SINGAPORE — They loiter around void decks at night,
swooping in when they spot a prized catch. No, it is not Pokemons
they are hunting – these “collectors” are after pregnant queen ants
to kickstart their own ant colonies.
Keeping ants as pets seems to be slowly catching on among a
small community here. Since last December, at least 30 local
enthusiasts have banded together.
Like in Pokemon Go, there are varieties to collect and “hot
spots” where more-prized species can be found. More than 50 ant
species can be found in Singapore, including a rarer one called the
trap-jaw, characterised by its ability to open its mouthpiece up to
180 degrees wide and shut it in a snap.
Jurong Bird Park assistant curator Angelin Lim, like most local
hobbyists, got intrigued after stumbling in February upon a YouTube
channel called AntsCanada, which has been promoting the cultivation
of pet ant colonies using queen ants since 2009.
The 32-year-old told TODAY: “In my workplace, we feed our baby
birds with ant eggs, so I started out wanting to see if I can
cultivate them.”
But her plans were soon scuppered as she fell in love with the
six-legged critters.
“The more I learnt, the more amazed I got at how they take care
of one other, how they take care of their queen, and the hive
mindset. Their world is not me, I and myself, but me for the entire
colony,” she said.
So whenever it rains or when there is increased swiftlet, bat or
lizard activity, Ms Lim gets excited – as these are harbingers of a
queen ant flying out to mate – which increases her chances of
nabbing one.
Her biggest colony is made up of more than 10 worker ants, all
of which were laid by one queen carpenter ant.
Her newfound hobby, however, is not appreciated by many around
her. “My parents said: ‘What? You have nothing else to do, is
it?’”
The draw, said Ms Lim, her fiance and other hobbyists, is they
can relive their childhood adventures of catching spiders in the
field and guppies in the drain.
There is also joy in being able to build a colony big enough to
observe how the castes work – workers tending to hive’s daily needs
and soldiers protecting the queen.
Designing the formicarium (or ant’s homes) can also feel like
playing the once-popular computer game SimCity.
(Above) Member of the Ants Community Singapore Facebook group,
Joshua Tan, holding up two 3-D printed formicariums of varying
sizes he built at his workplace. He printed them using a 3-D
file of the design that's available online. The smaller one is
his prototype.
Ms Lim holding up a formicarium she built using plaster of Paris
fitted in a small fish tank she got for about S$5. Below is a
photograph she took in the process of her making
it.
Above) A formicarium made of a mix of clay and fine sand built
by Member of the Ants Community Singapore
While ants might seem like hardy creatures, a whole colony can
be wiped out by one wrong move, as Mr Muhammad Iskandar Riza Bin
Noor Affandi found out.
His six-month-old colony of seven workers and one carpenter
queen died last Monday (March 27) for reasons unknown, devastating
the 29-year-old lifeguard who started keeping ants eight months
ago.
At the peak, the founder of Facebook group Ants Community
Singapore had a colony of 20. He suspects they might have
suffocated because he used a cover that’s too thick to keep them in
the dark, which they prefer.
Antkeepers who want to get a head start without hunting can buy
their queens from suppliers. Listed on AntsCanada’s website are
seven ant “farmers” in Singapore, offering 44 colonies for
sale.
The biggest and most expensive at S$2,000 is a nest of over
1,000 yellow crazy workers with four queens, kept in a 0.6m
enclosure. A collection of 50 to 100 weavers is also going at a
high price of S$800, as queen weavers are harder to catch than
trap-jaws since they mate high up in the air.
Mr Chris Chan, a former shipping executive, started ant-keeping
a year ago. He supplies schoolboys starter carpenter ant colonies
consisting a queen with at least one worker for S$15 to S$30. His
biggest ant sale to date is a trap-jaw queen with five workers in a
small formicarium for S$250.
In what the 29-year-old said is a sign of the growing trend
here, he also managed to sell five formicariums he designed in
recent months for between S$40 and S$300.
One room in his rental home is dedicated to housing his
collection of at least 10 formicariums – each built differently –
and about 40 recently-caught queen ants, six of which are
trap-jaws.
His largest colony consists up to 1,000 red fire ants, known for
their stinging bites, housed in a large fish tank lined with a
paste of talcum powder and alcohol at its mouth to prevent them
from escaping.
Mr Chan’s dream is to be the region’s go-to for all things
ants-related, as it is an “in-thing in the US and Taiwan” at the
moment, but has yet to catch on in as big a way locally.
Even so, not all ants are pets to Mr Chan. Pointing to pharaoh
and ghost ants crawling across his room furniture, he said:
“Because of their size, they can squeeze through tight spaces,
steal all the goods and kill my whole colony.”
One reminder he has for beginners: “Keeping ants is as big a
responsibility as keeping dogs and cats; if you release captive
ants back into the wild, it can affect the ecosystem. Give them a
home, or don’t home them at all.”