2d ago

Myrmecology

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myrmecology

46 comments

The people that were doing this weren't using concrete...
They were using molten metal.
https://youtube.com/@anthillart
Extra panel
I always thought it was extremely hot aluminum poured into them.
Yeah, hearing about this technique for the first time was a ride. Like, yeah, it's kind of cool? But also, you're doing a genocide.
- Invasive ants can overwhelm and genocide native ants.
  A lot of the castings I've seen have specifically been done on invasive ants for this reason.
  
  I wanted to comment on fire ants for this (which are an invasive one). Anyone who has experienced fire ants would not feel sorry for a genocide on them.
- you're doing a genocide
  Yes, if you are dumb about it. Actual scientists doing this use abandoned colonies or move the colony first.
- Fire ants deserve it. Fuck em.
Hmm, would this work with any clear material so you could see the ants as they suffer? I mean, for uhhh... science?
- You'd pick up a lot of sand... Normally you'd use a metal like aluminum. You can sandblast that clean.
  But clear means epoxy. That stuff doesn't hold up very well under sandblasting. It can be done, but expect mistakes.
  
  "Normally"!? I thought it was a one-time thing for that famous youtube video.
- you can never see them "suffer"
  "Ants are not subjected to feeling the same pain humans do. They can recognize damage and respond to it, but they don't genuinely feel pain the same way people do"
  
  We found “strong evidence” for pain experiences in adults of two orders, Diptera (flies and mosquitoes) and Blattodea (cockroaches and termites). There was also “substantial evidence” in adult Hymenoptera (bees, wasps, ants, and sawflies), Orthoptera (crickets and grasshoppers), and Lepidoptera (butterflies and moths) [...]
  https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0065280622000170
  
  Couldn't you apply that logic to literally all animals including humans? Pain is just a sensation to make us respond to damage, the suffering part is entierly subjective and no one can be sure any of the other humans even are capable of it, we just assume its the case based on personal experience and empathy.
  
  What are you quoting?
I wouldn't think concrete is thin or viscous enough
Could be worse. Could be the guy filling them with copper or whatever molten metal it was on YT.
- I would probably prefer getting almost instantly fried by molten hot metal than slowly suffucate in liquid cement
  
  I think I remember that setting concrete has an exothermic reaction going on so you could be cooked as you suffocate.
  
  I suspect the amount of the nest that gets affected is larger. (Technically, IIRC theyre mostly there to exterminate the ants, it’s just becoming art in the process.!
- Probably a different instance to the one you're thinking, but I have not forgotten that TechRax video of him pouring molten aluminum onto live hissing cockroaches. I don't even know why he added the cockroaches, the subject of the video was the iPhone 6 vs molten aluminum.
  
  Oh yea, I still remember that one, I hate cockroaches, but that video kinda disgusted me. Like... why torture other living things for nothing?
  
  That’s horrifying, what the actual fuck.
  
  I think I was These guys. Could be wrong, but part of what they’re doing is removing nests that are problematic to humans (or our cattle.)

46 comments