Ants (and Rove Beetles ala Peter Sellers)

Hookahhead · Jun 29, 2019

Where I live we have 5% of the biodiversity in the entire world. I've been told that you can find more ant species on a single tree than all of Britain. I have never fact checked about the ants. We certainly have a wide variety. I've seen bullet ants a few times in the jungle, a local friend of mine has been stung by them twice in his life.

My favorite are the leaf cutters, ever since I learned they were farmers. I remember being truly fascinated with them the first time I watched them carrying leaves, flowers, and little berries back to the nest. One day I saw some carrying small fan leaves from my plants, I just had to move the plants away from the wall and they've not bothered them since.

Hookahhead · Jun 29, 2019

Rico Swazi · Jul 1, 2019

Bullet ants.... now there's a live and let die scenario. Your friend is lucky twice over. I agree leaf cutter ants are amazing. I believe (not sure) they used leaf cutters in the movie Them!

A friend of mine in Texas waded into a raft of fire ants during some flooding this past year. Described it as a thousand tiny needles on his thigh. Luckily he wasn't allergic but still swelled up like a stump.

The fact that fire ants will make a raft of themselves to preserve the species is fascinating to me. Many will die so others may live. They have no problem sacrificing themselve which is more than can be said of mankind.

7 billion people on the planet and very few (if any) would do anything close to what they do for the good of the community.
simply amazing

Microbeman · Jul 1, 2019

My treaty with the ants still seems to be holding. They were feasting on a dead insect outside my door the other day. It was in a spot were I would step on them so I moved the bug along with 200 ants with the broom. They did not seem to mind and put up with some loss of life as I accidentally tread on them. Most amazing.

nickman · Jul 5, 2019

Some amazing th8ngs I read in this thread

Rico Swazi · Jul 5, 2019

https://blog.4psa.com/humans-and-ants-may-have-more-in-common-than-we-think/

Listening properly to these stories may help us learn valuable lessons about sacrifice for the greater good, and our ultimate survival as a species.

Rico Swazi · Jul 7, 2019

not ashamed to say, If I were an ant, I would definitely be in that 25% category :laughing:

( read the link above to get the joke)

The presence of mutualistic ants greatly reduces bacterial abundance on surfaces of acacia leaves and has a visibly positive effect on plant health. Study results indicate that symbiotic bacteria colonizing the ants inhibit pathogen growth on the leaves.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/01/140115113243.htm

seems logical (to me) that ants can do the same for most plants including cannabis.
Time will tell as more growers seek mutualism over complete self-efficacy and control of their environment.

h.h. · Jul 7, 2019

It’s been theorized that yogurt was originally made using dirt from ant hills.

I’ve used in teas and mixes before along with a few ants. One of those “why not”
things.

Rico Swazi · Jul 7, 2019

need a pic of homer drooling with the caption, mmmm, ant yogurt

Microbeman said:
My treaty with the ants still seems to be holding. They were feasting on a dead insect outside my door the other day. It was in a spot were I would step on them so I moved the bug along with 200 ants with the broom. They did not seem to mind and put up with some loss of life as I accidentally tread on them. Most amazing.

Good to hear the treaty holds
Otherwise it would be Ants (and Rove Beetles ala Elmer Fudd)

https://www.supercartoons.net/cartoon/1153/elmer-fudd-ant-pasted.html
take the 's' out of the http

h.h. · Jul 8, 2019

http://www.youmustlovefood.com/yogurts-newest-topping-live-ants/

calisun · Jul 11, 2019

I use terro bait traps around the house. But in the garden they don't seem to work as well.
If I got a ant mound close to a plant I use citrus oil with a surfactant and some water. I just poor it down the mound.

Microbeman · Jul 11, 2019

h.h. said:
https://www.youmustlovefood.com/yogurts-newest-topping-live-ants/

lordy...lordy

h.h. · Jul 14, 2019

Microbeman said:
lordy...lordy

Next we’ll be eating bacteria...

