57 replies to this topic

[Leo]

just little stories about ants doing funny stuff or just outright failing, pls share your experiences

 

 

[Serafine]

This is pretty funny:

http://www.formicult...ng-flight-ever/

[T.C.]

This seems like a playground topic.

 

However if you want to hear a funny story, i will give it to you. Well actually it was more stupid. No one pick on me about this. This was a few years back. Like at least 4 years ago when the Yuku forums was active. ( I used to stalk the place ). I had wanted to start a ant colony. So I followed some instructions on a you tube video on how to make a plaster formicarium. I made it and it was the saddest, poorest of quality formicarium you would ever see. It looked like like a chunk of concrete I had taken from the side of our dumpy road, put some holes in it with a sledge hammer and stuck a piece of glass on the front.  However I continued on... to the next step. Getting the ants.

 

So, not even a half hour later,  I did some two minute research, I thought I knew enough to be able to identify and find a queen and her colony. So i wandered about our field, looking for some ants. I came across a colony of them. ( As of today I don't know what species they are.) It had majors and smaller workers crawling around. However i thought the majors were queens. I thought to myself, "Shoot, look at all them queens!" So I gathered as many as I could in the few water bottles i was carrying until my back was fried from the sun, and my neck was stiff from looking down so much. I started heading back and spotted a different colony. So i collected from that one as well.  I was real excited, thinking I had a hundred queens and tons of workers.

 

So, I get back. Mind you I am super excited. I pop them water bottles open, and ants run everywhere, so quickly I dumped them into the out world, which was still wet and runny because i did not let the plaster dry. However, i continued dumping in these ants from several different colonies. Some got stuck in the wet plaster, especially in the corners where it was still of a tooth paste consistency. However as quick as i could I just kept dumping in my water bottle of ants. into this out world. I had covered the nest part and tube leading from the out world to the nest with a cloth so they would head to the dark spot. I noticed the ants were chewing on each others legs (Because they are from different colonies) but I thought to myself, "They must just be confused and frusterated right now, they will calm down"

 

Once finished dumping them in, I threw the lid on the out world. I could see from the out world the ants were running into the tube that was supposed to lead to the nest part. I stood there just thinking to my self, "Yes, I have a colony now" However once I stopped day dreaming, I looked down on the desk I had the whole mess on, I noticed there was an extreme amount of ants wandering about. "Sure some got out when I dumped them in, but not this many?" Suddenly I noticed, that there was a steady flow of them coming from out underneath the cloth I was covering the nest and tube leading to and from the out world. I quickly pulled up the cloth to find that the tube was not connected the nest. Ants were running from the out world, through the tube and onto my desk. A total mess. So I tried to scoop up all these ants and put them back into the outworld while trying to plug up the tube, and ants were escaping out of the out world as well with the lid off. While doing all this, I knocked it all into the floor. Ants everywhere and my plaster out world not being dry ran into the carpet . So I admitted defeat, and got the vaccum out. I sucked the ants up, threw the nest in the garbage. And didn't touch ants until almost two years later when I knew what i was actually doing.

Edited by T.C., January 25 2017 - 10:40 AM.

[Martialis]

Lol!

[Nathant2131]

Haha that's the best story T.C.!

[T.C.]

Haha that's the best story T.C.!

I was hesitating posting it, but at least I had the excuse i was a newbie.

[Nathant2131]

Haha that's the best story T.C.!

I was hesitating posting it, but at least I had the excuse i was a newbie.

Haha don't worry. I've done a countless amount of newbie things too.

[Leo]

Haha

[Connectimyrmex]

Once, when I was younger, I went to catch an ant colony. I had no idea about what a nuptial flight was. 
That exact day, an ant nuptial flight (I don't remember what species) occurred. I freaked out (flying ants?!) and caught them all. I put them in a gel ant farm. (NOTE: Don't use gel ant farms).

