Guys, meet my new young weaver ant colony, whom we’ve raised from just a single pregnant
queen ant, we’ve named the Jade Empress. The colony is now composed of 14 or so worker ants,
and a tonne of brood. The colony has been growing quite steadily in this plastic
bottle over the past month, and I’m thrilled to get this far in the colony founding process,
because this is a very difficult species to raise in captivity like this. But, guys,
this week, I discovered that I needed to make them a terrarium, because having
only this plastic bottle simply wasn’t going work, and I’ll be explaining why later. But,
I’ll be needing your help with designing the best terrarium for our weaver ant colony here,
so we could give them the best shot at survival in order to grow into a thriving weaver ant colony to
one day rule in a tree under our collective love and care! Welcome to the AntsCanada Ant Channel!
Please SUBSCRIBE to the channel and hit the BELL ICON. Welcome to the AC Family! Enjoy!
Guys, this moment came sooner than expected. I made a discovery this week that made me
come to the tough decision to make a pretty significant change in the living setup of our
beloved weaver ant colony, which is currently doing so well! What we do from here on in,
guys, will determine whether or not our weaver ants succeed and continue to grow and thrive
or die out, like many budding weaver ant colonies do in the wild and in captivity.
But stay tuned for the official vote towards the end, as we make a very big choice regarding the
design of their future terrarium which we all will start building for our weaver ants today.
But now, let’s have a look at our weaver ant colony since we last saw them!
AC Family, behold, the Jade Empire. This was the winning name you guys voted for in last week’s
video. The Jade Empire, I rather like it, and hey it matches the name we gave to our Jade Empress.
A very simple and straight forward name pairing, I’d say. Thank you all who
participated in the vote. From now on we will call this weaver ant colony the Jade Empire.
So the Jade Empire is currently involved in a very critical transition right now. This is because the
colony with it’s now 14 or so workers, and growing brood, have actually been feeding on real food
over the past week. Before this, for the past month, the colony had been subsisting
on the queen’s self-made nutritious soup made from liquified muscle tissues in her back.
During that really tough time when the queen’s body tissues raised the first set of workers on
her rationed self-made soup, the queen and babies never ate actual food. But in last week’s video,
with the arrival of the first generation of adult worker ants, known as nanitics, we actually
offered the colony their legit first meal. They ate a cockroach, and after the video uploaded,
I saw the colony had also fed from our sugar-water test tube a few days later.
So, from now on, all worker ants born are no longer called nanitics;
they’re just normal workers and will be stronger, bigger, and longer lived, simply
because they will have been raised on real food. As you can see, Her Majesty, our Jade Empress,
is looking quite content with a fattened gaster. Bet, she’s loving all the nutrients from the meals
she’s been having all week. Her brood pile is also looking much bigger now. The workers
all look energetic and wonderfully fueled to do their daily work due to the nourishment.
But, AC Family, I also discovered something else, something that concerned me. After the
Jade Empire had finished the roach, I noticed the bottle had acquired a really foul smell,
when I went in to remove the leftovers. Not only that,
but if you look carefully, you can see that now that the colony has been feeding, the ants have
established a bathroom site towards the opposite end of the bottle. All of this was concerning me,
because I felt at this stage, the ants’ food and biological waste was beginning to pose a danger,
likely producing copious amounts of ammonia in their bottle which is definitely poisonous.
I knew we needed to change the setup, and we needed to do it immediately. This, AC Family,
was what pushed me to make the decision to make a change to their living space. The Jade Empire was
clearly doing well all this time in this bottle, and it seemed this bottle was so far providing
them the perfect living environment, so I didn’t want to move the ants out of it yet, however
there were two things I did need to provide now that the ants were at this stage of development:
They needed ventilation! Up until this point, I was just opening the bottle every day for a
few seconds to allow for some oxygen to enter and carbon dioxide to leave.
However, with the bathroom area and food waste being dumped inside the bottle, ammonia
needed an opportunity to escape, and The ants needed an ‘outside’ area,
a spacious living area they could emerge into from the nest, where they could not only forage for the
colony’s food, but also dump their garbage and possibly even establish an outside bathroom area.
These two provisions would ensure, the ants don’t poison themselves,
and my intuition told me, they were ready for this next phase: the introduction into a terrarium.
And so AC Family, it was time to do something I’ve been waiting to do for this colony for a very long
time. It’s time, I, Your Creator of Worlds, create a terrarium suitable for a weaver ant Empire.
