11 replies to this topic

[FinWins]

Ok, this thread is for all of us to share our experiences of getting scammed in the ant keeping hobby. I’ve only been keeping ants for less then 6 months and I’ve already fell for a scam. Ok so it may not have been a complete scam, but after I fell for it I felt like it was scam so here it is.
I’d been checking AntsCanada’s GAN page and when I noticed that someone was selling Odontomachus brunnus (which is my favorite species in the world) in california eventually I got my mom to contact the GAN farmer and we got to talk to him on the phone. He said that he wouldn’t sell the trap-jaws to me because I didn’t have any first hand experience keeping ants (at the time I had yet to own a colony) then he said that he did have an ant that I could keep as a first ant. It was Camponotus sansabeanus, he said that he would sell me a colony for $150! He also said that if he shipped the workers with he queen they could injure her during the shipping process so said that he only give me the queen (I think he was lying and actually just sold me a freshly caught queen). With my mom next to me I felt pressured to say yes for some reason and before I knew it I said yes and I paid $150 for a single sansabeanus queen. My total was actually $200 because he also talk me into buying 2 test tube of sugar water that “heals” ants for $35 and shipping was $15.
Then a week later my starved bedraggled C. sansabeanus queen showed up her test tube had flooded and all the eggs were dead and when I fed her she acted like she hadn’t eaten in months. Also the two test tube well they didn’t show up instead the was one test tube of sugar water that leaked all over the box and then gone moldy where the other test tube was I have no idea I checked the entire box thoroughly but it wasn’t there. Eventually he sent two replacements but they smelt HORRIBLE so I threw them away.
So while this may not have been a complete scam in my mind it was, PLEASE tell me your thoughts on this and feel free to add your own experiences getting scammed so that future ant keeper can learn from our foolish mistakes.

[Dendovy]

In Spain there is a shop called anthouse, they sell a lot of ant keeping stuff at pretty low prices - no complaints there. Now, they have this gimmick that with every order they ship you a free ant colony of your choosing. So, I selected a pheidole colony with my order and waited for my package to arrive.

A week later it arrived, with the "colony (30+W) " still healthy. At first I was pretty pumped but when I looked closer at the queen it became clear to me that the wings where clearly cut off. Near the thorax you could still see the first bits of the wings and then they ended in a straight cut. Of course this queen never produced workers for me and the colony slowly died out.

Now to me it seems like they just have some large pheidole colony and collect their alates, cut off the wings and throw in a few workers and voila, they have a colony to throw on the site.

You could say, well they where free anyways so what does it matter, but the deal with the free colony convinced me to buy at their store and I had to pay high shipping fees. In the end I feel I was scammed.

[dspdrew]

Ok, this thread is for all of us to share our experiences of getting scammed in the ant keeping hobby. I’ve only been keeping ants for less then 6 months and I’ve already fell for a scam. Ok so it may not have been a complete scam, but after I fell for it I felt like it was scam so here it is.
I’d been checking AntsCanada’s GAN page and when I noticed that someone was selling Odontomachus brunnus (which is my favorite species in the world) in california eventually I got my mom to contact the GAN farmer and we got to talk to him on the phone. He said that he wouldn’t sell the trap-jaws to me because I didn’t have any first hand experience keeping ants (at the time I had yet to own a colony) then he said that he did have an ant that I could keep as a first ant. It was Camponotus sansabeanus, he said that he would sell me a colony for $150! He also said that if he shipped the workers with he queen they could injure her during the shipping process so said that he only give me the queen (I think he was lying and actually just sold me a freshly caught queen). With my mom next to me I felt pressured to say yes for some reason and before I knew it I said yes and I paid $150 for a single sansabeanus queen. My total was actually $200 because he also talk me into buying 2 test tube of sugar water that “heals” ants for $35 and shipping was $15.
Then a week later my starved bedraggled C. sansabeanus queen showed up her test tube had flooded and all the eggs were dead and when I fed her she acted like she hadn’t eaten in months. Also the two test tube well they didn’t show up instead the was one test tube of sugar water that leaked all over the box and then gone moldy where the other test tube was I have no idea I checked the entire box thoroughly but it wasn’t there. Eventually he sent two replacements but they smelt HORRIBLE so I threw them away.
So while this may not have been a complete scam in my mind it was, PLEASE tell me your thoughts on this and feel free to add your own experiences getting scammed so that future ant keeper can learn from our foolish mistakes.

 

It's best to buy from reputable sellers and not some rando that shows up on Mikey's GAN seller list. He doesn't vet these people, and lot of them may be honest, but clearly have no experience in the hobby and no clue how to ID the ants they sell.

