Something reeks of death along the forest floor.
It’s the body of a dying cricket.
Its skull had been crushed in, and its abdomen slashed to expose its fresh guts within.
Suddenly, the cricket bursts in a quick flailing of its limbs. Though the cricket had been executed
several minutes ago, it is still capable of movement because insect brains are made
up of nerve clusters called ganglia, which are located along the center of the cricket’s body.
As you’ll see later, even if its head were to be cut off, it would still be able to move.
But though this gory sight may appear gruesome at the onset, this insect has become a sacrifice
for a greater cause, and that cause is about to come swarming at any moment,
and you all are about to become witnesses to this great natural event: The Great Ant Feeding!
Welcome to the AntsCanada Ant Channel.
Please SUBSCRIBE to my channel and hit the BELL ICON! Welcome to the AC Family! Enjoy!
AC Family, behold, our carpenter ant colony known as the Redwood Warriors,
living in an AC Ant Tower ant farm, outfitted with wood. These lucky ants were the chosen colony,
based on a collective vote by you guys in a community tab poll, that will be
fed for the very first time, in a new and exciting way that is truly natural to them.
You see, usually the colony receives its food placed directly into their ant farm, but today,
these ants will receive a brand new hunting ground, a large living space we ant keepers call
an “outworld” which to the ants would simulate the outside world, where the ants could explore
and hunt for food. You guys will love their reaction to their new outworld as well as the
ultimate feeding event in their outworld, so do keep on watching until the end!
Alright, so let’s get to it! AC Family, it’s time we create a brand new and magical world for our
ants, a naturalistic living space they’ll love, an outworld that will blow their little ant minds!
AC Family, behold, the transparent universe that will become the Redwood Warrior’s new outworld.
It is called an AC Outworld from antscanada.com.
It’s a luxurious piece of ant housing tech. Let me show you around!
I love housing ant colonies in these AC Outworlds for several reasons. For one,
it’s got great side and top ventilation for the ants and organisms that will be living inside it.
It’s got a pretty neat cover perfect for ant keeping, with a ventilated lid,
a feeding chute for easy feeding, and an outer lid for placing an ant barrier like vaseline or
baby powder to keep the ants from crawling out when opening the outworld. The outworlds have a
lot of vertical space which is great for ants that love to explore varying altitudes, and they even
have a removable bottom floor in case you want to stack the outworlds on top of eachother to create
a super high living space for the ants. There are two entrance ports at the back here and here.
Alright, AC Family, and now it’s time to do what we do best!
Let’s give this outworld some life shall we?
First, I poured a layer of gravel along the bottom. This will act as a drainage layer
so the soils don’t become too water-logged. I used to skip this step when building terrariums,
but I would always regret it because watering always became a problem without it!
And after an hour of work, this is what the new outworld looked like.
AC Family, behold! The mystical Forest of Crimzonia, the new hunting grounds
of our Redwood Warriors. Isn’t it pretty?! Come, let me show you around!
Crimzonia is a lush world of plants, stones, mosses, soils, vines, and branches. One of my
favourite features is this lush moss carpet. It gives the territories a true foresty feel.
Rocky outcrops give the lands the feel of rough terrain, and the lush ferns growing along the back
create an awesome forest environment that I feel will make the carpenter ants
feel right at home! The most prominent feature of these hunting grounds though
is the white gravel path. It’s here where I hope to place the ants’ food,
right where we can see them! I love adding paths like this in my outworlds because it gives the
habitat a sense of dimension and depth, and I think it looks super darn cool, wouldn’t you say?
Here is what the entrance ports into the outworld look like here and here.
Alright, AC Family, I couldn’t wait to watch our ants react to their new
outworld. Do you think they’ll like it? Well, there’s only one way to find out!
It’s time to place in the food to begin the feeding process. In goes a wounded cricket!
