Ant Egg & Pupae Harvester

No, I didn't forget about the ant egg harvester from the Article on Escamoles.  There is a link over on the right to a survival article on collecting these ant eggs and pupae.  Looks like something I don't want to do so maybe this will prove easier, better and less to no ant bites. Here is the art of my concept...

Showing the whole unit above and magnified view beneath of the end at the flap section.  Basically as the link article describes and there are a few YouTube videos of people doing this sort of thing, we're taking advantage of the ant's natural instinct to protect its young.

We pile anthill dirt onto the cloth/tarp with a folded over edge flap and sticks leading into the flap on a sunny day. Ants immediately start to save their brood from the sunlight/heat by taking them into the nearest shady spot which happens to be our flap, using the sticks as pathways.  They do this over and over again, separating the eggs from the dirt out on the tarp.  We let them do their thing and then collect the eggs, free of dirt and debris.

Now I'm not one to go thrusting my hands down into an ant hill!  The ants that have taken up residence here in Arkansas over the past several years do not take kindly to intruders.  Their eggs and pupae are big and fat so I have to at least try this.

My design I think will help solve a few problems.  There is a half round length of PVC pipe glued into the bottom of the flap, the sticks and flap are set firm and there are handles as well as a brace between where the handles connect.

I vision this taking place.  Set the unit up several feet away from the target anthill.  Use a shovel, a long handled one, to transfer the anthill contents onto the tarp and let the ants do their thing.  After a time we lift the unit by the handles.  It is made so that when lifted, the tarp folds a the point of the brace.  This will make the anthill debris fall away on that side while all the ant eggs and pupae gathered under the flap fall into the half round pipe.  We then tilt it over a container so all we have collected falls or rolls out into the container, hopefully free of many ants to have to mess with separating.  I'm sure there will be a few but I imagine most of the ones left on the tarp or cloth will be clinging to it.

These are mean ants I'm dealing with and have to do everything to keep from getting attacked.  One little bit of disturbance sends thousands of them going out in every direction very quickly, looking for something to bite and sting.  I hope this works!  Recent inspection of a local hill shows the eggs to be growing and a nice size to try a harvest soon.

My prototype ant egg harvester is a piece of heavy camoflauge fabric, 4' wide x 5' long.  The half round PVC pipe, cut from 1' schedule 40 PVC is glued into the bottom of the flap and the 3/4" x 1' wood sticks cut from plywood are spaced at 1' intervals and glued to the fabric.

A strip of 1/4" thick x 2" wide plywood is glued and screwed to the wood pieces, glue is applied to the top of the strip and wood pieces and the cloth is folded over, pressed and glued.  After glue has dried another plywood strip is screwed on the opposite side of the fabric, edge aligned with the ends of the wood pieces.  This edge is where the harvester will fold and dirt will fall away when lifting to harvest the eggs.

Pipe clamps are formed from aluminum flashing and a length of 3/4" PVC pipe attached with screws onto the wood pieces, elbows glued on. Handles of 4' long 3/4" PVC pipe are left unglued for removal. 

Handles removed, it all folds up neatly for storage and transport.