[ZTYguy]

Yeah. I prefer selling and trading between the people I know and the people on here who are known in the hobby. I have never purchased from a GAN farmer and never will cause anything revolving around AC is kinda sketchy. I’d stick to people like our forum mods like nurbs, or drew. Then I’d also ( just to name a few forum Ca anters) say people like jeffbalderstron, reignofrage, cocdeshijie, b_rad, the ant guy, and many others. All of the people I have listed here are people wh9 I’ve received ants from and are still thriving today. One of my oldest colonies was purchased from a vendor here, so moral of the story is trust FC vendors with a good background than some stupid person on GAN or Etsy.

[futurebird]

Just beca

 

In Spain there is a shop called anthouse, they sell a lot of ant keeping stuff at pretty low prices - no complaints there. Now, they have this gimmick that with every order they ship you a free ant colony of your choosing. So, I selected a pheidole colony with my order and waited for my package to arrive.

A week later it arrived, with the "colony (30+W) " still healthy. At first I was pretty pumped but when I looked closer at the queen it became clear to me that the wings where clearly cut off. Near the thorax you could still see the first bits of the wings and then they ended in a straight cut. Of course this queen never produced workers for me and the colony slowly died out.

Now to me it seems like they just have some large pheidole colony and collect their alates, cut off the wings and throw in a few workers and voila, they have a colony to throw on the site.

You could say, well they where free anyways so what does it matter, but the deal with the free colony convinced me to buy at their store and I had to pay high shipping fees. In the end I feel I was scammed.

I don't know anything about the seller, but it's pretty common for queens to sometimes have wings after being mated. Since she never produced more brood maybe they did do such a thing. Can't rule it out. But I've seen queens who looked like their wings were cut off with scissors ... but they just never dropped them and they broke leaving little nubs.

If more than one person got a queen in this state from the same place I think that would be evidence that something fishy going on. But with just one case? There could be an innocent explanation. (Not taking a side either way here, to be clear)

[RushmoreAnts]

Just beca

 

In Spain there is a shop called anthouse, they sell a lot of ant keeping stuff at pretty low prices - no complaints there. Now, they have this gimmick that with every order they ship you a free ant colony of your choosing. So, I selected a pheidole colony with my order and waited for my package to arrive.

A week later it arrived, with the "colony (30+W) " still healthy. At first I was pretty pumped but when I looked closer at the queen it became clear to me that the wings where clearly cut off. Near the thorax you could still see the first bits of the wings and then they ended in a straight cut. Of course this queen never produced workers for me and the colony slowly died out.

Now to me it seems like they just have some large pheidole colony and collect their alates, cut off the wings and throw in a few workers and voila, they have a colony to throw on the site.

You could say, well they where free anyways so what does it matter, but the deal with the free colony convinced me to buy at their store and I had to pay high shipping fees. In the end I feel I was scammed.

I don't know anything about the seller, but it's pretty common for queens to sometimes have wings after being mated. Since she never produced more brood maybe they did do such a thing. Can't rule it out. But I've seen queens who looked like their wings were cut off with scissors ... but they just never dropped them and they broke leaving little nubs.

If more than one person got a queen in this state from the same place I think that would be evidence that something fishy going on. But with just one case? There could be an innocent explanation. (Not taking a side either way here, to be clear)

I agree. Some queens just keep their wings altogether. Sometimes these queens get their wings forcibly removed - not with a scissors, but by their own workers, who slowly gnaw away at the wings until they're little stubs or gone altogether.

[FinWins]

(EDIT)

Edited by FinWins, July 29 2022 - 9:16 AM.

[RushmoreAnts]

 

 

Just beca
 

In Spain there is a shop called anthouse, they sell a lot of ant keeping stuff at pretty low prices - no complaints there. Now, they have this gimmick that with every order they ship you a free ant colony of your choosing. So, I selected a pheidole colony with my order and waited for my package to arrive.
A week later it arrived, with the "colony (30+W) " still healthy. At first I was pretty pumped but when I looked closer at the queen it became clear to me that the wings where clearly cut off. Near the thorax you could still see the first bits of the wings and then they ended in a straight cut. Of course this queen never produced workers for me and the colony slowly died out.
Now to me it seems like they just have some large pheidole colony and collect their alates, cut off the wings and throw in a few workers and voila, they have a colony to throw on the site.
You could say, well they where free anyways so what does it matter, but the deal with the free colony convinced me to buy at their store and I had to pay high shipping fees. In the end I feel I was scammed.

