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    Ant Farms. Ant Farms Guide. Ant Farms and Raising Colonies of Ants as Pets.
    Ant Farms. Ant Farms Guide. Ant Farms and Raising Colonies of Ants as Pets.
    Ant Farms. Ant Farms Guide. Ant Farms and Raising Colonies of Ants as Pets.
    Ebook130 pages2 hours

    Ant Farms. Ant Farms Guide. Ant Farms and Raising Colonies of Ants as Pets.

    By Tori Luckhurst

    ()

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    About this ebook

    This Ant Farm Book is a guide to keeping and raising ant colonies from your home.  It is the ultimate handbook for ant enthusiasts and any person that would want to keep and raise ants from home for any reason. It provides useful information and resources about ants and ant keeping.

    Born out of practical experience and thorough resear

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherIMB Publishing
    Release dateFeb 20, 2018
    ISBN9781912057245
    Ant Farms. Ant Farms Guide. Ant Farms and Raising Colonies of Ants as Pets.

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      Book preview

      Ant Farms. Ant Farms Guide. Ant Farms and Raising Colonies of Ants as Pets. - Tori Luckhurst

      Chapter 1.  Introduction to Ant Keeping from your house.

      Ants are wonderful creatures that you can find in any part of the world. Regardless of where you live, you will find ants there. They live in burrows dug by themselves. There are also some that live in woods, forests, tiny acorns, logs, crevices and cracks on the walls. They are available in a huge variety. For many people, these creatures are pests and should not be found around the home. But the truth is that they can be held in captivity for research purposes, fun and as pets. I and a lot of other people are keeping and raising colonies of ants from home and we found them to be captivating and sources of entertainment and wonders thanks to their secret way of living and organizing their habitat. Here, I am going to tell you more about ant keeping, the dangers in keeping and raising ants from home and why you should keep ants. I will also discuss regulations on ant keeping in various jurisdictions.

      The Dangers of Keeping and Running an Ant Farm from Your Home

      Growing a colony of ants from home is something that any person can do. Be assured that you will enjoy keeping, feeding and observing these little beings building and arranging their colonies just as we human beings do. However, before setting up a formicarium, you should bear in mind that there are some risks associated with ant farming. First, some species of ants sting and their bites are very painful. Thus, if you are keeping such species of ants, you should be very careful in handling them. You need to seal any opening that will create an escape route for these tiny creatures. They can easily escape from captivity and they can find any hole in the ant farm no matter how tiny it is. If they escape, they are likely to enter into your home in search of food.

      As a beginner in ant keeping, I wasn’t careful with my fire ants’ enclosure. I learnt the hard way when my child was bitten by a number of ants that escaped from their formicarium and found themselves inside my daughter’s room as they foraged for more food. It was a painful for the little girl which resulted in a hospital visit. An ant’s bite can cause different reactions on the body such allergic reaction, itching or a swollen leg or arm (depending where you are stung). Allergic reactions that are rare include, but not limited to, nausea, dizziness, tightness of the chest, swelling of the throat or tongue and troubled breathing.

      Besides, some researchers have come up with evidence that certain species of ants such as Pharaoh ants can infect human beings with certain diseases such as staphylococcus, cholera, tuberculosis, small pox, dysentery, pseudomonas and streptococcus. Certain parasites of animals and poultry also live in ants. Thus, if you are keeping ants, you should have a deep knowledge of the species that you want to keep. Don’t keep any species that is associated with any infection. In this way, you will forestall any possibility of getting any of these infections from ants. You should ensure that your formicarium is properly closed every time to prevent them from escaping. They can contaminate your food when they find their way inside your kitchen. Some of them also steal seeds from flowers and lawn beds.

      As a warning, ant keeping requires a high level of diligence. Though, it will not cost you much money or time to manage an ant farm from home, you still need to be very careful so that you will not expose yourself to any risk out of your carelessness.

      Why Keep and Watch Ants

      I am sure that quite a good number of people out there do not understand why somebody should keep and watch ants that are regarded as pests in hospitals and food stores. Another significant group of people see ant farms as toys meant to fascinate and amuse children. If you belong to any of these groups of people, I will say that you are mistaken. There are a number of reasons why you should encourage ant keeping and watching. Before explaining the importance of ant keeping, let me first mention that the practice did not start today or even in the recent past. Nobody can actually tell when ant keeping and watching started. But there are historical records to suggest that men have been keeping and watching for many, many years.

