Wow!
Guys, what you will see in this video is truly one of the coolest things we've ever done
on this channel, and I cannot wait to show you!
Today we explore this newly created massive, 35 ft long ant farm setup I designed to house
our newly caught Pharaoh ants from last week's video, and get this, it spans the entire ant
room winding through furniture and room decor with tubes that lead to some really cool living
spaces.
How has the new Pharaoh ant colony been adjusting to these new enclosed territories?
Did we catch a queen and are there any eggs?
We even discover the colony's very first world event that posed a potential threat to their
survival, so keep on watching until the very end!
AC Family, it's time to enter the interesting and unique world of our new Pharaoh ants,
and explore the new giant, room-sized territory we've made for them, in this eye-opening episode
of the AntsCanada ant channel.
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Welcome to the AC Family.
Tired of nature channels not showing nature shows?
Just watch this channel.
Enjoy!
Last week, we watched with bated breath as we formulated some cool traps to capture sections
of an intruding army of Pharaoh ants that were raiding our Garden of Eden, a terrarium
belonging our colony of Marauder ants called the Titans.
If you haven't seen last week's video yet, feel free to watch it here after watching
this video.
After isolating large sections of the colony, we were able to catch a good number of ants,
and turn the traps into actual terrariums, and as promised, it's time to show you AC
Family the home of our new Pharaoh ants, once enemies, but now friends.
But before we take a look at them, in last week's video, you, the AC Family, voted for
the official name of our Pharaoh ants.
AC Family, I am happy to announce that this new colony of ours is officially called the
Tomb Raiders.
Look at them!
Amazing!
They're still new in this setup, and they've chosen to camp out together in one area, but
we'll get back to them in a second.
Let's take our first walk through their majestic properties.
Alright, let's start here, in what I call the Valley of the Kings, named after the famous
valley in Egypt where, for a period of 500 years, tombs were excavated for the Pharaohs
and powerful nobles of the Eighteenth to the Twentieth Dynasties of Ancient Egypt.
It's a simple plot of land with soils from the Garden of Eden, so it contains Springtails
to help with breaking down any waste left in the valley.
I consider it the Tomb Raiders' valley area as it is the lowest point of their entire
property.
Moving up the west side of the Valley of the Kings we make our way up into Nefertiti's
Tunnel, named after the famous Egyptian queen, and it's here where our Tomb Raiders are camped
out now.
Not sure why they have elected this area as the main nesting camp, but they are really
digging Nerfititi's Tunnel.
Now, one of my concerns through all of this was whether or not we managed to catch a fertilized,
egg-laying queen.
Pharaoh ant colonies which can be absolutely massive can contain hundreds of egg-laying
queens.
The technical term describing this is polygyny.
Pharaoh ants are a polygynous species, and the queens themselves are daring enough to
leave the safety of their nests to actually feed out in the open with the rest of the
colony on site!
This was advantageous for us because during the whole trapping process last week, I did
make sure to capture a few queens, and look, here is one now.
But here's the thing, yes, we had queens but the question was whether these queens were
fertilized queens?
They could have been unmated, virgin alate queens which of course meant they couldn't
lay eggs and perpetuate the colony.
Without a fertilized, egg-laying queen ant, our Tomb Raiders would all die out in just
a few months.
But look, just two days after living in their new home, our Tomb Raiders are tending to
growing piles of brood.
It was great news to know that one of the queens in here was actually laying fertile
eggs.
It's hard to see through the polyvynil tubing but it does look like we have some eggs and
even larvae.
Check out the size of this larva which was filmed only 5 days after moving in, which
means it developed from egg to mature larva in just 5 days!
That is insane growth!
It seems our Tomb Raiders don't waste any time at creating workers.
I feel they're on the road to growing into a really impressive army!
Another reason why seeing this brood develop so quickly was a relief, was because when
Pharaoh ants hold their feeding raids, they leave all their young back home wherever they
are nesting.
A smart move, but because our trapping system last week involved using food bait to capture
our Tomb Raiders, none of the colony we captured contained brood, and considering that worker
ants only survive for two months tops, it meant that we would have a bunch of ants dying
out over a two month period and eventually nobody would be around to take care of the
succeeding generation of ants and the queens.
But, no need for us to worry about that now, as our Tomb Raiders are thriving in their
new home, and hey!
Will you look at that?
It seems some strangler Tomb Raiders from the outside, members who weren't caught have
discovered their family and are trying ever so desperately to find a way inside!
I'll tell you how I deal with these stragglers later, but let's move on.
Nerfititi's Tunnel opens up into the Tomb Raider's next home.
Behold the Garden of Anubis, another beautiful and simple living area with soils from the
Garden of Eden, also containing Springtails.
From here we enter the Nubian shelf which extends eastward, but also comes to a fork.
Let's take a moment to move upwards.
So check this out, AC Family, from the Nubian Shelf the Tomb Raiders can choose to climb
what I call the Pyramids Rise which takes them directly into a completely dry, desert
landscape of rocks and sands called the Rosetta Stone Desert, named after the famous ancient
Egyptian stone containing text written by a group of priests in Egypt to honour the
Egyptian pharaoh.
This neat desert terrain in the Tomb Raider's highlands is left completely dry.
The reason is because as a general rule, an effective ant setup provides the ants with
both a humid area and a dry area.
You essentially want to give the ants a humidity gradient, and the chance to hydroregulate,
meaning allow them to move to whatever area they want according to their humidity preferences.
This is important especially for the young, meaning eggs, larvae, and pupae, whose humidity
needs are a lot more critical to survival than the adults.
