Ants wake-up Summer is coming !!

  • Active since 1995, Hearth.com is THE place on the internet for free information and advice about wood stoves, pellet stoves and other energy saving equipment.

    We strive to provide opinions, articles, discussions and history related to Hearth Products and in a more general sense, energy issues.

    We promote the EFFICIENT, RESPONSIBLE, CLEAN and SAFE use of all fuels, whether renewable or fossil.
  • Hope everyone has a wonderful and warm Thanksgiving!
  • Super Cedar firestarters 30% discount Use code Hearth2024 Click here
Status
Not open for further replies.

Metsaman

Member
Mar 13, 2015
78
Finland
This is video on My notice what I did when I walk today in small forest road, this what I find there.

To view this content we will need your consent to set third party cookies.
For more detailed information, see our cookies page.
 
  • Like
Reactions: velvetfoot
I like your video's and these ants are called: Hairy wood ants or karvainen puu muurahaisia (Hope I didn't say something rude in Finnish):eek:

(broken image removed)
 
  • Like
Reactions: Metsaman
I like your video's and these ants are called: Hairy wood ants or karvainen puu muurahaisia (Hope I didn't say something rude in Finnish):eek:

(broken image removed)

Peoples here start to learn finnish... very nice. :)

No You don't but never hear before that "hairy wood ants" term.. ;)
 
We have large mounds of them too. They are called thatching ants.
http://www.naturenorth.com/summer/Ants/Thatching_Ants.html
There are so many of them that they create ant highways in our lawn. You need to be careful where you stand. If you block their way they will start coming up your legs.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Metsaman
"begreen, post: 1931424, member: 5"]We have large mounds of them too. They are called thatching ants.

In your reference did you notice this "(I didn't find out which of the many species I'd encountered so I can't expound of the species name at this point. We are referring to the same ant, but I've been more specific and you've given the general name for these ants.

In Finland they are called hairy wood ants, http://www.sekj.org/PDF/anzf42/anzf42-243.pdf

Distribution . Absent from Denmark and South Sweden; abundant throughout Norway and Finland and from Central Sweden northward. - Locally common in North Britain, local in South Ireland. - Range: northern Eurosiberia and European mountains from Pyrenees to Kamchatka and Japan, Italy to North Norway.

Biology. This is a robust active species. Colonies are often in groups with inter-connecting nests. It has similar habits to F. rufa HNS but is able to forage at much lower temperatures and replaces F. rufa HNS entirely from Central Fennoscandia to the far north. http://eol.org/pages/463474/details[/QUOTE][/quote]
 
Last edited by a moderator:
  • Like
Reactions: Metsaman
You're right, I'm no etymologist. They are called thatching ants in the northwest http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Formica_obscuripes, but are a different related species to the hairy ants of northern Europe. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Formica_lugubris.

Here's how ours are doing today. It's cold and rainy so they are mostly in the nest today. On a warm day the entire area is covered with thousands of ants.

[Hearth.com] Ants wake-up Summer is coming !!
 
Last edited:
Not ant related, but, hey Metsaman, I'm a Mets man myself! Baseball season started today! Winter is over, Spring has begun.
[Hearth.com] Ants wake-up Summer is coming !!
 
  • Like
Reactions: Metsaman
Scientists have after years of research on ant populations discovered many things about the contributions made by these tiny creatures. Finding large ant populations in certain areas of old growth forest indicates that the trees and the forest itself is intact and healthy. Having lots of ants living in areas with sandy and loamy soil indicates that those areas are clean of contaminants and pesticides, it also means that the soil and the land itself is healthy.
They have also been researching tree ants recently as a way to keep trees healthy without pesticides,(they kill most insects that come near the fruit) the problem is that ants don't like it when you take their (your) harvest. So harvesting fruit and nuts from trees that the ants populate has to be carefully done, and they haven't quite figured out how to do it safely.
 
I'm getting those nasty things here. More and more as the forest that was stripped has grown back on the north and east side of the house.
A couple tablespoons of borax will shrink a colony in a week.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.