With its river valley, Edmonton has a lot of good habitat for ants, says Zachary Liu, a second-year biology student at McGill University in Montreal. Liu owns a business called Canada Ant Colony.
Edmonton's Scot Ellacott keeps up to 30 ant colonies in his basement. He manages a local ant enthusiast Facebook group with about 80 members.
The company sells ants across the country to research institutes, film crews and prospective pet owners."I kind of broke the ice when I came out publicly with my ant-keeping hobby," said Ellacott, who keeps up to 30 ant colonies in the basement of his home. Although timing of nuptial flights varies by ant species, in Alberta they tend to be between May and September.Ants have a highly evolved social systems, with queens, males, and workers. Although the workers are female, they can't reproduce. Ants are known to take slaves, conduct violent raids and go to war against other colonies.
"I like trying to buy gifts that are long-term and useful and the interest stays for a long time," he said.For years, there was a misconception that Alberta had few ant species, said James Glasier, an ecologist at the Calgary Zoo who studies ants.
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