      The Greek mythology narrates how a son of Zeus – the chief god in Greek mythology – changed into an ant in order to win the admiration of a lady that he was in love with. As recorded in the Old Testament of the Scripture, the Christian Holy Book, King Solomon, the wisest of all the kings of Israel, urged his subjects to watch ants so that they would learn from their ways of life. Some ancient philosophers and historians have also written much about ants and their wisdom. Pliny is a typical example of a historian that wrote about ants’ wisdom.

      A Greek philosopher called Aeolian likened ant colonies and routes to the buildings and roads found in ancient Greece as well as in Crete. I am sure these writers would not have known how these tiny creatures behave if they did not watch any ant colonies. They have been observed and admired by men for their hard-work, team spirit, loyalty, patriotism, resilience, strength, organization, cleanliness and other qualities.

      There are a number of reasons why an ant colony can be kept and raised in captivity. First, they can be kept for study and research purposes. It is much easier to study the behavior and lifestyle of species of ants from home than to do that from their natural environment. When you have an ant farm in your home, your research will be more affordable and less time consuming. You don’t have to spend time and money moving from one location to another. It is difficult to see an ant colony in urbanized localities except species that live around the house and in the walls. This is because man, through civilization, has destroyed the natural homes of these creatures.

      Besides, many people consider them as pests and kill them with chemicals or other means once they find them around their homes. So, if you are studying ants and you don’t have a formicarium in your home, you are likely going to encounter more challenging situations than you will encounter if you have one in your home. With an ant colony growing in your ant farm, you will not be spending a dime on transportation.

      There is no better way of learning about the ants themselves than having an ant farm. Maybe you have read a lot about ants, their colony, caste system, colony lifecycle and others things about them. As it is said, seeing is believing. This means that you will not need any person to teach you what you can see by yourself. You will appreciate all that you have read about ants more if you see it with your own eyes. It is also a veritable means of learning more and becoming acquainted with the various species of ants.

      Keeping of ants enhances study about these little creatures. A lot is yet to be known about ants. Though some are deadly and can cause certain health conditions to human beings, there are some good ones that can be of good benefits to human beings. Ants are good natural insect and weed seed destroyers. Some species of ants feed on ticks and other insects. With more research on ants, a lot will be discovered about them and how they can be of great benefits to human beings.

      Schools nowadays have ant farms in their laboratory. Due to other school programs, children are not allowed much time in the laboratory to view these little creatures to their satisfaction. Thus, they are happy to have one at home. So, you will make your children happy if you are able to establish an ant colony around your home. Apart from that, having a formicarium will make children fall in love with the science of nature. The pleasure of experiencing nature has been destroyed to a greater extent by civilization and urbanization. Many people today have no opportunity of witnessing life in the wild. They only know of life that grows in skyscrapers. Consequently, seeing a colony of ants growing from first stage to adult stage in an ant farm will definitely help to ignite the interest of a child in the science of nature as it makes it possible for them to see nature unfold.

      However, as I mentioned above, it is important that you go for a friendlier species. I will advise that you stay around any time your child is viewing your ants. You know children are inquisitive by nature. They normally get into trouble or damage things in their attempts to explore the world around them. So, they may also expose your ants to danger, kill them or leave your ant farm open creating an escape way for them.

      Ants are also great teachers. Humans can learn a lot from their ways of life. It is impossible or very difficult to observe them from their natural habitat. Nobody can peek inside the ground, under rock, through cracks and crevices on the wall or inside logs and woods. Thus, the best way to see and learn from ants is to have an ant farm. I will discuss this later but suffice it to mention that you and your family can learn a lot from ants’ behavior.

      Ants are a good replacement for other conventional pets. Keeping certain pets such as dogs and cats sometimes interferes with family activities and causes a lot of distractions to the family. They require a lot of care. You cannot leave them and travel for a couple of days without having a person to take care of them. But this is not the same thing with ants. They don’t require much care. You can leave them unattended for days. There is no routine of removing pet’s faeces, bathing, taking them to the veterinarian and similar tasks. It is a fun hobby which requires little hard work.

      It can be entertaining and fun keeping and watching ants. Both adults and children are captivated by ants’ way of life. It is fascinating seeing these tiny creatures perform actions that are human-like or things which some other large animals cannot do.

      Raising a colony of ants from home is a good way of teaching children how to be responsible. Given that ant keeping is not very challenging,

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