I remember one dug a burrow and sealed the nest. I worried so I kept on opening the chamber. Then all the queens (I thought they were workers) started fighting and all the males (I thought they were queens) died. I was so confused.

Well, that's the story. 

[MrILoveTheAnts]

Story One:

I used to work at a movie theater and back when I was an Usher there I would always come home and just hang my black work pants on a rung in the bathroom. They were my only pair of black pants so I was in the habit of working my shifts for the week and then send them threw the wash. Well one day I spilled a large drink of High-C all over my one leg. I worked the next day so I didn't bother washing them. The next morning I found them covered in ants! A steady stream of Crematogaster cerasi was filing in threw the bathroom window, so I literally had ants in my pants.

 

 

Story Two:

I was in the middle of the woods looking at ants when the dreaded "Random Person" found me. In this particular case it was an elderly man who looked as though he'd just escaped an old folks home. He was an elderly, disheveled-looking man with thin, graying hair dressed only in a stained white T-shirt, gray sweat pants, socks & sandals, and a blue bath robe.

 

Old Man: "What are you doing?"

 

Me, hunched over an ant hill. "I'm looking at ants."

 

Old Man: "Oh Ants! There many of those around?" he said stepping on a very active hill of Formica subsericea.

 

I explained to him yes in so many words and he started to follow me around a bit, I believe because he was lonely and just wanted to talk with. (Thankfully this isn't a horror story.) He was impressed that I knew the genus and species names of different ants. I then said something regarding "new species," and to my surprise the man said,
 "OH I Discovered One Of Those Once!"

 

Me: "Oh?"

 

Old Man: "It was in my gutters! Had tentacles like a squid. Don't know how it got there." His insane ramblings then went on to describe what sounded to me like the seed pod to a tulip tree covered in slime and other gutter muck. We parted ways shortly after, with me returning to my car in a nearby parking lot, and the old man vanishing mysteriously into the woods.

 

Later on at the movie theater, my manager pulled me to the side.

 

Manager: "Chris I was driving my car yesterday and I was troubled to see you wonder into the woods holding a shovel. Is there something you want to tell me?"

 

I laughed and told him about my hobby, which did not in any way change his opinion of me. Later I told the same story about meeting the old man to a few coworkers. I was laughing that he thought he thought he discovered a new species. One of my friends, in a smart tone said, "Yes but you never know! Sometimes-" I cut him off. 

 

"A GUTTER SQUID!?!?!?" I yelled.

 

He stayed quiet. The rest of the night we turned the idea into a crappy B movie titled "The Curse of the Gutter Squid!" The old man tried to warn us all... but we didn't listen.

 

 

Story Three:

This happened on the old forum. Please don't try to track it down cause I doubt I'm remembering it correctly, also I'm not using anyone's names. 

 

So I almost got banned once.

 

Basically the person from Europe was receiving E-mails from a "wee lad" (or tyke? I forget the exact term) asking to ID "ants" from the American mid west. And after reading them, for the love of god I have no idea why they were even being posted!

 

The tyke in question was giving descriptions like "Found an ant, it is red, what is it?" and "Found an ant, it had 5 legs, I pulled two off, what is it?" I'm paraphrasing of course but you get the idea. I honestly thought the person was posting these as a joke so I finally posted something like. "Honestly I don't know why you're even bothering to post these. This child or whoever is clearly lacking intelligence, and their descriptions fail to even confirm that what they're looking at is even an ant."

 

Oh the S#%T Storm that happened after I posted that!

 

The European guy got all offended saying they were glad they didn't recommend the forum to the "young chap" or whatever cause of how rude I was. But the truth is I'd have probably been nicer and more willing to help to young person in question instead of playing a game of telephone half way across the world.

 

So Every moderator at the time messaged me, including Antdude, basically saying I had to say I was sorry or "more drastic action would have to be taken." Though one or two of them also said they completely agreed with my assessment, they also stressed that I needed to say sorry. 

