I. - Introduction

The object of keeping is the ant as our pet. Ants do not belong to the category of 'animals' - ants are invertebrate insects and are not taken into account in the animal protection law and are worse off than neglected pets in Germany. Ants cannot or can only partially draw attention to themselves. If there is a shortage, an ant cannot cry "for help" or draw attention to itself by making noises. On the contrary: Ants are often misunderstood. The terrarium or aquarium enthusiast among you will certainly have dealt with these complex issues - because reptiles and fish also have their own language, which the owner must be able to interpret correctly. This makes keeping experience indispensable. For these reasons, continuous care and assessment of the ants is necessary. It should be checked at regular intervals whether the keeping conditions are appropriate. If in doubt, adjustments must be made. By law, there are only strictly protected ant species within Germany and a few species from abroad that may not be imported. If you violate this, you face high fines. There are no limits and no red lines in keeping ants. Every dealer/keeper has their own recipe, their own opinion and passes this on. After more than 23 years of keeping ants, it is still very experimental - many experiences disappear with older users, many similar questions arise every year. Many experiments are repeated because no information was sought elsewhere. Many things have already happened several times. What is "hyped" in modern Discord channels is sometimes 20 years old - or even older. In general, this reaches (enthuses) a mostly young, unsuspecting audience, which is supposed to generate traffic through likes or clicks. However, various experiments do not have any added value for keeping ants - on the contrary. They are more likely to motivate the improper keeping of ants. (Excursus:) Who evaluates this, you ask yourself? - The wear and tear of the keeper's ants, for example, provides information about his motives. Anyone who exposes a lot of ants to certain situations and circumstances for fun/for their own amusement - and if in doubt simply buys "new" ones - is not a role model in my eyes and should rightly be publicly criticized and reprimanded. Criticism that is often not welcome in public chat rooms due to a policy of cuddling. (...continue reading...) These experiments often fail - and even if they do, the ant Napoleons do not last much longer. The wear and tear on the ants is usually quite high. Over time, you will notice that we differ significantly from conventional keepers and providers in some points and "beliefs" and that we organize ant keeping differently. It is important to us to keep this once beautiful hobby with the many, multifaceted people behind it alive - and to be able to offer an alternative to the "mainstream". Unfortunately, a lot has been ruined by fast-moving messenger services such as Whatsapp, Facebook, but also particularly by dubious Discord channels with a number of shady characters. The silent reader is often the winner here - while the majority talk about the latest trash, argue about topics - and the ants, usually less than 2 meters away - starve or dry out. A standard saying of the typical channels: "Next time it will definitely work!" Little has changed since then. In the end, however, it is always the customer who decides whether to accept the given level (example: the goldfish in the spherical aquarium) or to strive for a different level of communication and attitude. We can only provide information about this as far as possible and uncover/identify grievances. Since there are no guidelines and restrictions, a high level of abuse is of course a daily occurrence within the communities and chat groups. Most people seem to get used to the circumstances - a smaller number find their way to closed groups. These groups are an important part of maintaining the values of ant keeping.