This summer's hobby is going to be ant keeping. Why, well it started with a random YouTube video and seemed harmless enough even if slightly eccentric. I now have four test tubes with ants in them.
What does it take to keep an ant? more than I realised to be honest, it is all about creating and maintainng an environment which they are happy to live in and providing the things they would go and get from the outside world in the wild.
Here is my beginners toolkit, a few test tubes, some honey, tweezers, cotton wool, bottled water and a magnifier so that I can see what they get up to.
I have bought this with the money which was refunded from a planned trip this weekend which I had to cancel due to the train strike so hope this pastime will be cost neutral.
It is possible to go and pay large sums for exotic colonies of ants from around the world, that is not what I'm doing, mine are a little more local than that and many what you night find in your garden. I have purchased two very small colonies and two single queens in the hope that one might survive my ham-fisted beginners efforts.
I also hope to be lucky enough to manage to capture a queen from the wild during the summer and see if I can build a colony from her but that is maybe getting ahead of myself so I will report if I have any success in finding one.
If I was a local ant, I would be running scared right now.
Comments