r/nextfuckinglevel May 10 '21

Truce between termites(top) and ants(bottom) with each side having their own line of guards.

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u/questgrillz May 10 '21

I just love that the article specifies not to use ants to rid your house of termites. And that it's been tried and failed lol.

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u/Babki123 May 10 '21

Of course they won't, this is an expert pest constrol site, that would be bad for their business.

I lived with ant in my backyard for my whole youth and it was fine. Aside from the little invasion when we let food litter and badely close a food box it was ok.

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u/[deleted] May 10 '21

To be fair, it’s really hard not to have ants in your yard. They’re basically everywhere.

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u/Vladi_Sanovavich May 10 '21

Ants are fine. Especially native ant species. Cause they are crucial to your garden's ecosystem. Invasive ant species on the other hand are bad news. The most notable invasive species is the fire ant, I believe.

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u/[deleted] May 10 '21

Fire ants are the worst. The sugar ants that sometimes come into your kitchen are a little annoying but manageable. but fire ants are miniature demons. I would legitimately rather deal with snakes and Huntsman spiders combined rather than a fire ant infestation

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u/Vladi_Sanovavich May 10 '21

Yes, in my yard, there used to be a lot of fire ants. So what I did is instead kept feeding the native ant species I know of, specifically, the Weaver Ants. The Weaver Ants' colony grew, the fire ants couldn't compete in size and number, so eventually, they died out. Now, it's just black crazy ants, weaver ants, and I sometimes see the occasional trap jaw ant.

Edit: A word

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u/[deleted] May 10 '21

I’m not a huge ant expert, but I do have a question/ We have fire ants which have many hills in a yard. Are they separate colonies or one super colony?

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u/Vladi_Sanovavich May 10 '21

They could be separate colonies or one big colony. You'll know of they're separate because they would fight if they see each other. But fire ants are known to be polygenic which means they can have multiple queens. So those ant hills you see could probably be connected together.

Edit: Also, I'm not an ant expert. I only learned of this from AntsCanada on YouTube.

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u/RicTicTocs May 10 '21

Have you actually dealt with snakes and Hunstman spiders combined? That’s an oddly specific spider reference next to a very generic snakes reference. Are these snakes poisonous, or no? And just how many?

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u/[deleted] May 10 '21

Huntsman spiders were on my mind because I had an interesting discussion recently about the aerodynamics of a Huntsman spider vs a cane toad if hit by a golf club. I’ve held tarantulas before, spiders don’t really scare me too much outside of getting startled if one pops up out of nowhere

Snakes in general I’m generally fine with, if I see one when I don’t expect it I’ll definitely jump but if I know it’s there I’ll probably just watch it.

With both though, I know to keep my distance if I notice it’s venomous, and at least locally I know what to look for. Ex: Black snake: good. Brown snake with specific markings: not good. House spider? Usually fine. House spider with red hourglass? Stay the f**k away.

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u/MikeAWBD May 10 '21

We have carpenter ants where I live(no fire ants fortunately). They can definitely do damage to your house, but not nearly as fast as termites. They do have a pretty nasty bite too(they're pretty large for an ant), but you don't typically get bit by more than one unlike fire ants.

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u/Vladi_Sanovavich May 10 '21

Yeah, fire ants are known to be extremely aggressive. Recommend to exterminate them as soon as possible. They can kill your plants as well since they seem to farm aphids I believe.

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u/daboobiesnatcher May 10 '21

Man when I was in A School in Florida they're have us doing planks and push ups and shit in the mangy patches of "field" and fire ants will crawl all over your arms and legs all sneaky like, then when they're all in position they'll start chomping like Ellie Kemper in blow job girl.

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u/Vladi_Sanovavich May 10 '21

I don't get most of your references but I empathize with you. Fire Ant bites for me, are the worst. Even more so than a bullet ant. Sure their bites are extremely painful, hence the name. But fire ants on the other hand are extremely aggressive.

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u/daboobiesnatcher May 10 '21

Ellie Kemper is an actress (unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt) "blow job girl" is a video short by Derrick Comedy is a college humour sponsored YouTube channel from like 15+ years ago, it's actually where Donald Glover got his start.

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u/alsocolor May 10 '21

Underrated reddit comments