 

I recall typing an apology but honestly I stand by everything I said then (as I remember it). Saying that person was "lacking intelligence" was the nicest way I could have put it at the time. No one was ever able to identify the "ants" that were described. I did that place a favor when I killed that topic!

[T.C.]

Deleted

Edited by T.C., May 21 2022 - 12:41 AM.

[Connectimyrmex]

Story One:

I used to work at a movie theater and back when I was an Usher there I would always come home and just hang my black work pants on a rung in the bathroom. They were my only pair of black pants so I was in the habit of working my shifts for the week and then send them threw the wash. Well one day I spilled a large drink of High-C all over my one leg. I worked the next day so I didn't bother washing them. The next morning I found them covered in ants! A steady stream of Crematogaster cerasi was filing in threw the bathroom window, so I literally had ants in my pants.

 

 

Story Two:

I was in the middle of the woods looking at ants when the dreaded "Random Person" found me. In this particular case it was an elderly man who looked as though he'd just escaped an old folks home. He was an elderly, disheveled-looking man with thin, graying hair dressed only in a stained white T-shirt, gray sweat pants, socks & sandals, and a blue bath robe.

 

Old Man: "What are you doing?"

 

Me, hunched over an ant hill. "I'm looking at ants."

 

Old Man: "Oh Ants! There many of those around?" he said stepping on a very active hill of Formica subsericea.

 

I explained to him yes in so many words and he started to follow me around a bit, I believe because he was lonely and just wanted to talk with. (Thankfully this isn't a horror story.) He was impressed that I knew the genus and species names of different ants. I then said something regarding "new species," and to my surprise the man said,
 "OH I Discovered One Of Those Once!"

 

Me: "Oh?"

 

Old Man: "It was in my gutters! Had tentacles like a squid. Don't know how it got there." His insane ramblings then went on to describe what sounded to me like the seed pod to a tulip tree covered in slime and other gutter muck. We parted ways shortly after, with me returning to my car in a nearby parking lot, and the old man vanishing mysteriously into the woods.

 

Later on at the movie theater, my manager pulled me to the side.

 

Manager: "Chris I was driving my car yesterday and I was troubled to see you wonder into the woods holding a shovel. Is there something you want to tell me?"

 

I laughed and told him about my hobby, which did not in any way change his opinion of me. Later I told the same story about meeting the old man to a few coworkers. I was laughing that he thought he thought he discovered a new species. One of my friends, in a smart tone said, "Yes but you never know! Sometimes-" I cut him off. 

 

"A GUTTER SQUID!?!?!?" I yelled.

 

He stayed quiet. The rest of the night we turned the idea into a crappy B movie titled "The Curse of the Gutter Squid!" The old man tried to warn us all... but we didn't listen.

 

 

Story Three:

This happened on the old forum. Please don't try to track it down cause I doubt I'm remembering it correctly, also I'm not using anyone's names. 

 

So I almost got banned once.

 

Basically the person from Europe was receiving E-mails from a "wee lad" (or tyke? I forget the exact term) asking to ID "ants" from the American mid west. And after reading them, for the love of god I have no idea why they were even being posted!

 

The tyke in question was giving descriptions like "Found an ant, it is red, what is it?" and "Found an ant, it had 5 legs, I pulled two off, what is it?" I'm paraphrasing of course but you get the idea. I honestly thought the person was posting these as a joke so I finally posted something like. "Honestly I don't know why you're even bothering to post these. This child or whoever is clearly lacking intelligence, and their descriptions fail to even confirm that what they're looking at is even an ant."

 

Oh the S#%T Storm that happened after I posted that!

 

The European guy got all offended saying they were glad they didn't recommend the forum to the "young chap" or whatever cause of how rude I was. But the truth is I'd have probably been nicer and more willing to help to young person in question instead of playing a game of telephone half way across the world.

 

So Every moderator at the time messaged me, including Antdude, basically saying I had to say I was sorry or "more drastic action would have to be taken." Though one or two of them also said they completely agreed with my assessment, they also stressed that I needed to say sorry. 