As mentioned in past videos, I prefer to semi-kill prey insects because I find it’s less cruel,
and since the ant colony is still young with few members
it will be easier for the ants. Perhaps once the colony is much larger, and the ants have the
ability to kill the prey swiftly, I may consider offering prey insects somewhat more alive.
Alright, and now to plug one of the entrance ports with an AC Plug.
We can plug another living unit to this spot in the future. And in the other entrance port,
a tube, where the ants will be able to enter the outworld. And now all was set!
Send in the Redwood Warriors! Let’s open up the nest and have a peek! There they were!
Shining a light into the queen’s chamber, and wow! Look at all that brood! They were surely hungry
as it had been a week since they last ate! There were two ants above ground,
assumingly looking or waiting for me to feed them their next meal. Little did these ants
know they were about to discover a whole new world of wonder along with their next meal!
Are you ready, guys? Let’s do it! I removed the AC plug from one of the exit ports and
connected the tube. And done! The ants were now officially connected to Crimzonia! Let’s watch!
It didn’t take long for an ant to get a whiff of Crimzonia in the distance
coming from the exit port.
“That’s funny! There never used to be a walkway here!” The ant cautiously wandered into the tube,
and off it went.
This ant was surely brave! Imagine these territories were unexplored,
and everything including the very material of the tube was completely foreign and new to it.
Regardless, the ant pressed on following the scent of something alluring at the end of the tube.
I watched and waited patiently to film the ant’s titanic entry into
the uncharted lands of Crimzonia, but to my surprise it didn’t come through. What?
I checked the tube and spotted the ant running back home! Oh? I guess it wanted to inform the
others before proceeding further, or call for backup? Looking at the colony,
it was at this time that I noticed one of the rooms below had some funny growths.
Mold! Looks like this is where they were storing their garbage or leaving their droppings. Usually,
this mold isn’t too much of a danger for the ants because in nature little
critters like mites and springtails would eat this mold up. But in this sterile ant farm,
there was no such cleanup crew for the ants, which made the need for this outworld even
more imperative at this time, because the soils surely contained little mites and springtails
which would multiply in the outworld and eventually find their way into this ant
tower to eat up all this mold. I couldn’t wait for that biological balance to establish over time.
Another ant came right up to the end of the tube, but turned around. What gives?!
I watched a third ant come to the end of the tube, and also turn around. These ants were shy perhaps?
Later I watched two ants approach the end of the tube. Perhaps they would be braver as a duo?
They entered the port! Yes! They cautiously smelled around and… Awww! Still no entry!
One final ant wandered to the end of the tube,
entered the port,
and I held my breath as I watched the ant cautiously enter Crimzonia! Yes!
The ant explored the vast strange new world. New smells, it had never before smelled,
a wide space it never before knew was possible. Everything was magical and amazing to this ant!
It stepped onto one of the branches! It was so high up here!
For the next few moments I watched the ant explore the immediate area then make its way down.
At this point, I could tell the ant had explored enough for now and needed to report
these new territories back to the colony, but for anyone who wondered if ants ever get lost,
just watch this ant desperately trying to remember where the entrance to these lands was. It circled
around and around trying to find the opening it had previously come through. If an ant didn’t lay
down enough pheromone trail on the way in, it may have a hard time back tracking its steps.
Ahhh finally! Found it!
The ant made its way back home and reported the news of new lands to the colony.
But looking at the general reaction of the Redwood Warriors, the colony seemed luke
warm about the idea. Perhaps they needed more testimonies to get excited about it.
One ant decided to check out if the rumours were true! It cautiously stepped through the tube,
and made its way into Crimzonia. Bewildered and amazed, it too began to explore the territories!
The ants seemed to be really preoccupied with exploring the upper portions of the outworld,
but all I wanted was for the ants to stumble across our cricket carcass so they could dine!
There were times when the the ant was at ground level
and I had thought it had picked up the scent of our cricket
but it ended up turning away. Did they not smell their meal laying there?
Another ant entered the outworld.
