These fire ants have no idea what’s up ahead for them!
This is the City of Ashes, the fortified territories of the Phoenix Empire, our 13 week old burgeoning
army of fire ants.
The colony quietly amasses more and more workers with every passing day, from eggs produced
by their Queen, the Ember Empress.
But as the colony grows, so too does their appetite, and today these unsuspecting, hungry
fire ants will be receiving the biggest, baddest plot of free real estate they’ve ever received:
some new lush, critter-filled hunting grounds, where we’ll be able to watch our fearsome
fire ants seek out and destroy prey in a way we’ve never seen before.
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Enjoy!
Guys, right off the bat, I gotta say these new hunting grounds we’re adding to Phoenix
Empire’s territories today, are hands down my favourite thing we’ve ever introduced
to the fire ants, whom we’ll be seeing in a totally new light after today!
Do keep on watching until the very end for the epic feeding scenes, and discover why
these new sacred hunting grounds were exactly what our fire ants needed!
Now before we watch our fire ants react to their new hunting grounds and hunt for prey,
let’s take a look at their current hunting grounds slash grocery store!
Behold, the Fire Forest!
This arena made from a kitchenware container is where I’ve been placing the colony’s
food, and where the ants have come to expect and collect my food offerings.
The ants don’t nest here.
They just come here to eat.
The ants are actually nesting cozily in their new Ant Tower, which we gave them last week,
and by the way guys, this Ant Tower needs a name, so please take a moment to VOTE here
from name suggestions you guys gave in last week’s episode.
Thank you, AC Council for your input!
Now when the ants are hungry, they send workers out through this tube, which takes them to
the AC test tube portal, then into the Fire Forest where I drop their food.
But here’s the thing, there are a few problems with the Fire Forest.
First, it doesn’t have good ventilation: no breathing holes, which is ok because I
open it every day to feed the colony, but what is not ok, is how much it smells!
The ammonia produced from their leftover garbage needs to be fanned away every day.
It’s actually poisonous for the ants.
Plus, I need to constantly go in and clean up the leftovers to reduce ammonia levels.
Also, the colony is starting to grow large enough that soon opening the Fire Forest every
day like this would lead to escapes.
So guys, as much as I love the Fire Forest and how well it has served us so far, it was
definitely time to give the Phoenix Empire some new, bigger, and better stomping grounds.
So check out the awesome new lands, I’ve created for them!
AC Family, behold!
I’m pleased to present to you the Phoenix Empire’s new sacred hunting grounds.
Isn’t it cool?
I think the fire ants will love these territories!
We’ll see, but before we officially connect it to the fire ants’ setup, take a close
look, guys: there’s actually more to these hunting grounds than meets the eye!
Let me show you around.
This rich and multi-faceted world was created within an AC Outworld from AntsCanada.com.
It’s platinum sands and boulders border living herbaceous seedlings, bushes of moss,
towering bark, and driftwood.
But guys the real magic of these lands is not what’s above ground, but what’s below!
This is what the hunting grounds look like from beneath!
Now check this out.
To make these lands, the first thing I needed were these guys.
Soil creatures!
In this soil sample, you’ll see beneficial mites, worms, and my ultimate favourite: these
pink gummy bear-like springtails belonging to the family Podumorpha.
Aren’t they cute?
These soil creatures were taken from our soil creature breeding facility known as the Nucleus,
from a past video.
Also in another container, I had more friends: a colony of the white springtail variety,
as well as some cute isopods!
This soil was taken from another ant kingdom of our Golden Empire, our supercolony of yellow
crazy ants.
Now both these teams of soil creatures will be vital to the hunting grounds and the entire
City of Ashes, because they will form the new housekeeping staff of our Phoenix Empire!
That’s right!
With these Phoenix Empire allies around, I won’t need to go in every day and clean
up the ants’ garbage and bathroom areas anymore.
They’ll literally be eating up all the garbage and poop the Phoenix Empire produces, and
even make their way into the Ant Tower, to keep the nest clean!
I dumped these soil samples with the soil creatures into the AC Outworld and organized
them in neat piles.
Fear not little ones, I’m making you a fantastic wonderland!
I then took more soil and connected all the piles with a lifeline soil bridge.
This soil bridge would be concealed underground, but would allow the soil creatures to travel
to the different piles without having to come up to the exposed surface.
The bridges also contained bits of activated carbon to help keep the soils purified of
any harmful chemicals.
I then added large gravel around the soil.
This large gravel will make it hard for the ants to dig into here to nest, and I placed
more over the soil bridges leaving the piles of soil exposed.
In those exposed piles I planted small seedlings.
Basil to be exact!
Now what’s super cool is the poop from the soil creatures we added, will be great fertilizer
for these plants!
I then placed a thin layer of fine sand over the gravel, and a slightly larger grain of
sand for texture.
I added rocks and leaf litter, and after some landscaping, the result was this bio-rich
garden and soil community.
This outworld is undeniably alive, and it’s time for our Phoenix Empire to discover it!
Now guys, this is where things get super cool!
Time to release the ants!
The Phoenix Empire will be able to enter the hunting grounds through these two ports, which
I’ll be connecting with tubing here to here, and here to here.
As for their water test tube, I’ll be moving it to here where the Fire Forest is currently
connected.
Here we go!
Removing the plugs and carefully connecting the tube.
Done!
Now to remove the water test tube, place the tube in its place and connect it to the hunting
grounds, disconnecting the Fire Forest.