The Rosetta Stone Desert provides our Tomb Raiders with a dry escape if they ever need
it.
The succulent plant at the back is artificial and I don't intend to add any water or food
in here.
It is just barren land.
Perhaps the ants may choose to use this as the colony's sacred burial grounds.
We'll see.
By the way all of these terrariums you see in this video are designed with the help of
cool AC Biome Kits from our shop at AntsCanada.com, which contain various decorations to help
you design the perfect habitat and terrarium for your ants.
Another neat thing you might notice is the large rock positioned at the back.
Legend has it, that this rock is a piece broken off from ancient hydrostone from a past extinct
world in AC Lore.
Perhaps those of you AC Family, who have been subscribed to the channel for years may recall
its origins.
So let's back track to the Nubian Shelf where we descend down Cairo's Drop, and come to
Club Oasis.
Of course, our tomb raiders need fresh and clean water.
This hydro station which was built from an AC Test Tube Adapter and AC Test Tube offers
the colony some clean water at any time they need it.
What's interesting is that not every ant needs to visit it.
The Tomb Raiders simply send some messenger ants to drink from it, fill up their social
stomachs, then return to the colony to distribute the water through mouth to mouth regurgitation
transfer.
These ants act as living water servants visiting Club Oasis frequently and making sure all
ants, queens, and young are hydrated properly.
It's an effective system because it means not all members of the colony need to risk
their lives by leaving the protection of the camp.
Moving downwards we enter the Garden of Alexandria, after a good hydration, our Tomb Raiders can
relax in this space, on Garden of Eden soils before taking the longest trek in their setup
on their journey to the next terrarium.
Now AC Family, are you ready for this?
As we saw in last week's video, we learned that our Tomb Raiders love to travel and are
highly nomadic.
So from the Garden of Alexandria, the ants embark on a 25 ft journey up the Pharaoh's
Rise, behind my curtain, and across the great Bridge of Horus, named after the ancient Egyptian
sky god.
The bridge of Horus winds around my curtain rod and emerges in the eastern territories
of the Tomb Raiders, down into what I call the Osiris Underpass, named after the ancient
Egyptian god of the underworld.
I just love watching the ants traveling through this stretch of tunnel!
Coming from the other end of the Osiris Underpass we enter the Sphinx Staircase, and we finally
end here at the easternmost territories of the Tomb Radiers, a place known as the Field
of Aaru, named after the Egyptian mythological heavenly paradise to which souls who qualified
on their great journey in the afterlife remained to rest.
And this AC Family, is the vast home of our Tomb Raiders.
A 35 ft stretch of fertile land for the Tomb Raiders to enjoy and travel through.
Size-wise it doesn't beat our Dark Knight's territories which spans over 40 ft of travel
area, but for an ant whose workers are twice as small as those of the Dark Knights, the
Tomb Raiders actually have the bigger space to travel relative to their size.
And guess what, this colony is about to get lucky.
It's feeding time!
Today, I placed a pre-killed cockroach into the Garden of Anubis.
It wasn't long before the ants moved in to feast, not all of them of course, only the
food servants.
They would then bring the food back to the rest of the colony stored in their social
stomachs.
Now as the ants were eating, I noticed something strange.
Wait a sec.
Oh no!
AC Family, look.
Alien mold!
This is very bad news.
Oh boy!
It looks like our Tomb Raiders are about to head off on a rough start.
Stay tuned next week for the continuation of this epic ant story!
But hey, if you enjoyed this video and want to help these ants out, be sure to hit that
like button, leave me a comment, share this video with your friends, and if you're not
AC Family yet, what are you waiting for?
Hit that SUBSCRIBE button and bell icon to be notified every time we upload a video.
AC Inner Colony, I've left a hidden cookie for you hear, if you would just like to watch
some extended play footage of our Tomb Raiders living in their new setup.
Now, before we proceed to the AC Question of the Week, I have an awesome announcement
to make!
The holiday spirit is in the air and as we do every year at AntsCanada, we are having
our huge Christmas Sale on select items from our shop!
This year our brand new Hybrid Nest 2.0 and our All You Need Hybrid Nest Gear Pack are
15% off!
Yes, 15% off these brand new items, so if you've always wanted to get into ant keeping,
I have left links in the description box to these sale items so you can pick one up for
yourself or someone you love this Christmas.
We ship worldwide, but just a reminder, you must order before Dec 18th to get your order
before Christmas so go get it asap!
But if you're not fussy about getting the item before Christmas day, this Christmas
sale as usual will continue until January 1st, 2018 and we also have gift cards in case
you would like to get your special loved one an ant setup but are not sure what they would
want.
I'd love for you guys to keep ants with us on this channel and discover how amazing these
creatures are in real life!
Alright, and now it's time for the AC Question of the week!
In last week's video we asked:
List any one of the phases of our ant trapping process!
Congratulations to NoNameNation who correctly answered:
Phase 6 - Captivity!
We also accepted:
Phase 1: Locate The Site Of The Colony Phase 2: The Line Of Death
Phase 3: Setting Of The Traps Phase 4: Removal
and Phase 5: Precautionary Maintenance
Congratulations NoNameNation, you just won a free ebook handbook from our shop!
In this week's AC Question of the Week, we ask:
Name any one of the sites in the Tomb Raider's Setup.
Leave your answer in the comments section and you could win a free ant t-shirt from
our shop!
Hope you can subscribe to the channel as we upload every Saturday at 8AM EST.
Please remember to LIKE, COMMENT, SHARE, & SUBSCRIBE if you enjoyed this video to help us keep
making more.
It's ant love forever!