Behold, the empty shell of a terrarium which will become the new kingdom
of our Jade Empire. It’s a tall terrarium with a mesh top,
which opens from the front, and the top. Before building the terrarium, I placed
cotton in the crevices and areas that I felt might provide the ants an opportunity to escape.
Alright, and now let’s begin! I added gravel for a drainage layer.
I then added some carbonized rice husk for soil nutrients and purification.
I then added some soil.
A rock.
Driftwood.
Some moss to make the space look and feel a little more natural.
And done! This was it for now. What do you think?
I know not too elaborate and pretty basic right? Yup, well that’s on purpose,
because all of you guys are going to help me with decorating this further, so hang tight.
Alright, and now to add the colony inside.
I placed the bottle up in the driftwood,
and placed the sugar-water test tube somewhere towards the driftwood’s base.
AC Family, let’s watch!
I caught a brave ant wandering outside the bottle.
Hmmm… This place is a bit peculiar.
Perhaps somewhat spooked, it reentered the bottle to tell the colony of the strange new world that
existed outside. No ants came to wander out of the bottle again, however for the rest of the night.
I decided to place in a small food bowl into the soil nearby,
and in case the ants were hungry for some meat, I placed in a housewarming gift - a
pre-crushed cockroach. There you go, Jade Empire. Hope you enjoy your new home.
Alright, AC Family, and now that the ants were in their very basic terrarium,
now it’s time for the fun part, where I’ll be needing all of your help and opinions.
It’s time we choose what plant we’ll be planting into this terrarium
which, fingers crossed, the Jade Empire will move into, when they’re ready.
And in case you’re new, and wondering what all this talk is about plants? Well, weaver ants
are specialized arboreal ants that build amazing leaf basket nests in trees and bushes. The weaver
ants pull leaves together using their super strong jaws and legs, then use the silk produced by their
pupating larvae to glue these leaves together to form their impressive leaf basket nests!
This is actually how weaver ants get their name, and I am eager to watch our Jade Empire
eventually do this! I think, if we can successfully manage get our Jade Empire
to a big enough colony size that they start leaf nest building into a plant, then we are well on
our way to seeing our Jade Empire flourish into their golden era as a mature colony.
And so, this VOTE which we will all partake in now is super important. We need to choose
the right plant! So here we go, guys! Are you ready?
Now in my country, weaver ants commonly build nests in mango trees, and other fruit trees.
However, I’ve also seen them build in a variety of other plants, that are much easier to grow
in a terrarium, and here is a list of plants that I suggest for our Jade Empire,
so have a listen to each of these options, and then afterwards we will hold a vote.
Here are my three suggestions. Check them out and then after we vote.
The first plant I suggest is a money plant, aka Guiana Chestnut.
Our previous weaver ant colony, the Emerald Empire loved forming their nests into the leaves of this
plant. I can get them small enough to fit in our terrarium, and it’s quite an easy plant to grow.
The second plant I suggest is a Schefflera plant. Weaver ants also can nest in these plants,
and the Emerald Empire’s first leaf nest was actually in a Schefflera plant. They
are also quite easy to grow and would fit into our terrarium.
The third and final plant, I recommend is Dracaena. It’s a very common house plant,
also quite attractive, and one that we filmed some wild weaver ants nesting in,
at the former country rental home I was staying at for a bit. I’ve never tried housing a captive
weaver ant colony in one before, but something tells me it just might work.
Alright, AC Family, now to vote for which plant you think our Jade Empress should get,
simply check the pinned comment in the comments section of this video, and in
the replies simply give a thumbs up on the post corresponding with the plant option you choose.
Feel free to vote for more than one option if you can’t decide on just one. The plant post with the
winning number of ‘LIKES’ will be the official plant we will be presenting to our Jade Empire,
which I will plant directly inside this terrarium for the colony to move into when they choose.
Just reminder that this plant and even terrarium won’t necessarily be their forever plant,
because as the colony grows larger, I do intend on giving the Jade Empire a larger terrarium
with more plants in the future, or if the plant we choose ends up growing bigger
along with the ant colony, we could just easily transplant the plant
into a larger terrarium. The future plans are flexible for sure.
But AC Council, cast your vote now in the comments, and let’s make this choice the best one!
I just know deep down that with your help, our Jade Empire
will truly flourish, and one day become a mighty weaver ant colony of millions,
to take their place as one of the coolest ant colonies in the history
of this channel. I can’t wait to see what you guys vote for. It’s ant love forever!