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Also some species of wood ants are protected species in many countries in Europe. It is illegal to keep them as pets.
(not all species, so it is possible to legally keep wood ants, but it's "advanced antkeeping" in my book, and you'd get as much enjoyment from a carpenter ant species, and they'd be much happier)
The First Law of Antkeeping:
"If you open a container that has ants in it then ants will come out of it."
Some ants can sting, some cannot. All ants will try to bite, but only a few have a bite that would cause pain for a human.
Oh... I would NOT recommend trying to keep wood ants as pets. Generally speaking field ants do very poorly in captivity. They are creatures of the forest and have very complex needs (for example many antkeepers discovered their colonies of wood ants wouldn't thrive unless supplied with pine needles and resin)
Also their colonies are massive. So unless you have an "ant room" you don't have enough space to really let them thrive.
But that was the age of mail order ants in the back of comic books. I think if you live in the US it's much for fun to keep carpenter ants.
You do need to give them bugs to eat, which can be a deal-breaker for some, but they don't sting so you can interact with them more.
It's possible to keep many other species. Learning about your local ants and how to raise them is part of the hobby!
If you mean the green "Uncle Milton" farms of mail order fame those were harvester ants, Pogonomyrmex occidentalis, specifically. These ants can be shipped without much issue as they are very hardy and they can live on seeds making them easier to feed than ants that require insect protein or live prey.
They also have a nasty sting. But, you need to really ask for it to get stung (unlike fire ants who will just sting you by way of saying "how's it going?")
This is a great gift.
Get it for the kids you know, get it for your partner, get it for your mom.
Buy ten and give them to everyone.
Would love to see another book like this about other charismatic species. Weaver ants?
Leaf cutters?
So many ways to expand on this idea.
The illustrations are carefully crafted digital drawings and very accurate. A lot of care went into making this book. I kind of wish I could have grown up with it, at first just enjoying the images, then reading more and more of the details and captions to discover the secrets of these very common but amazing ants.
The ants featured in the book are from the forests of Europe, but you can find similar species in the pacific northwest.
Five Stars! Excellent Book!
Book Review
"The Ant Collective: Inside the World of an Ant Colony" by Armin Schieb
If you love insects, nature or ants you should get this book. It's dense with diagrams and illustrations that cover every aspect of the lives of wood ants, the famous ants of temperate forests who build pine needle mountains and have massive colonies.
Kids can enjoy the illustrations but this isn't a book made just for kids. The anatomy diagrams are some of the best I've seen.
Ants come alive on this fabulously illustrated journey into the heart of a bustling colony
(press.princeton.edu)
Probably not illegal to sell these ... props. But it's very obvious the intended use, and their ideal customer, is someone who is selling fake drugs. Possibly sketchy weight loss "clinics" who might sell one-off injections of things they claim to be name brand drungs... possibly online sellers who will push this stuff out to the desperate.
And maybe that's who I could tell about this. Drug companies. They are wicked and powerful.
I can learn to think in this new economy.
I don't see how it could be those drugs when they need to be stored and shipped cold.
I'm actually a huge fan of aliexpress for somethings. You are always buying from the particular person who sells the thing and there are some good little shops.
However there is also... well this.
*hand pops up*
"I'm done!"
It's not even a particular compound or brand... just vials of "stuff" they do not explain that clearly is meant to be rebranded and sold as fake ozempic or whatever.
I really hope it's just water or something.
I don't know what this is but it seems very bad it's being sold on aliexpress for $18 These are... vials for injecting a drug.
There are many similar products, and you can even get them custom with logos of your choice!
What's in them? Oh you know "Weight loss peptide" (???)
Kinda seems like maybe this shouldn't be sold ... anywhere? This is where people are getting these fake drugs in bulk.
With the tariff on drugs coming what could go wrong?
Is there any way to report this?
Doesn't she hang out with Maxwell now and teases her about not being able to pet the puppies?
We can learn something from this. It might be one of those lessons where you think "let's never do that again..." or maybe not. We won't find out if you stop her.