March 14, 2002
Dead Ant Cam

I had an ant fetish for a while.

ant faust

I wanted to make a movie that was a re-telling of the Faust story in an ant nest. I turned one scene into a Tivo essay (I decided at the last minute not to send it in, a decision I still regret. Everyone won.

Fire ants executing an unwanted queen

Execution of a fire ant (Solenopsis invicta) queen. Workers immobilize an unwanted queen by pulling on her legs and antennae, then they gradually bite and sting her to death.

Last year I had an ant farm, and I set up an antcam--just a little QuickCam pointing at the farm, taking a snapshot every 60 seconds and ftping it to my web server. Unfortunately, all but two of the ants died within 24 hours. So it became dead antcam. For the next two months it updated the image of the dead ants every 60 seconds. I think that might have been an internet first of some kind.

dead antcam

Posted by jjwiseman at March 14, 2002 09:38 AM
Comments

If anyone is looking for some ant farms this site has some really neat choices - they are all made by the original Ant Farm makers.

http://www.PhatCow.com

Posted by: John on January 24, 2003 02:45 PM

Wow, all previous 50 years of ant farm technology pales in comparison. Ants never had it this good.

Posted by: jjwiseman on January 29, 2003 12:52 PM

I have a ant fetish and keep an ant farm. Before I set it up I drilled a hole at the level with the top of the loose soil mixture I placed in it and placed a rubber cork in the hole. Along with the regular ant food and dead insects I feed my "pets", once a week as a treat I coat one of my nipples (I have one inch nipples) thinly with honey or apple jelly (they love the jelly) and put it in the hole and let my buddies feast and sting for about 30 minutes. They love it and I love it. Happy to report they are thriving and will soon have to find them a larger habitat.

Posted by: Tara on September 4, 2006 05:45 PM
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