Hookahhead · Jul 14, 2019

I'm pretty sure this is a robe beetle, can anyone confirm?

I've been reading about these little guys a bit more, i found this interesting.

A number of pesticides are not directly harmful to rove beetle adults includ- ing: fungicides (azoxystrobin, fosetyl-aluminum, and mefenoxam), Bacillus thu- ringiensis subsp. israelensis, flonicamid, Metarhizium anisopliae, azadirachtin, and spinosad [77]. Furthermore, none of the pesticides impeded predation of rove beetle adults on fungus gnat (Bradysia sp. nr. coprophila) larvae. However, the pesticides clothianidin, dinotefuran, imidacloprid, chlorpyrifos, and chlor- fenapyr are directly harmful to rove beetle adults. A follow-up study [78] re- ported that certain pesticides were directly harmful to rove beetle adults includ- ing: acetamiprid, lambda-cyhalothrin, and cyfluthrin whereas other pesticides such as, Beauveria bassiana, azadirachtin, and organic oils (cinnamon oils, rose- mary oil, thyme oil, and clove oil) were not directly harmful to adult rove beetles.

https://file.scirp.org/pdf/AE_2017080916233839.pdf

Microbeman · Jul 14, 2019

Hookahhead said:
I'm pretty sure this is a robe beetle, can anyone confirm?

View Image

Looks like a rove beetle. If it has longer 'tail stingers' it is an earwig. This is a common type in latin America. I already mis-IDed one but the stingers are quite long and I don't see them in your photo.

AgentPothead · Jul 21, 2019

This might be the right thread to ask in, my outdoor grow I have seen a bunch of ants along 1 side of the grow area, they are what I'd consider large for ants, maybe half an inch long and thick, reddish colored. Are these gonna be a problem? They seem to be on just the 1 side of the garden, and I didn't notice any directly on the plants themselves, but I was worried about roots possibly. I didn't grab a photo stupidly.

Hookahhead · Jul 21, 2019

Just keep an eye on them, they probably won’t cause any problems. They can cause issues by farming aphids, destroying the roots or biting the shit out of you. However, they can be beneficial as their tunnels provide irrigation/aeration and they are adding organic matter to the soil.

I had some ants get in 2 of my pots a few months back. I read on the internet to dust cinnamon around the plant. I didn’t really expect it to be very effective, but figured I’d try it until I could figure out something better. The next morning all the ants had evacuated and I never saw them again.

Rico Swazi · Aug 8, 2019

calisun said:
I use terro bait traps around the house. But in the garden they don't seem to work as well.
If I got a ant mound close to a plant I use citrus oil with a surfactant and some water. I just poor it down the mound.

Don't do that
Limonene is not good for the worms
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/004835759090009Q

what surfactant are you referring to?

Ants just want to do their thing, disturb their trails as others have stated and they will go somewhere else. The pics of the ones I showed earlier moved their nest in a matter of minutes. I spend a good deal of time observing nature and IMHO, they (THEM!) do more good than harm .

the ecosystem has a balance point

problems arise when a grower decides to move that point without considering the impact to other lifeforms.

Microbeman · Dec 29, 2019

In the past week I've had two rogue bands of small red ants [the most common in my microcosm] break with the treaty and attacked on the southern and western fronts, the bathroom and kitchen. They come in through the openings afforded by water pipes passing through the concrete. (Terran; I was going to say cement but you got in my brain)

Just prior to this we had cut down and removed a limón tree which was almost devoid of leaves from ant managed aphids. The tree had been left along with some broadleaf weeds as a food source for the ants>aphid web but it was reaching its end.

Marcos hypothesized the incursion was an act of vengeance but I think such response would be done with overwhelming numbers.

Once again putting out sugar water with boric acid seems to be working to teach the ants that this is my territory and they had best restrain their workers/soldiers. I can still hardly believe the almost immediate effect this seemingly has.

Ants (and Rove Beetles ala Peter Sellers)

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