The ants explored the outskirts. And then finally, I spotted an ant approaching our cricket offering.
Yes! Come on! Go for it! Go for it! Oh wait! No! Wrong way! Awww.
There were several points when the ants came so close but ended up passing our cricket by. My
guess was the ants didn’t have food on their mind at the moment and were more focused on exploring
these strange new lands we gave them. More ants were entering Crimzonia now and more ants
at home were beginning to show interest in the rumours of strange new lands beyond!
After watching the ants for several hours, and still no interest in feeding,
I decided to go to bed and check up on the ants in the morning! Little did I know,
it was in the morning, that I would truly get to witness the ant action I was hoping for!
As soon as I woke, I checked up on the ants and Crimzonia. The cricket was still there,
but had been moved from its original spot. It’s head had also been removed.
Checking the tube, I see that the ants had attempted to carry a leg back to the nest,
but decided to leave it there for some odd reason. Strange.
I peeked into the nest. Nice! Looks like the brood had their fill of cricket meat.
See the darker areas? The colony looked overall simply content.
I was sad that I had missed all that feeding action for their first night in Crimzonia,
but that was until I decided to offer some sweet jelly.
An ant found the jelly instantly. I suppose the ants had completed their exploration of the lands
and were now much more open to feeding. The ant filled up its social stomach,
then made its long trek back to the nest, leaving a pheromonal trail on the way back home,
through the tube, and back to the nest where it informed the others of the sweet jelly.
Soon two ants were feeding, and they too headed back to the nest
to confirm there was some delicious sweet jelly in the strange new world outside.
Soon there were three ants, and I was surprised to see an ant feeding from our cricket! Eventually,
Crimzonia became the site of a feeding fest for the Redwood Warriors. As I watched the ants eating
to their hearts desire, my heart was full! I guess it took some sweet jelly to really get
the ants excited about their new hunting grounds, which after thinking about it made so much sense,
because last week we fed them a lot of protein. It was the carb they were looking for most now.
Man, look at the ants feasting on that head!
Later, I peeked into the nest and was so happy to see our ants just full of food, and the babies
also quite full. And look! Looks like they went back to finally bring that cricket leg
into the nest to chew on! It must taste like delicious crab legs, what do you guys think?!
As I watched the colony going about their natural behaviours as they would in the wild,
I felt glad that I had brought them yet another step closer to a naturalistic way of life.
I knew it wouldn’t be long before this colony would explode in population,
and now they had a huge outworld in which to go grocery shopping! The outworld would also provide
the ants a new place to dump their garbage, where soil creatures would go on to further
break it down to thereby provide nourishment for the plant life in Crimzonia. We had
created a magnificent little biological system, which would only grow in splendor over time.
By the way, guys, real quick: if any of you have wanted to get into the ant keeping hobby with me,
and you are interested in a great beginner ant farm, these AC Ant Tower Smalls are now at 20% off
at antscanada.com until January 1st, as well as our ac Hybrid Nest Minis, and on top of that,
if you use the promo code “antloveforever21”, you get our Ultimate Ant Keeping Handbook e-book,
complete with care guides on specific commonly kept ant species, totally free, which you can add
to your cart before checking out! They make an awesome holiday gift for anyone who loves ants!
We ship worldwide and also offer full email support if you need our help!
Plus, if you didn’t catch a queen ant this season and need ants,
just visit the QUEEN ANTS FOR SALE tab to look for ant colony sellers in your area.
Just a reminder, if you’re outside the US, it’s too late for pre-Christmas delivery,
but if you’re in the US, you still have until December 17th to order to receive
your package before Christmas on December 25th. Regardless, this promo continues until Jan 1st,
2021 so order now, because we have a limited supply before they run out for the year!
I’d love for you guys to keep ants with me! It’s super easy and fun!
And so concludes another epic day in the Age of the Carpenter Ants on this channel. Until the
next epic ant story, thank you all for watching, and supporting the ants. It’s ant love forever!