Guys, you won’t believe this, but in this little container lies a piece of trash
that an entire colony of some massive ants, found to be a great place to call their home. You guys
will be mind blown when I tell you how I found them, and show you what the ant colony looks like!
Asian Bullet Ants have once again returned to the channel!
Please SUBSCRIBE to my channel and hit the BELL icon! Welcome to the AC Family! Enjoy!
AC Family, you know being an ant keeper is funny sometimes. There are days when finding a queen ant
or ant colony is super hard, and we end up almost losing hope that we’ll ever get to find new ants
for our ant farms for the season, but strangely, there are some days like what happened this week,
when an entire colony of ants just randomly show up at the most unexpected of times, in the most
unexpected of places. I’ll be showing you the massive ants that I now have in my possession,
but guys, be sure to keep on watching until the end because I’ll be asking all of you
for your opinions regarding this insane ant colony that I found living in my trash.
So, guys let’s carefully open this container, shall we?
Lifting the lid.
Now here you see a fast food take-out paper bag that I found laying on the ground,
due to falling out of an overly stuffed garbage bin in my yard.
Doesn’t seem like a suitable place for an entire ant colony to live, right? Well, if we open it up…
You’ll see living inside one of the folds is an entire beautiful colony of Asian Bullet Ants!
Can you believe it?! Look at the amazing details of their exoskeleton! They’re such an incredible
species of ant, and you will definitely think so after you learn a thing or two about them,
in a bit. They’re actually in the process of finishing off a piece of cockroach
that I fed them yesterday. They truly relish their meat, like a ravenous pack of wolves!
Now, at first, I had thought that this small group was maybe just a bunch of Asian bullet
ants that were just hanging out in this paper bag to rest perhaps, but no! Upon closer inspection,
somewhere under all those protective ants is brood! There you can see some cocoons which
in this species look like smooth grains of black rice. See them? This was in fact, a young colony.
And from this angle you can actually see a tiny larva there. There are also groups of
eggs under there, too, but I didn’t want to disturb them too much, especially because,
as their name suggests, their sting feels very painful!
Though I’ve actually held these ants before, they are still not ants to mess with, that’s for sure!
Now if you’re new to this species, you may be asking: “Ok so which one of these
ants is the queen?” Well, AC Family, you’ll be surprised to know that in this species of ants,
there is in fact no queen in the colony!
Yup! These Asian Bullet ants are unique in that they lack a queen in their colonies.
But now you might be asking:
“OK, so who’s the one laying all the eggs then?” Well, the answer may surprise you.
So check this out, guys! These rather huge ants belong to the genus Diacamma,
and in Diacamma ants, the one laying all the eggs is actually a mated dominant worker ant.
Somewhere in this group of Asian Bullet ants is what is called a Gamergate,
who is the only one allowed to lay the eggs in the colony and keep the colony going.
She’s still a worker ant, though, so she does actual work like hunting along with the rest of
the pack, and building tunnels, but remains the dominant ‘alpha’ female of the group.
Which one here is the Gamergate, I can only guess because they all look pretty much identical.
Only the Gamergate is allowed to mate with males and lay eggs, but other workers are constantly
trying to dethrone her via squabbles. I’m unsure what benefit being the gamergate offers,
perhaps their lives are longer if they become the gamergate, or maybe it’s just that innate
and instinctual drive for power and to lay eggs that cause workers to strive to become gamergates.
I actually have two Asian Bullet Ant Colonies, collectively named
the Black Panthers, back at my condo that I simply use to produce males
in order to continually cross breed the colonies so they can continue proliferating forever.
Because check this out, guys. When the Gamergate of a colony dies, suddenly her throne is empty,
which causes the most dominant workers to fight for the available spot to become the new colony
Gamergate, and that new gamergate goes on to lay the eggs, but she needs a male from
another nest to come in and mate with her, in order for her eggs to create more worker ants.
Without males to continually mate with newly crowned virgin gamergates
the colony isn’t able to continue on. Pretty fascinating right?
Anyway, because of their very unique non-queen social structure,
I find these ants behave more like a pack of wolves than an ant colony, and I’ve noticed that
they are less hive-minded than most ants. It does seem like each ant is more self-aware somehow,
each worker highly intelligent, less dependent on the collective mind than most other ant species.
Even when there are a few ants around like this, they seem to be able to make decisions swiftly and
confidently, whereas most ants require a swarm to come to a collective decision on things,
and communicate better when there are many workers present. But with these Asian Bullet ants
I find they can be just as efficient solo or in small groups, as they can be as a large colony.
I mean, just looking at them, it seems like you can almost see them thinking. Don’t you guys find?
Such a cool species of ant.
Alright, AC Family, so as mentioned at the start of this video, I’d be needing your
help with something regarding this ant colony, and it’s this: What should we do with them?
Do you think we should keep them, or let them go seeing as we already have two colonies
of Asian Bullet Ants? Or perhaps if we keep them, we can make our duo colony, a trio colony
so they can all cross breed and keep the Black Panther gene pool really diversified?
And if you vote to keep them, what setup should we keep them in? Should we place them into an
AC Ant Tower for now? Or perhaps an AC Hybrid Nest? Or should we give them a mini terrarium?
Based on our experience with the species, these ants will thrive in any of these options.
So guys, do let me know what you think in the comments.
I’m also totally ok to release these ants back into the wild, if need be.
Still, it’s pretty funny that I found this random ant colony residing within a piece of garbage.
Guess one man’s garbage can be another ant colony’s mansion!
Now don’t see this as a good reason to go littering, guys, alright? But it comes to show you
just how adaptive ants are sometimes. I can’t wait to see what you guys say we should do with them.
Now AC Inner Colony, if you want to see more footage of these truly amazing ants, I’ve left
a hidden video for you here! Go check it out! Be sure to watch some of our other videos featuring
the Black Panthers on this channel, too, so you can truly gain an appreciation for the species.
Finally, real quick before we go: Did you know it’s anting season in the Northern Hemisphere, and
you don’t even need to leave your home to start an ant colony?! You can catch pregnant queen ants
from the safety of your own backyard, balcony, or open window starting 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 ship worldwide and also offer full email support if you need our help! We also have a
helpful forum and ant colony trading marketplace on the site. Visit AntsCanada.com today.
Thank you all for watching and supporting the ants! It’s ant love forever!