‘It started from a hobby’: Meet the ant collector who left his job to open an ant shop
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'It started from a hobby': Meet the ant collector who left his job to open an ant store
Mr John Ye has been running his ant shop for more a twelvemonth. He says that reception from customers have gotten better over the years. (Photo: Gaya Chandramohan)
SINGAPORE: Tucked away in a corner of a Housing Lath estate in Yishun, adjoining a traditional Chinese medicine store, Mr John Ye's shop seems fairly nondescript from afar.
Merely take a closer await and you'll see a large tank of ants exterior. Mr Ye stands ready to share his wealth of cognition about the insects with whatsoever curious passers-by.
But Ants is the first concrete pismire shop in Singapore every bit far equally he knows, said the 41-year-old, adding that the number of ant enthusiasts here is growing.
"We take nigh 30 to 35 species of ants," said Mr Ye, ashe showed CNA effectually.
At least 10 tanks of varying sizes line the outside of his shop, each filled with a different colony of ants. They range from the most common Carpenter Ants to the invasive Anoplolepis gracilipes - colloquially known as Xanthous Crazy Ants.
A range of formicariums - small vivariums used to raise ants - stock the shelves at the dorsum of his store.
They include small examination-tubes holding the smallest colonies. The larger gear up-ups provide fauna comforts like tunnels and an "outworld" where ants go to fodder and hunt for food.
A starter exam-tube kit for a beginner emmet hobbyist could go for about S$12, while an established colony of 20 to 30 ants would sell for Southward$20. Rare ants, on the other hand, tin can go for upwardly to Southward$50 to S$threescore, Mr Ye said.
While some might bug out at the thought of keeping ants, Mr Ye's love for the insects prompted him to leave his previous chore of distributing wholesale electronics to fix upwards store early last year.
"It started from a hobby, a small hobby," he told CNA. "And so when I actually learned more than about ants, I was listen-diddled. I ventured deeper and deeper. So I thought to myself, why non start an ant shop in Singapore?"
Mr Ye's passion for ant-keeping is palpable.
Framed upwardly in his shop is a poem he wrote near ants. "Why keep ants they say. They are non entirely pests I say," information technology read. "Ant keeping tin can exist a joy. A lot more than fun than that boring toy."
Ant-related religious verses decorate the walls, while a giant pismire costly toy sits on elevation of a glass cabinet.
Then there is the display tank holding a one-and-a-half-year-former mature colony which Mr Ye uses for show-and-tell. Inside, tens of thousands of ants crawl over the soil base, similar scattered lines of marching troops.
"They are a very ferocious species," he said. "Although they are very small, there are up to seven sizes. The queen is about 2cm. This is what a nest would wait like in the wild, very simple in soil."
The ants in this tank tin can grow to a population of nearly ten,000 to xx,000 in almost a year, he added.
"Whatever's in their path they will take down. Information technology doesn't thing how big you are - fifty-fifty if information technology'southward a large lizard, they got a strategy to take down the enemy," he said.
HOW IT ALL STARTED
Mr Ye said his interest in ants started "randomly" in 2017.
"I was watching some videos online. In Singapore information technology'due south adequately new, only in Canada, the United States, information technology's quite a hobby. And then there's a very popular emmet channel in Canada - he'due south also a comedian - Mikey Bustos.
"He started the tendency back then, and he did a storyline for each ant colony. So every fourth dimension yous will (exist similar) - wah, what's the 2d episode similar?"
A few months later, Mr Ye found himself hunting for ants to beginning his ain colony. Merely information technology was only early last twelvemonth when he decided to up the ante to open up his shop.
Just Ants was previously at Woodlands before moving to Jurong East. Mr Ye thinks the current shop at Yishun Fundamental could be their "forever home".
READ: 'Some people think I'chiliad crazy': What makes Singapore's pismire-human being tick
The reception among customers is "getting meliorate", he said. "We have more than curious people - not ant-keepers - but (they're) curious as to what nosotros are doing."
While some have the misconception that he is selling ants as feed or that he is selling ant eggs, Mr Ye is unfazed.
"I will tune my frequency to them (to explicate)," he said, speaking in English, Standard mandarin or dialect depending on the customer.
Before COVID-19, they were "very well-received", he said, with schools as well equally the Singapore Scientific discipline Centre approaching him to talk about ants.
In that location are repeat customers who will come back to look for new formicarium or stock up on feed, said Mr Ye. He also runs an "ant hotel" where he will care for the colonies when their owners are abroad.
"We even accept an uncle (who started with us). He's 79-years-erstwhile. He bought a few colonies and he said he will spend hours observing them, taking pictures … He'due south very cute because he will proceed request me, 'y'all have any new ants?' I say, 'no more than, all you accept already'," he said.
Simply things accept non always been polish-sailing. Friends and relatives doubted him at first, many of them wondering if he was "basics". When he first started his hobby, he said his wife threatened to spray his ants with "Baygon" if they escape their enclosures.
Mr Ye was also initially worried about turning a profit.
"I know it will not be very profitable similar a full-time job equally in the workforce, but as time goes by, we thought of, well, passion would be ultimately over turn a profit," he said. "Of course we are not earning as much (equally) dorsum so in the workforce, but slowly we plant really little happiness in what nosotros're doing."
'It'South LIKE LOOKING AFTER A PET FISH OR HAMSTER'
A lot goes into running an ant shop. Not only does Mr Ye open up every day from 12pm to 8pm, except for public holidays, he also has to ensure a steady supply of ants for potential customers.
He sometimes finds his ants from the wild, where hundreds of them will be flight around lamp-posts after the rain. He volition then harvest as many ants as he tin to ensure that he captures queens which accept mated successfully.
Other times, he will commutation ants with fellow hobbyists.
One queen ant is plenty to start a colony equally they only demand to mate once to produce eggs for the rest of its lifespan, Mr Ye explained.
If yous are putting out feelers near starting a new hobby, Mr Ye said information technology is relatively "low-maintenance" for those starting out with one colony, although it comes with responsibilities. These include feeding them and maintaining the humidity of the formicarium.
"It's like looking after a pet fish or hamster. They have requirements," he said.
Each pismire has its own feature - some are friendly, some are ambitious - and then he provides a care sail for each species of ants that he sells.
Mr Ye hopes to ain more 100 species i day, including the Dinomyrmex gigas, the biggest ant in Southeast Asia which is native to Singapore.
"It'due south very therapeutic. My favourite part well-nigh keeping ants will be just looking at them, gazing at them … It calms my mind later a difficult day at work. They really soothe my stress," said Mr Ye.
"They are so adorable itch around, grooming themselves, it simply tickles me. Doing their daily stuff, their strategies, the characteristics, how they organise themselves and so uniquely," he added.
"It'south different every fourth dimension I look at them. Every scene, every chapter of their daily routine is totally different."
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Source: https://cnalifestyle.channelnewsasia.com/singapore/singapore-ant-shop-yishun-collector-hobby-244016
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