Location, Location, Location
Well, where do I start.
Firstly, thanks for stopping by and checking out Gamergate. The modern ant keeping blog.
For most of my life I have been fascinated with engineering systems and processes in some form. I've spent over a decade keeping marine fish and the extravagant filtration systems that are required to keep a thriving marine reef alive. I work in the manufacturing sector creating and supervising the systems that are required to efficiently and effectively produce a product on time and on budget. I've enjoyed the challenge of building my own house and the litany of wiring required for a 21st century smart house capable of taking over the world, among other things.
A short time ago, after observing some little brown ants with different sized workers in my backyard, I had a great idea. Lets start an ant farm.....
The first thing I did? Well I Googled "ant farm" of course. The results were fairly poor and I was surprised with the lack of information available. After a few days of research I felt the fixation around ant keeping growing.
I discovered that you could maintain a growing colony of ants by obtaining a queen ant and providing a suitable nest for her to lay eggs and eventually start her own colony. To say I was excited was an understatement. The idea of creating a growing, thriving colony of ants was bliss.
After several days of research I discovered that Australia is currently known to have representatives of about 100 genera and 1300 described species and subspecies of ant. I'm also very fortunate that I have access to some real Australian "bush". And as they say, location really is everything. After spending a few days looking for ants in the environment shown in the photo above, I was able to catch my first queen ant. It was on a very hot summer day. Approx. 35 degrees C. I had no idea what type of ants she was and needed help to determine the species of ant.
I managed to find a nice community of ant keepers at www.formiculture.com. I posted a photo of my new queen on the site and within a day or so someone had identified her as a Camponotus consobrinus. A large, somewhat aggressive ant that is very common in Australia. They are commonly referred to as "Sugar Ants" for their love of sugary foods.
From there I've extended my ant collection and no host dozens of ant species. All local wild caught Australian queens.
I hope you enjoy reading through this blog. We'll endeavour to keep it updated regularly with new and exciting products coming onto the market related to ant keeping but also include some interesting information about ants in general. Hopefully satisfying the hole in the industry.
Thanks again for stopping by. Enjoy Gamergate.
