Milton ant farms, a gel farm, or something to put in there stumble across it and all of the information on my add and realize that there is a much better way to watch ants.

 

I occasionally offer to show my ant nests to the local schools and give a 30min talk about ants in general in our area.  I have a good friend who is the head of the Science Lab in the local university, and the science lab has a standing invitation to request one of my larger personal colonies for an observation class.

 

My mother and grandmother can't believe that I can sell ants - and that people are willing to pay $18 to ship them halfway across Canada.    In conversation with friends, they often exclaim, "and she makes money selling ants, of all things!".  Which they have a hard time believing, and then they talk a bit with me - and are astounded to learn we have 93 species in Alberta and some other interesting fast facts.  People who venture downstairs, find the nests interesting.  The crew who replaced my window last year were astounded to see my collection, and declared they had a new story to tell.  They visited many houses, but never one with ant colonies before. 

[William. T]

I have got some friends into keeping small colonies, but haven't got any widespread results. I do, though, spread the keeping of termites by giving my many reptile keeping friends cultures. 

[dspdrew]

Most people never look close enough at an ant to see how cute and funny they are.

[NightsWebs]

I thought Drew was talking about me again....my family thinks I am nuts and started calling me Antman since the movie was released but they ask me questions about them all the time now and i originally wanted to start raising a colony for the Boy Scouts at my Church to earn their Nature and insect merit badges.

[Mads]

I often givecsmall starter colonies to people who are interested in getting into the hobby. Some don't really go much further, but some go on to start their own colonies from a single queen. Either way, I think all of them walk away with a bigger application for ants in general.

Mads