Powered by phpBB® Forum Software © phpBB Group
Powered by phpBB Social Network © phpBB SN Group
Deutsche Übersetzung durch phpBB.de
Time : 0.009s | 43 Queries | GZIP : On
Well, if we would try to keep them in Europe that would be no good, they don't live here in nature, but in the USA they do, so the danger of them escaping and taking over other ants species is not so big there as here, if you understand what i'm saying. ;)
But i can not help you with any advice for keeping them, no experience with this species. ;)
I should make the point that I'm not considering keeping these ants because I like the danger factor or think its 'cool' to keep such an aggressive species.
Also, for the same reasons that make this species so successful, I think their super high productivity would make them very entertaining and interesting.
I will probably end up destroying the colony or a portion of it to control the population. The last thing I want is a colony with tens of thousands of individuals. For what it's worth, their growth is not exponential, it's logarithmic (no pretension intended) ;)
Hopefully I can find a P. badius or Camponotus sp. queen, as I would prefer to keep one of these species.
Thanks for the feedback everybody :)
You can always return the colony to nature if it becomes too big for you, and catch a new queen next year. There is no real danger in keeping S. invicta, at least unless you are alergic. Otherwise a few escaped ants in bed can be just unpleasant surprise.
And remember Camponotus colonies can be also quite big, usually not more than 5000, but 5000 large ants need more place than 50000 small ones. However, their colonies develop slowly. Think about it like about a puppy - not how cute it is now, but what the beast it will become few years later. The difference is you CAN leave ant colony somewhere in forest, or give it to someone else, and this won't harm them.
Returning the colony to nature is a very bad idea. If you find you can no longer keep them just kill them off.
Hi is wright you know. Here in Belgium we (ant keepers i know and I) have a rule not to leave captured ants back in nature unless you captured them near your home, within 10km from your home. If you release captured ants back in nature you could harm the ecosystem also if the ants are native in you country.
But i rather give them to someone else than to kill them. ;)
I would never consider releasing fire ants back into nature. They are a huge problem around my area; native ground nesting fauna has taken a big hit from these super invasive ants.
on a side note: Ive been doing a bit of research on Camponotus americanus, theyre quite large and very cool looking. Anyone have any experience with these?
This is amazing- a fire ant raft (see link). These ants are so tough, its scary.
http://bugguide.net/node/view/30113
hmm i have seen something like this on the television in a nature program, it was very interesting, though these ants had delibratley entered the water in this form, in order to move down stream and find more/better food, they have adapted this form of water travel to aid the growth and well being of the colony.
hi darradar,i wacthed a program like that to. i found it quite intresting to hearing/wacthing them going down streams.........if there where only more programs about ants! :sad02:
@ ant dude: in deed, more programs about ants would be nice. ;)
@ Purifier: as for as i know not. but i can not say that for sure. Don't know which ants every keeper has.
@ CapitalO: very nice, the raft thing, did not knew that.