Hi guys, my name’s Jordan, and in this video, we’re taking a look at a massive ant colony
of mine, housed in a meter-long terrarium, living alongside an abundance of plants…and
other invertebrates too.
They are Pheidole, commonly known as big-headed ants.
I’ve been raising this colony for over 3 years now.
If you’ve seen some of my older videos, you’ll be quite familiar with them and their
upbringing.
But, just to recap, they were originally raised up from a single queen, found during nuptial
flights, and then housed within a test tube setup.
A few months later, the queen’s first generation of workers finally arrived, and the colony
was underway.
Because these ants are polygynous, meaning they’ll gladly accept more than a single
queen within their individual colonies, once this colony had reached around 50 workers
or so, I added in a couple more.
As they matured, they started producing soldier castes.
Very odd looking ants with huge dis-proportionally sized heads.
So you can see where their common name of big-headed ant comes from.
At this point, the colony had three queens and was expanding incredibly fast, they even
started producing some winged reproductive ants, known as alates.
It soon became a real challenge to provide them with the nesting space that they required.
And so, I got to work on building them a new, more permanent, home.
What I came up with was a naturalistic dirt setup, with a few rocks and plants.
The ants happily moved into this new environment, and have been thriving ever since.
Today, over a year later, the desert themed terrarium, which I originally envisioned,
has become overrun with plants and has transformed into a lush, green, forest-like environment.
And the ants have been growing alongside the plants equally as fast.
I estimate, they must now have tens of thousands of workers strong.
Below the surface, you can see just how productive they’ve been.
Tunnels wind their way all around the setup, each leading to chambers packed full of brood…
This one here is full of pupae, the second to last stage in an ants’ development.
You can see they vary in colour, from a bright white, to a light brown.
The darker ones are the furthest developed, very close to transforming into their final
stage, an adult ant.
Judging on their size and shape, all these ones here, are destined to become workers.
But they’ve been producing more than just workers too.
Lately, they’ve been giving rise to more alates, and quite lot of them too.
Here in Melbourne, Big-heads tend to have their nuptial flights in autumn.
This is where all the alates leave their nests, fly up in the air, and mate with alates from
foreign colonies.
This year, on a warm and humid April evening, the conditions were perfect.
Wild colonies from all over were flying on mass, and so too was my colony!
The alates would crawl up the plants as high as they could, and take off.
Most of them managed to work their way up and out of the tank, and then proceed to fly
out the open window, positioned directly behind the terrarium.
But there were some who were struggling to find their way.
So I carefully collected up all these stragglers, and later, released them outside.
Not all the alates made it out safely, however.
Some encountered some trouble along the way.
Spiders.
Lots of spiders.
I knew there were a few living in here, but I had no idea there were this many.
It’s as if they sensed them coming.
They all made the most of the opportunity.
Each eagerly entrapping as many as they could.
Some with several, all to themselves.
The flights went on almost every day for two weeks straight.
I couldn’t believe just how many alates the colony had.
It was like an endless stream.
There were hundreds, possibly thousands.
Night after night, I collected up containers full of all the stragglers, sending them free
out into the wild.
So they could potentially spread their genes, and bring rise to new colonies of their own.
Essentially, giving back to mother nature.
It was such a satisfying and humbling experience.
Although, as good as it felt contributing to the survival of their species, it became
a little tedious collecting up all the ants scattered across my room, all because they
couldn’t find their way out open window.
So, when they fly again next season, I want to be a little more prepared for the event.
What I think I’ll do is encircle the top of the terrarium with some sort of fine netting,
and then have it fit up to the window, making that their only exit point.
We’ll see how it goes…
What I love about Big-heads, and part of the reason that this colony has progressed as
well as they have, is that they’ll eat just about anything.
Whatever I place in, these ants are all over, within seconds.
They love their fruit.
Once every few days, I’ll place in an apple core, and within an hour or two, they’ll
have tunneled all the way through.
Getting at all the sweet juice within.
They also love legumes, like beans and peas.
Leaving nothing but the waxy skins behind.
And they adore seeds, like chia, quinoa, and especially seeds which have fleshy elaiosomes.
Big-heads are often referred to as “Harvester Ants” as they often collect, and store such
seeds in little granaries within their nests, saving for later consumption.
Some of these seeds inevitably end up germinating before this can happen, and within the humid,
nutrient rich conditions of the ants’ nest, they thrive.
So by collecting and storing these seeds, the ants inadvertently benefit the surrounding
plant life, and once these plants eventually mature, they’ll then drop their seeds, and
the mutually beneficial cycle continues.
They’re really quite important seed dispersers within many ecosystems.
These ants also go crazy for nuts.
Their favourites of which are, almonds and walnuts.
I usually crush them up into to fine bits, so they can just pick up the fragments and
take them straight down into their nest to feed their hungry brood.
