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Posted by Les4toads on September 05, 2002 at 19:08:47:
In Reply to: Ant Question! posted by billshorneys on September 05, 2002 at 13:41:21:
:I have two questions about ants! I am curious as to how many people in this forum buy ants verses collect ants in the field! I live in Florida and have access to six
:Harvester ant nests. I collect ants two to three times a week. But my problem is getting stung almost everytime I collect them. A stick is to slow to let them climb it. The fastest way is picking them up with your fingers. I thought about using gloves, or rigging up a trap. Leave it and come back later to collect them up. I heard also people using a dirt buster to collect them. But it will suck up more than the ants, including, dirt, sand, leaves, sticks, ?. And I am afraid it will hurt the ants going through the system to the bag. My second question is, How do you collect your ants. I would like to hear how others do it! Thanks. Bill.
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:Hello Bill. I collect ants in the field during the active season (Spring through Fall). I have used the "chimpanzee" method for years, the old 'stick in the nest' method. It works fine and yess it is "dangerous" because you do stand the posibility of getting stung by the ants. But the ants are whole and healthy. There are other methods, such as baited pit traps, and apple near a nest as bait, or many other ways. The "dirt" buster hand vacuum works great also, but you have to do a slight modification to negate the extra stuff being sucked up also. I collect from 5 to 15 different genus-species of ants to provide the variety of ants in the HL diet. You may have some problem on meeting that variety because Florida is not in the range distribution of HLs. Getting stung by ants is just something you get use to after a while. You will find that you have to watch the ants very carefully to avoid such actions. I do mail order some ants during the winter if HLs in my study group "decide" they do not want to hibernate for the entire cycle. I guess HLs want to see if there is a Santa Claus :) So much for the humor. Lester G. Milroy III
