The Ant-Keeper
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I'm Stewart; I work full-time as an engineer and spend a ton of my free time keeping Ants. This blog serves as my knowledge dump, a place for me to write, and a place for you to learn. I write mostly about ants' behavior and about their likes and dislikes which can help you get rid of them.
The Ant-Keeper
3w ago
Confused about which type of bug you have in your house?
It may look like an ant, but many insects look like ants.
We understand that identifying different kinds of pests can be pretty confusing unless you’re a fancy entomologist, and we’ve written this guide to change that.
List of Bugs That Look Like An Ant
Termites
Winged termites
Velvet Ants
Furry Ants
Carpenter Ants
Beetles
Stone Fly
Some species of Wasps and Bees
The Bug That Looks Like An Ant
The bug which looks like an ant could be a termite, a winged termite, a carpenter ant, a velvet ant, and the list of other insects goes on.
Yo ..read more
The Ant-Keeper
3w ago
Like humans, ants have a body structure designed for specific functions to survive their daily hustles. But seeing their body size makes you wonder how they can carry all that heavy food back to their colony. Does an ant have a backbone? Is that the reason that the ant can carry THAT much weight?
All invertebrate insects, such as ants, have a body structure with three main parts: the head, thorax, and abdomen. Invertebrates don’t have a backbone, but ants are still strong enough to carry food that is upwards of 3000 times their size in weight without one.
Animals are called vertebrates if they ..read more
The Ant-Keeper
3w ago
The next time you see an ant, take a closer look. Notice how tiny these tiny creatures don’t seem to be breathing (or ever standing still). Leads us to question how they are ever able to breathe. It Turns out that ants have a unique way of getting the oxygen they need to survive.
Ants take in oxygen through spiracles and not lungs. An ant’s respiratory system comprises a set of holes, spiracles, on its exoskeleton. Through these openings, oxygen enters, and carbon dioxide leaves the ant’s body. The number of spiracles an ant has depends on the ant species.
We dug deep into the research t ..read more
The Ant-Keeper
3w ago
One of the most aggravating things we hear from ant keepers is that they have mold issues.
While some confess never having mold problems or being able to come to terms with them quickly when they do, mold remains a concern for others over time, leading to individuals abandoning the hobby.
Some people even buy/build suitable habitats and have the same problems with their new ant farms.
Ant Keeping Mold serves as a guide and how-to to fix these common mold problems.
How do you deal with mold during Ant Keeping?
To deal with mold during Ant keeping, you have three options. You can remove the sub ..read more
The Ant-Keeper
3w ago
Ant Keeping is one of the top new hobbies, and knowing which ants to start with is always a common question for beginners. Picking the wrong starter species can make starting this hobby incredibly hard.
The best ants to keep for beginners are found locally around your home because the ants you will see will be adjusted to that area’s climate, food, and water quality. Also, if you ever need to release the ants, they will be able to thrive in the local environment.
What Are The Best Ants for Beginners?
If catching ants to start your ant farm is not an option, the Messor Barbarus (harveste ..read more
The Ant-Keeper
3w ago
You’ve devoted a decent amount of time sheltering your little garden of plants with mulch beds when suddenly…
You detected an entire colony of carpenter ants making it their home!
For any gardener out there who uses mulch, we know this rings a bell.
Do not get freaked out by this undesirable discovery.
We know you may feel a little freaked out and clueless on how to start dealing with these darned critters.
Many methods are proven to work, such as keeping the mulch depth at 3 inches maximum to discourage ants from building their nests there, but if you’re on the lookout for multiple meth ..read more
The Ant-Keeper
3w ago
When you’re raising your first ant farm, no matter the ant species, everyone always wonders about moisture and if the ants drink water. There is also that nagging question of if ants need water, and if they do, how much water and how often?
Ants need water for humidity, moisture, and for hydration. Different ant species have different recommended amounts of water, but all ants need a constant supply of water to live. Many ants get most of their water from the food that they hunt or the food provided to them.
When should water be added to an ant farm?
Adding water to your ant farm depends ..read more
The Ant-Keeper
3w ago
The biggest ants among the 15,000 species are found hiding among the dinoponera species. Ants in the dinoponera genus measure anywhere between 1.2 – 1.6 inches in body length. They predominantly exist in the South American regions. Many, who think the biggest ant in the world is the bullet ant are wrong. The paraponera species, commonly known as the bullet ant, follow closely in size to the dinoponera species.
The biggest ant species is dinoponera, and the biggest ant in this species is the giant Amazonian ant. The Giant Amazonozian Ants are exclusively found in the countries of Brazil, Guyana ..read more
The Ant-Keeper
3w ago
Sleep is critical for a hardworking person like yourself to be active and do their work efficiently. As we all know, ants work tirelessly around the clock without seemingly taking any break or resting. While we can’t operate without any sleep, do ants need it? And if they do, how long do ants sleep?
Worker ants may sleep from anywhere from an 8 minute nap every 12 hours to over 250 one-minute naps in one day. The numbers vary considerably and are different than the queen’s sleep patterns. As ants sleep multiple times a day, they are polyphasic sleepers.
The sleeping cycles of ants are dif ..read more
The Ant-Keeper
3w ago
On any given day, you can walk outside and see ants running around your feet. We all know just how strong these insects are, but do you ever start to wonder how much they weigh? We know they’re small, but how many ants are in a pound?
On average, an ant weighs about 3mg. We know that there is about 453593mg in a pound. That means if we wanted a 1-pound bag of ants (and excluded the weight of the bag) we would be able to fit 151,198 ants into it!
Here is a chart that further breaks down more weight additions:
Pounds
How Many Ants
1
151,198
2
302,395
5
755 ..read more