But every now and then.
I’ll just split them in two or offer them whole, and just watch the colony employ their
soldiers, to come out and break them down.
Their huge heads are full of muscle, making them perfect for cutting and crushing even
the toughest of foods.
And of course, big-heads love eating other bugs too.
And they aren’t fussy with what.
From mealworms …to dragonflies.
They even went for this massive slug here, which must have come in on a piece of wood
I placed in as decoration.
At first, the ants would clumsily get stuck in the slug’s slime, and end up getting
smothered to death in the sticky stuff.
Not the nicest way to go.
But later, the ants cleverly began placing little bits of substrate over the top of it.
The slime would then soak up and off the slug and into the substrate, allowing the ants
to freely bite into its flesh, and proceed to slowly kill and consume it.
So, with big-headed ants, anything goes.
It’s no wonder they’re so widely distributed and diverse.
Currently there’s over one thousand different species listed with their genus, of Pheidole,
and likely a whole lot more still waiting to be discovered.
Making them, not only the most diverse of ants, but of insects as a whole.
Despite the colonies success, I’ve noticed some mold and fungi accumulating around the
setup.
Normally what I do solve this problem, is introduce a “cleanup crew”, in the form
of isopods, worms, millipedes and springtails.
These bugs are great additions to a terrarium, as they actively feast upon mold, fungi, and
rotting vegetation.
Keeping the environment nice and clean and healthy, for all its inhabitants.
And sometimes, I’d even see them going for the ants’ food too.
And they’d peacefully be eating side by side.
Today, however, the ants have completely taken over.
Occupying virtually every crack and crevasse throughout the terrarium.
There simply isn’t any place for these helpful bugs to hide.
So the cleanup crew, tends to end up, as ant food.
Once they’re spotted, the ants quickly spread the word, and within seconds, they’re completely
covered in these little fiends…They do their best to escape, but, the ants are relentless
in their pursuit…Eventually, they grow exhausted from all their struggling, and then, the ants
freely move in for the kill…
So now, without a cleanup crew.
I’ll need to develop an alternative means of keeping the terrarium free from excessive
mold and fungi.
If you guys have any suggestions on how I could proceed, please leave me a comment below.
So, I hope you’ve enjoyed this brief look at my Big-headed colony.
I just love these little guys.
For any of you out there who are interested in keeping ants, I highly recommend giving
Big-heads a go.
Their willingness to eat anything, their small size, inability to sting, fast growth rates,
and the fact that they can be found virtually anywhere in the world, makes them very beginner
friendly ants.
I highly recommend trying a naturistic setup like this terrarium out as well.
You obviously won’t be able to see as much of the ants’ nesting activities, but for
some, watching the ants come up to forage, and maybe occasionally seeing tunnels and
chambers up against the sides, is more than enough.
And aesthetically, is hard to beat something like this, the greenery really livens up the
room.
I’ll be doing a how to guide on how to set up, and maintain such naturalistic environments
in an upcoming tutorial.
So stay tuned for that.
And now, as promised, we’re running another contest!
First, let’s reveal the winner of last videos entry.
Last time, I asked “What do you find most interesting about ants?”.
Quite a tricky question to answer, I know.
There’s just so many fascination aspects to ants, it’s so hard to pick just one.
I’d have to say, what most interest me, is the fact that there’s around
20,000 species of ants, and each one unique.
Some, so drastically different from one another, that it’s like comparing an elephant to
squirrel.
Like the massive, Bull Ants, and the super tiny, Shield ants.
Or, the arboreal and sure sighted, Green Tree Ants, and the almost entirely subterranean
and virtually blind, Dracula Ants.
Their immense level of diversity is truly remarkable.
I’ve read through all of your comments, and I was quite touched by your responses.
It was great to get a better understanding on not only why you guys like ants, but also
on how they’ve positively impacted your lives.
I think a lot can be said on the therapeutic value of caring for, and observing these little
creatures.
I had a really tough time picking my favourite answers.
So we thought we’d offer some runner up prizes too!
So congratulations to…Rebecca Howells…and Joshua Ray Simpson…You’ve both just won
yourselves one of our size 1 acrylic nests!
Perfect for a young colony or a founding queen.
And finally, the main prize goes to…Anthony Reynolds, congrats!
You’ve won yourself one of size 3s!
For the next videos contest, I want to know, “what your favourite ant species is, and
why?”
To enter, just leave your answer in the comment section below.
We want to see pics of these favs too!
Simply post a photo you’ve taken of them on Instagram, and make sure to tag us “antsaustralia”
so we can find it.
We’ll pick out a single comment here, and a single photo over on Instagram, and the
winners will each receive one of our size 3 acrylic nests!
Best of luck guys!
As always, thanks for watching this video and I hope you enjoyed.