Goodbye Fire Forest, and replacing it with the water test tube.
And now all was set!
Let’s watch the Phoenix Empire explore their new real estate!
Here comes the first ant now!
Upon discovery, “Umm…
Weird!
This doesn’t smell like the AC Test Tube Portal.
Time to inform the colony!”
She brought back a pal to check out the weird new space.
Soon, an exploration party began to scope the new grounds.
At the other entrance, an ant which was expecting to have a drink from the water test tube got
weirded out by the sudden un-water test tube-like space and went back to also inform the others.
Imagine how brave these scouts were venturing onto unfamiliar territory, filled with new
smells and creatures they’ve never before encountered.
It was practically a new planet for them!
News made its way back to the colony in the Ant Tower, which brought more and more curious
ants to come check out the rumours of new lands.
But after some cautious exploration, it finally kicked in!
“OMG!
These new lands are ours!” the fire ants realized as they switched into excited mode.
They ran along the sandy path and checked out the big boulders!
They climbed the bark, explored the mosses, and reported everything back to the colony
at home.
It was only a matter of time before a wave of ants would be coming, but now to make these
hunting grounds official, I added this:
A cut up mealworm to devour!
Soon a couple ants discovered it, and released the pheromone which summoned a whole bunch
of ants to come gathering, and as expected an ant trail began to form!
I loved how in these new hunting grounds, we could actually appreciate the ants’ trailing
behaviours better since the space was bigger, and speaking of bigger!
Check out who’s coming to deal with the mealworm now!
Supermajor on the way!
This supermajor follows the pheromonal trail heading to the site of the mealworm, and here
its job is to help cut up the mealworm’s tough exoskeleton and also help defend this
site from any large predators or scavengers, who might want to steal this mealworm from
them, or try to attack the colony.
Watching the ants swarm this mealworm was both intense and completely awe-inspiring.
For the first time, it was like we were watching the ants completely in their element.
We weren’t just watching ants in a setup anymore, but ants acting exactly as they would
in nature, as part of a system.
It was just a different context now, and I couldn’t believe how beautiful the sight
of it all was, as I stared and marveled with pride and appreciation for the ants doing
their thing.
Over the next few hours, I watched the Phoenix Empire work on the mealworm.
Even larger supermajors came, which surprised me.
As the ants were busy dissecting the mealworm, some ants began to dig below it, to try to
make it easier to work around the carcass.
When the ants were finished with the mealworm, this was what was left: Exoskeleton parts
in a pit.
Again, I loved that I no longer needed to go in and clean up this ant garbage, as it
could now be dealt with by the soil creatures, whose poop would then go on to feed our basil,
and hey, maybe when the basil is much larger, I can cut them and feed them to my prey insects
to complete the cycle!
I also loved that with garbage no longer an issue, I could now feed extra large prey items
that typically generate a lot of ant garbage, like this gigantic superworm!
I could drop it in different locations for the ants to find, and marvel again and again
every day, at the awesome trails they formed to and from the food.
By the way, a layer of baby powder mixed with rubbing alcohol painted along the upper lip
of the AC Outworld, kept all the ants inside, so I could leave the top of this unit open
for ultimate ventilation, which meant no stinky ammonia build up.
Now guys, I think you know what’s next.
What should we name these new hunting grounds?
Leave your best name suggestions in the comments, and I’ll choose my favourites for us to
vote on in a future video.
It warmed my heart to know that today our Phoenix Empire finally found their purpose
in this biodynamic world we created for them, where life gets reduced to ashes, and from
those ashes, rises new life, exactly like a Phoenix.
Thank you guys for watching, and for supporting the ants.
It’s ant love forever!
AC Family, did you enjoy today’s episode?
There’s so much more up ahead for the ants, so if you haven’t yet, do SMASH that SUBSCRIBE
button and BELL ICON now and hit ALL so you get notified at every upload, because I believe
notifications seem to be broken but the Youtube support team is on it.
Also don’t forget to hit the LIKE button every single time including now.
It would really mean a lot to me, guys.
Thank you!
AC Inner Colony, I have left a hidden cookie for you here, if you would like to watch extended
play footage of the Phoenix Empire devouring their superworm and first mealworm in the
hunting grounds.
The whole process is pretty amazing to watch!
And speaking of ant watching, how about owning your own colony!
It’s anting season, and nuptial flights start in the Northern Hemisphere this month!
Be sure to visit AntsCanada.com for all your ant keeping and collecting gear shipped to
you in a special package from our ant-loving facility in the USA, so you can get the most
out of your ant keeping experience.
We also offer full email support if you need our help!
Visit AntsCanada.com today.
And now it’s time for the AC Question of the Week.
Last week, we asked:
Name one sign that indicates the emigration to the Phoenix Empire’s new nest was official.
Congratulations to Dakarai Jacobs who answered:
When the lighter-coloured ants start to move
Congratulations Dakarai, you just won a free Ultimate Ant Keeping handbook from our shop!
In this week’s AC Question of the Week we ask:
Which of the soil creatures do you love the most?
Leave your answer in the comments section and you could also win a free e-book handbook
from our shop!
Hope you could Subscribe to the channel as we upload every Saturday at 8AM EST.
Please remember to LIKE, COMMENT, SHARE, and SUBSCRIBE if you enjoyed this video, to help
us keep making more.
It’s ant love forever!