I don't know anything about the seller, but it's pretty common for queens to sometimes have wings after being mated. Since she never produced more brood maybe they did do such a thing. Can't rule it out. But I've seen queens who looked like their wings were cut off with scissors ... but they just never dropped them and they broke leaving little nubs.
If more than one person got a queen in this state from the same place I think that would be evidence that something fishy going on. But with just one case? There could be an innocent explanation. (Not taking a side either way here, to be clear)

I agree. Some queens just keep their wings altogether. Sometimes these queens get their wings forcibly removed - not with a scissors, but by their own workers, who slowly gnaw away at the wings until they're little stubs or gone altogether.

When the queen came she didn’t have wings, the thing that ticked me off was that if fell for the pure pressure of actually talking to someone on the phone and so if I said no I would feel guilty so I WAY over payed.
For example would you pay $150 for a Camponotus sansabeanus queen?

 

What exactly does this have to do with Denvovy's experience with a European ant shop?

[FinWins]

Just beca
 

In Spain there is a shop called anthouse, they sell a lot of ant keeping stuff at pretty low prices - no complaints there. Now, they have this gimmick that with every order they ship you a free ant colony of your choosing. So, I selected a pheidole colony with my order and waited for my package to arrive.
A week later it arrived, with the "colony (30+W) " still healthy. At first I was pretty pumped but when I looked closer at the queen it became clear to me that the wings where clearly cut off. Near the thorax you could still see the first bits of the wings and then they ended in a straight cut. Of course this queen never produced workers for me and the colony slowly died out.
Now to me it seems like they just have some large pheidole colony and collect their alates, cut off the wings and throw in a few workers and voila, they have a colony to throw on the site.
You could say, well they where free anyways so what does it matter, but the deal with the free colony convinced me to buy at their store and I had to pay high shipping fees. In the end I feel I was scammed.

I don't know anything about the seller, but it's pretty common for queens to sometimes have wings after being mated. Since she never produced more brood maybe they did do such a thing. Can't rule it out. But I've seen queens who looked like their wings were cut off with scissors ... but they just never dropped them and they broke leaving little nubs.
If more than one person got a queen in this state from the same place I think that would be evidence that something fishy going on. But with just one case? There could be an innocent explanation. (Not taking a side either way here, to be clear)

I agree. Some queens just keep their wings altogether. Sometimes these queens get their wings forcibly removed - not with a scissors, but by their own workers, who slowly gnaw away at the wings until they're little stubs or gone altogether.

When the queen came she didn’t have wings, the thing that ticked me off was that if fell for the pure pressure of actually talking to someone on the phone and so if I said no I would feel guilty so I WAY over payed.
For example would you pay $150 for a Camponotus sansabeanus queen?

What exactly does this have to do with Denvovy's experience with a European ant shop?

LOL I got confused and thought we were talking about my experience not Denvovy’s my bad sorry

[FinWins]

Stupid me, I should know better. I should have read EVERYTHING not just glanced at it. Sorry

[RushmoreAnts]

Ah, you're good. I figured that's what happened.

[Dendovy]

Just beca

In Spain there is a shop called anthouse, they sell a lot of ant keeping stuff at pretty low prices - no complaints there. Now, they have this gimmick that with every order they ship you a free ant colony of your choosing. So, I selected a pheidole colony with my order and waited for my package to arrive.

A week later it arrived, with the "colony (30+W) " still healthy. At first I was pretty pumped but when I looked closer at the queen it became clear to me that the wings where clearly cut off. Near the thorax you could still see the first bits of the wings and then they ended in a straight cut. Of course this queen never produced workers for me and the colony slowly died out.

Now to me it seems like they just have some large pheidole colony and collect their alates, cut off the wings and throw in a few workers and voila, they have a colony to throw on the site.

You could say, well they where free anyways so what does it matter, but the deal with the free colony convinced me to buy at their store and I had to pay high shipping fees. In the end I feel I was scammed.

I don't know anything about the seller, but it's pretty common for queens to sometimes have wings after being mated. Since she never produced more brood maybe they did do such a thing. Can't rule it out. But I've seen queens who looked like their wings were cut off with scissors ... but they just never dropped them and they broke leaving little nubs.

If more than one person got a queen in this state from the same place I think that would be evidence that something fishy going on. But with just one case? There could be an innocent explanation. (Not taking a side either way here, to be clear)

Valid, though I will add that I asked around on a Dutch speaking ant forum if anyone had similar experiences and a couple people said that they had the exact same situation play out. None of their queens produced for them either.

Also, I sent them an email asking why it looked like the wings where cut off and I don't remember exactly what they said but it was along the lines of "we have been doing this for 10 years, we know what we are doing so shut up" - That to me was the most unpleasant thing about the whole situation.

Also also, the other people from the Dutch forum all got that same email. Pretty safe to say they are shady at best and I won't be buying any of their kit again.