On this channel, we get to observe our ants performing some pretty amazing behaviours.
We watch them move into new homes, we watch them battle enemies like mites, and we watch
them deal with the forces of nature, but perhaps one of the most fascinating and favourite
thing we get to observe is their feeding behaviours!
Usually, we watch our ants hunting and devouring cockroaches, and though they clearly love
them, cockroaches are actually not their favourite food to eat.
Though they do love their meat, their favourite food puts up less of a fight, is much easier
to transport back home, and is much sweeter to the ant palatte.
In this episode of the AntsCanada Ant Channel we observe our ants feeding on their absolute
favourite food - raw honey and show you how they manage to deal with this ant nectar from
the gods!
I will give you an update on every single one of our ant colonies, and there are a few
surprises ahead so keep on watching until the end!
AC Family, let's pop open those honey jars and see what happens when we offer our ants
what they love most, in this action-packed episode of the AntsCanada Ant Channel!
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Welcome to the AC Family!
Enjoy!
I love feeding our ants honey.
The Fire Nation, the Golden Empire, the Dark Knights, and our brand new but still unnamed
Trap-jaw Ants Colony, which by the way I have an update on later!
Our four beloved ant colonies seem to go crazy for honey.
I offer honey to our colonies about twice a week, as much as they will eat, aside from
their regular sugar water that's available to them.
Let's start with the ant colony we saw last week, our Golden Empire, now larger than ever
since colony fusing with a newly introduced 5 queen colony.
We have offered the raw honey on a spoon.
I offer ants raw honey which is a bit chunkier and thicker than processed honey.
It contains ground up honey comb which makes it less sticky for the ants, minimizing chances
of ants drowning in the honey which always happens when offering processed honey to ants.
Usually, I would recommend offering liquid sugar food in a test tube setup just to be
safe, but I have found that offering raw honey is safer as long as you offer only as much
as the ants can completely finish in one sitting.
Check out how the ants swarm the spoon and fill up their stomachs with the sweet honey.
If you're new to ants, this is how their food distribution system works.
The first ants find the honey and immediately begin drinking it.
Now ants have two stomachs.
They have their own personal stomach, as well as their crop or social stomach.
The ants social stomach is like an internal lunchbox for temporary containment.
As these ants are drinking the honey, they are filling up their social stomachs.
Once this social stomach is full, they then head back to the nest leaving a pheromonal
trail on the way home, so that once they arrive home other ants know exactly where to go to
find the honey, thereby calling for more ants to suck up all the sweet goods.
The more ants that can come out to drink up this honey the better.
They don't want anyone else to come along and steal their goods, so they work as fast
as they can to drink up all the honey!
So those full ants, also help distribute the honey in their social stomachs to other ants
who have not had their fill.
So through a process called trophallaxis as seen in this shot, they transfer the honey
through mouth to mouth contact.
Here the ant on the upper right is stimulating the ant on the lower left to regurgitate some
honey from her social stomach by rubbing her cheeks with her antennae.
This process of trophallaxis is also performed by other social insects like their close relatives
bees and wasps.
Trophallaxis is great because it ensures that 1) not all ants need to leave the nest in
order to eat and have a taste of the honey, thereby leaving more ants available to do
perform other important tasks like taking care of the young, protecting the colony,
and nest construction, and 2) trophallaxis also ensures that no honey or food is left
sitting around the nest, which is important in an underground society of animals that
live in moist environments and whose members live in close proximity to each other.
Having food laying around means higher risk of disease and mould outbreak, so what better
way to store food and keep it sterile than keeping it stored inside their own bodies
right?
Every time I offer the Golden Empire a spoonful of honey, so many ants come rushing out like
it's the greatest thing!
In fact, look what we have here!
One of the queens has heard news of the spoon of honey and she comes along to have a taste
of it.
She creeps around and goes in for a taste.
But, her minions rush her away, and bid her back into the nest where she is much safer.
She'll be having a taste of the honey later on anyway through trophallaxis.
In fact, by the end of this honey processing, every single member of the colony will have
eaten this honey, including every worker ant, alate, and babies.
Not a single member of the colony goes hungry.
it is all shared and distributed efficiently, and that is how ant food is always dealt with.
Isn't that amazing?
It's no wonder ants have managed to stick around since the days of the dinosaurs!
Now let's move on to a colony we haven't heard from for awhile.
Behold, the Fire Palace today.
The Fire Nation, perhaps our most popular ant colony has grown beyond my wildest imagination!
I had no idea a fire ant colony could get this large.
The ants mainly reside in the Fire Palace but there are so many ants now inside, that
when I place spoonfuls of honey, the honey and the spoon are gone in just a day!
The ant hill simply swallows it all!
