Written By: Isabella B. at Woodside Library
Did you know that you can see California Harvester Ant colonies on display at two San Mateo County Libraries locations? The colony at the San Carlos Library sits at the children’s reference desk, while the colony at the Woodside Library resides at the front desk.
These harvester ants are native to California and build their nests in hot, sandy areas like the desert. They eat mostly seeds, but they can also eat dead insects like mealworms. They have a sharp sting, but don’t worry! In this interview with local ant expert, Christopher the Ant Keeper, he teaches us about what makes harvester ants super cool and why you should check out our colonies.
What's a surprising fact about ants that everyone should know?
Christopher the Ant Keeper: It turns out that there are about 15,000 species of ants and an estimated 20 quadrillion individual ants. Written out, that is 20,000,000,000,000,000. With an estimated 8.1 billion humans, there are approximately 2.5 million ants per person on Earth.
What's challenging about keeping ants at the library?
I would say there are two main things that make keeping the ants at the library challenging. The first one being that it can be hard to keep the ants contained. The second one is trying to accommodate the growing size of the colonies. Right now, the Woodside Library and San Carlos Library ant colonies are both on reference desks which have limited space. I am hoping that in the future I can help set the ants up with their own dedicated shelf or table.
How old were you when you first started keeping ants, and how did you learn to take care of them?
When I was around twelve years old, a small cardboard box that had a small colony of ants appeared on my property. My mother and I took an interest in them. We checked up on them, but one day they moved away. Years later I came across the channel AntsCanada, opens a new window, which has a lot of great videos about the ant keeping hobby. That’s where I learned most of what I know.
Why should people check out the ants at Woodside Library and San Carlos Library?
Having ants at the Woodside and San Carlos libraries provides a unique opportunity to see the inner workings of ant colonies. The only time any of us would get to see the inside of an ant colony is if we flipped over a log where ants lived. The problem being, when we see ants like this, we are looking at the ants running for their lives and their colonies in ruins. When you see an ant colony in captivity, you get to see what each ant does in their daily lives, not just when they’re panicked.
What's your advice for someone who wants to start an ant colony at home?
If anyone wants to keep ants, I recommend that they do lots of research about the responsibilities of taking care of an ant colony. As I mentioned before, a lot of older videos on AntsCanada's Youtube channel have lots of great information for starting or keeping ant colonies.
I would also say DON'T import nonnative ants. If you keep native ants and decide that you cannot care for them, you can always re-release them back into their native habitats. If you import nonnative ants and try to release them, they will either die off or become an invasive species.
Thank you, Christopher, for your ant insights! If you want to check out our ants in person, come by San Carlos Library and Woodside Library and see if you can spot Christopher the Ant Keeper, or even the queen ant, who are double the size of worker ants!
Looking for more information on ants? Check out these titles on how to become an ant keeper and start your own ant colony!
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