Ants versus Crickets

Another video in the series of Ants vs .....

Looks like there is going to be more than one or two deaths from the pet ants with the introduction of three crickets into the ecosphere. And to think that I was worried about being bitten by a grasshopper. These crickets can be lethal. They might also be a bit amorous when it comes to ants. Check out the close-up.


Ants versus Crickets

Is A Grasshopper's Bite Dangerous?

Fresh from harrassing the neighbourhood wasps I had to water the grass and plants in the backyard. Just as I was packing up my water blaster I noticed a large orange and black wasp at the shed about 5-6 metres away. I soaked him well, aim isn't too bad, and we trapped him in a jar. Had an idea to feed him to the ants later.

He's a big critter, innit?

Upside down, Miss Jane.

Back to the job at hand. I did notice a grasshopper bounding about on the lawn. Grabbed him rather quickly and The Boy grabbed a jar to put him in. Just then another grasshopper appeared. We don't see too many of them so it was a bit of a surprise. I got hold of him in my left hand, hose still in the left, and I felt a half decent bite. Did have a quick look to see if it had been his leg that had scratched me but I'm pretty sure the little bugger bit me. He went into another jar and later became ant food.

I hope that a grasshopper's bite isn't dangerous.

Feeding The Pet Ants

I must have a sadistic streak. Either that or a very kind heart towards ants. As you may know we bought The Boy an ant ecosphere for Christmas. One of my biggest worries is providing them with enough food to eat and we have about twice as many ants as was suggested. So I try to give them quite a varied diet. And we have plenty of creepy crawlies about to make it interesting. Firstly they had a spider and then a big blowfly.

I fed them a live moth recently. It didn't take them too long to subdue and then devour.


Moth as ant food.

Next on the menu was a dragonfly. The Boy had caught a juvenile dragonfly earlier and they ate that pretty quickly. I grabbed an adult dragonfly and put him in with the ants. Talk about energy! He killed at least a dozen ants before he was subdued and eaten. In the morning he was nothing more than an outer shell. The ants carried their dead comrades away too.

Dragonfly as ant food.

Captured dragonfly.



Dragonfly fights for life.

Last night I came across a cockroach. A big, black, ugly bastard. Not that I find the big, brown, ugly bastards pleasant to look at. This one just happened to be black. He was easy to catch and spent the night in a jar next to the ant ecosphere. Probably had no idea what was in store for him. It didn't take too long for the ants to notice that the feeding jar had been changed and so a few of them entered. Before you knew it there were six to eight of them attacking the cockroach. He kept flicking his legs to shake them off. I was surprised that the antennae weren't targeted. Some 20 minutes later most of the colony were on the attack. It was beautiful. Better not look at the pictures if you're a bit squeamish.

Cockroach under attack from ants.

Cockroach up close.



Cockroach vs ants.


Cockroach vs ants II. Now it gets interesting.

New Ant Ecosphere

The Boy received an ant ecosphere for Christmas, among other things. It's much cooler than the ant mine that he had earlier. There are four spheres which we've set up with soil for tunnels, soil and grass for that outdoorsly living, hay for nesting and a pantry. The spheres are all connected by tubes.

Following assembly, no glue required, The Boy obtained some small ants. The instructions did warn us that the ants needed to be more than 3mm in length otherwise they would escape through the air holes. Well, I reckon ours were 4-5mm and they still escaped. Nevermind, there were some much larger, red-headed ants not far from home. Bit of sugar-flavoured, damp cotton ball to attract them. Pretty soon they were crawling all over the small container that we had to capture them in. Managed to get the lid on without getting bitten but did squash a few heads.

By the time we arrived home I'm afraid that many of them appeared a bit lifeless. Perhaps there was too much moisture in the container and they'd drowned. After two days inside the ecosphere only two or three ants, from the 30-40 we'd obtained, had ventured outside of the container. As they weren't interested we released them.

The next time we decided not to have any moisture available. The Boy didn't think that we would capture any ants with such small bait. Only a matter of minutes passed and there would have been close to 100 ants swarming around the container. I managed to get the lid on and between then and removing the ants on the outside of the container I happened to receive three bites. Little buggers.

A couple of hours passed and only a few ants ventured outside of the container. And there were 50-60 inside that container. So, we went outside to play soccer, washed the cars and had a water fight with water blasters that Santa brought. When we checked on the ants about half of them were running around the ecosphere. They are fascinating to watch. In the morning there were only two left and the rest appeared to have made their home.



Ant Ecosphere - a video.

That night I was surprised to discover a spider on the floor of the living room. Next surprise was that he wasn't dead. I grabbed him with the tweezers and put him in the food container for the ants. By morning there was no sign of the spider. I'd say he had been completely devoured.

Ant Ecosphere.

Ecosphere from below.

Ants up close and personal.

Close up.

Dried grass sphere.

Wall of death, ant style.

Ant Mine Earthquake

You all know that we have an ant mine. And sudden movement or a knock near the ants and they panic. Just a little. We also have a battery-powered massager. Put the massager together with the hard surface that the ant mine is mounted on and what do you get? An ant mine earthquake of course.

Ant Mine

Ant Mine Earthquake