I have to fish out a few plastic spoons soon!
AC Family, let's watch them enjoy this new spoonful of raw honey.
Now on to the dark Knights.
Perhaps some of you might not recognize this place where the Dark Knights are feeding on
this honey.
Well, I have some pretty cool news!
Remember how they used to live in 2 Hybrid Nests on the top floor.
Well the colony was starting to grow so big and feral ant colonies were starting to gather
round trying to get into their setup, that I felt it was time to expand their kingdom
by adding a mansion.
Ladies and gentleman behold the Crystal Mansion.
It consisted of completely transparent furnishings, including a test tube rack full of water and
sugar water setups, a glass container for food placement, and an Omni Nest Large placed
directly inside.
The Crystal Mansion itself was a rubbermaid bin.
Our other colonies had such large territories that it only made sense to also provide our
Dark Knights with their own large territory addition.
So as usual, I used light and heat to move the colony out into the Crystal Mansion.
Watch them move in!
Now the thing was, they moved out of their small Hybrid Nest as planned, but surprisingly
the colony would not competely move out of their large Hybrid Nest despite applying a
hot lamp close to the glass!
The ants actually relished the heat, and refused to leave!
I was surprised to learn that these ants can actually withstand some pretty hot temperatures
if they refuse to leave a home, and are not phased much by bright lights!
Talk about being built to live in tropical climates!
So instead, I decided to place their entire Large hybrid nest into the Crystal Mansion,
to allow them to move out on their own schedule.
So this was their new home for now.
And behold, they seem to love it!
They've drunk most of their water and sugar water.
It looks like it's time for me to replace their reserves.
And, they certainly love their honey!
Moving on now to our newest colony, which still remains unnamed.
So AC Family, please take a quick moment to click this icard here, to vote for your favourite
name for this trap-jaw ant colony.
You guys gave some amazing name suggestions for the colony, and I have chosen my top 5
favourites.
So now it's time for you guys to ultimate choose their official name, to be announced
in a future video.
Thank you, AC Council!
So despite their very menacing jaws which seem they are built to thrash, subdue, and
kill their prey, I was surprised to discover that these ants actually love honey!
Watch this ant drink a tiny drop of raw honey deposited on the side of their container.
And what I found cool was that they used their jaws to scrape and gather the honey.
The ants were trying to carry blobs of it home!
Check it out!
The ant grasps a blob of honey and it proves difficult for the ant to handle so what does
it do?
It mixes it with some soil, so it becomes easy to carry and then takes it home!
I assume from there it will either consume the honey and the soil or suck the honey from
the soil ball.
So smart right?!
These trap-jaw ants are pretty amazing!
And now for an exciting update on their progress.
Remember how we hoped that these ants would survive and grow to give us a big colony?
Well, AC Family, I'm happy to report that our steady diet of cockroach nymphs and honey
is really working out for them because deep in their nest I spotted 2 new pupae and a
growing brood pile, and their larvae are a cool shape with large hairs.
Isn't that cool, AC family?
This colony is very promising, and I anticipate that it won't be long before they grow into
a fruitful kingdom.
I will continue to keep you guys updated on their progress.
Our four colonies truly love eating their raw honey and providing them with a constant
source of sweet food has proved to be beneficial to their health and colony growth.
Many people write to our AC Team about why their ant colonies seem to not be doing so
well, and although everything seems to be right in terms of care, we often trace it
back to not providing enough sweet food like honey or sugar water.
So, if you're keeping ants at home, give them a gift.
Offer them some honey, corn syrup, sugar water, fruits, or hummingbird nectar.
Trust me.
Your ants will thank you!
Thank you for watching another episode of the AntsCanada Ant Channel.
This is AntsCanada signing out!
It's Ant Love forever!
Alright AC Family, isn't honey great?!
As a sweetener, I also love raw honey!
How about you guys?
AC Inner Colony, here's a hidden cookie for you, if you just want to watch a relaxing
extended play video of the ants drinking their honey.
And now it's time for the AC Question of the Week.
Last week we asked: What is mite phoresis?
Congratulations to Anna Linsangan who correctly answered "Mite phoresis is when a mite attaches
itself to another insect, like ants, and are carried to a new food source."
Congratulations Anna you just won a free ant t-shirt from our shop!
In this AC Question of the week, we ask: What is an ants' social stomach or crop used for?
Leave your answer in the comments section and you could win some free test tubes from
our shop!
Perfect for rearing your newly caught queen ants, since thankfully nuptial flight season
has started in the Northern Hemisphere.
Hope you can subscribe to this channel, as we release a brand new mind-blowing ant video
every Saturday at 8AM EST.
So join the AC Family and subscribe!
It's ant love forever!