 

I recall typing an apology but honestly I stand by everything I said then (as I remember it). Saying that person was "lacking intelligence" was the nicest way I could have put it at the time. No one was ever able to identify the "ants" that were described. I did that place a favor when I killed that topic!

Now this. This is beautiful!

I tried to like but I received the maximum positive votes for the day.

[Leo]

thanks for posting these!    

[Serafine]

This is a little story about my ants. People who have read my journal will already know it but it fits here so I'm gonna post it anyway.
 
My small Camponotus colony recently woke up from their lethargic winter phase so I decided to by some fruit flies for them at a local pet store. They really love the wild fruit flies that inhabit my kitchen as pests, but well, when they start to eat more I'm not sure if I can keep up the supply (I might actually have to start giving food to my pests). The flies were sold in a cup and after coming home I immediately put them into the freezer.
Yesterday night (after 4 days in the freezer) it was time to give these yummy protein packages to my ants, so I put half a dozen of them on the straw that leads out of their tube and gently pushed them into the tube with a thin wooden stick.
 
 
Their reaction was, well... let's express it with a series of pictures...
 
 



 

 
 
When they found them the workers didn't react with their usual "bite it in the back and see if it wriggles" behavior, instead they carefully examined them with their antenna and often hastily backed off for no apparent reason. Finally a worker grabbed the fruit flies walked through the straw into the outworld and one after another dumped all of them into the sand. And since she was already on it they threw out what was left of the cricket as well.
 
Later I caught some wild fruit flies and while they didn't burst into excitement like the last two times they encountered them with mild interest and didn't throw them out of the nest.
Well, at least they like the crickets I bought...

Edited by Serafine, January 28 2017 - 5:11 AM.

[Connectimyrmex]

all of these are so funny!

Here's another story that happened today. 

I gave a mealworm pupae to my Pheidole (I loosened the head capsule but left it alive, just how they like their meals). They quickly responded and had the majors chop it up. They brought back the head, the legs, and the abdomen. What could go wrong?

First, they brought the queen up for a snack. The queen proceeded to eat SO MUCH that only her gaster stuck out of the abdomen that was filled with meat. And guess what happened? The queen got stuck.

After some time, the majors decided they wanted to eat, too, so they started chewing at the sides of the mealworm pupae. It was then they noticed that the queen was stuck, and they proceeded to cut her out. Then the majors began attacking the dead body. Wow.

[Serafine]

Then the majors began attacking the dead body.

Oh I had that as well. Two days ago I added the regular drop of fruit flies and for some reason one of the workers went hyperaggressive and ferociously attacked a specific dead fruit fly as if it was a living intruder. She bit it, wriggled it around and even sprayed formic acid on it. No idea what was the problem there. Maybe she just had a bad day.

Edited by Serafine, January 26 2017 - 6:09 PM.

[Californian Anter]

all of these are so funny!

Here's another story that happened today. 

I gave a mealworm pupae to my Pheidole (I loosened the head capsule but left it alive, just how they like their meals). They quickly responded and had the majors chop it up. They brought back the head, the legs, and the abdomen. What could go wrong?

First, they brought the queen up for a snack. The queen proceeded to eat SO MUCH that only her gaster stuck out of the abdomen that was filled with meat. And guess what happened? The queen got stuck.

After some time, the majors decided they wanted to eat, too, so they started chewing at the sides of the mealworm pupae. It was then they noticed that the queen was stuck, and they proceeded to cut her out. Then the majors began attacking the dead body. Wow.

Wait they killed the queen?

 

Edit: NVM I don't know what i'm doing. So the queen ate her way into the pupae, got stuck, and the majors dug her out.

Edited by Californian Anter, January 26 2017 - 6:44 PM.

[Connectimyrmex]

yep.

[MrILoveTheAnts]

Story Four:

There was another time I rebelled back in the days of the Yuku forum. antdude had gone on one of his tirades banning people for not typing proper English and making small grammatical errors; and generally ignoring things like whether or not English was their first language... or that they're younger than 12. One in particular bugged that me was when he banned someone who was fairly popular in the chatroom there.

 

I forget the thread it was that got him banned but he simply commented "Oh Reeallly?" and antdude banned him. I think he believing he was making fun of him of him somehow, like purposely going against past warnings, but I don't honestly recall.

 

To protest this, I deleted all the information in the Mating Chart thread which I had started and still maintain to this day. I replaced the info simply with the words "Oh Reeallly?" and changed the title to the "Oh Reeallly Chart!"

 

I went to bed that thing thinking I might get banned, but woke up instead to find others had joined my protest... by uploading pictures of owls.

 

antdude realized the errors of his way... that one time. We had tons of fun for a good week or two but the whole experence left a bad taste in the air. antdude unbanned him but he ended up quitting the forum anyhow. I can't say I blame him.

Edited by MrILoveTheAnts, January 27 2017 - 8:50 PM.

[antgenius123]

This seems like a playground topic.

 

However if you want to hear a funny story, i will give it to you. Well actually it was more stupid. No one pick on me about this. This was a few years back. Like at least 4 years ago when the Yuku forums was active. ( I used to stalk the place ). I had wanted to start a ant colony. So I followed some instructions on a you tube video on how to make a plaster formicarium. I made it and it was the saddest, poorest of quality formicarium you would ever see. It looked like like a chunk of concrete I had taken from the side of our dumpy road, put some holes in it with a sledge hammer and stuck a piece of glass on the front.  However I continued on... to the next step. Getting the ants.

 

So, not even a half hour later,  I did some two minute research, I thought I knew enough to be able to identify and find a queen and her colony. So i wandered about our field, looking for some ants. I came across a colony of them. ( As of today I don't know what species they are.) It had majors and smaller workers crawling around. However i thought the majors were queens. I thought to myself, "Shoot, look at all them queens!" So I gathered as many as I could in the few water bottles i was carrying until my back was fried from the sun, and my neck was stiff from looking down so much. I started heading back and spotted a different colony. So i collected from that one as well.  I was real excited, thinking I had a hundred queens and tons of workers.

 

So, I get back. Mind you I am super excited. I pop them water bottles open, and ants run everywhere, so quickly I dumped them into the out world, which was still wet and runny because i did not let the plaster dry. However, i continued dumping in these ants from several different colonies. Some got stuck in the wet plaster, especially in the corners where it was still of a tooth paste consistency. However as quick as i could I just kept dumping in my water bottle of ants. into this out world. I had covered the nest part and tube leading from the out world to the nest with a cloth so they would head to the dark spot. I noticed the ants were chewing on each others legs (Because they are from different colonies) but I thought to myself, "They must just be confused and frusterated right now, they will calm down"

 

Once finished dumping them in, I threw the lid on the out world. I could see from the out world the ants were running into the tube that was supposed to lead to the nest part. I stood there just thinking to my self, "Yes, I have a colony now" However once I stopped day dreaming, I looked down on the desk I had the whole mess on, I noticed there was an extreme amount of ants wandering about. "Sure some got out when I dumped them in, but not this many?" Suddenly I noticed, that there was a steady flow of them coming from out underneath the cloth I was covering the nest and tube leading to and from the out world. I quickly pulled up the cloth to find that the tube was not connected the nest. Ants were running from the out world, through the tube and onto my desk. A total mess. So I tried to scoop up all these ants and put them back into the outworld while trying to plug up the tube, and ants were escaping out of the out world as well with the lid off. While doing all this, I knocked it all into the floor. Ants everywhere and my plaster out world not being dry ran into the carpet . So I admitted defeat, and got the vaccum out. I sucked the ants up, threw the nest in the garbage. And didn't touch ants until almost two years later when I knew what i was actually doing.

Wow best one yet!