Ghost ants were excitedly devouring the fresh carcass of a termite alate.
The ants had broken into this water bottle overnight, and were celebrating their new
fleshy, decaying find.
This bottle actually had several dead termite alates at the moment, virgin kings and queen
hopefuls that for whatever reason didn’t survive the past 24 hours in this bottle.
You see I had spent the weekend in the mountains, when these huge termite kings and queens were
having their once a year nuptial flight, hoping to mate to found termite colonies of their
own, and I knew I wanted to capture some to start my own termite colony, mostly as food
for my ants, but also just for the joy of starting a huge termite colony, but the thing
was, I didn’t have anything proper to put them in at the time, so I placed the handful
of termite alates I did manage to catch, into this water bottle with a moistened paper towel,
until I could bring them home to transfer them somewhere more suitable.
When I got home, many had died, probably due to not successfully pairing up.
But AC Family, I did notice this.
Bits of chewed up paper towel, and then, upon closer inspection, tucked away under the crumpling,
were three bold survivors.
When I saw them, the wheels in my head began to turn, for the epic creation of our next
future kingdom of insects, this time not ants, but rather a mighty army of termites.
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Enjoy!
I had some epic plans for these termites, as well as an awesome home planned for them.
But I’ll be needing your help, guys to make a decision, regarding these new termite royals
of ours, so as always, keep on watching until the end for all that, coming up.
Now AC Family, I am not as experienced with raising termites as I am with ants, but I
have had success raising a termite farm in the past.
For all of you OG AC Family, you may recall the Terminators, a huge termite colony we
had a couple years back which was raised from a paired king and queen termite I saved during
a termite nuptial flight that was happening in my Ant Room one night, and were falling
into my ant setups.
Of course, my ant colonies housed in open terrariums just love when termite nuptial
flight season comes around because they get to have a literal termite feast, but saving
a pair of these termites proved to be super rewarding when they gave rise to a huge termite
colony, we named the Terminators.
That termite colony ultimately ended up being exterminated by an invading colony of wild
pharaoh ants that managed to break into their terrarium, which was super sad, but since
then I’ve been wanting to try again, raising a termite colony.
They make great ant food and are such cool eusocial insects that I feel have a bad rap!
By the end of this video, I’m sure you, too will find them incredible!
Now, guys I’m an ant guy, and ants will still always be my ultimate favourite, so
don’t rag on me, ant community, for what I’m about to say, but in my opinion, termites
are equally as awesome, if not slightly cooler than ants!
There!
I said it.
AC Family, here’s why:
Though termites and ants do share a lot in common, they couldn’t be any more different.
First off, you should know that ants and termites are not technically related.
In fact, ants belong to the order Hymenoptera which include bees and wasps, while termites
belong to Isoptera, or an epifamily known as Termitoidae within the order Blattodea,
meaning cockroaches.
So yes, cockroaches and termites are more related to each other than termites are to
ants!
Second, the life cycle in ants and termites is slightly different.
In ants, a queen is a single, widowed mother, who mates once in her life during the nuptial
flight, after which the male ants die, and she goes on to break off her wings and found
her ant colony alone until her colony grows big enough that she can start to annually
produce more virgin queens and males, who will then fly out to have their own nuptial
flights, and the cycle continues.
Just from a single night of mating, the queen ant has enough sperm inside her for a lifetime
of egg-laying.
All the sperm is kept viable in an organ in her body called a spermatheca, so she’s
got all she needs to lay eggs for years and years until she dies of old age, and once
she does die, the colony cannot create a new queen, and because there is no egg-layer anymore,
the entire colony fizzles out and dies out naturally.
But in termites, things work a little bit differently.
During nuptial flight, instead of a one time big time mating like in the ants, termite
kings and queens actually pair up for life.
They actually ‘get married’, in a termite sense, in that the male actually survives
to be with his queen for life, as they found a termite colony together.
This is why in ants, we don’t call males kings.
They’re just called plain old males, but in termites, the male lives on to help create
a colony, so he is called a king.
So to recap, on nuptial flight night, termite kings and queens pair up, break off their
wings together, and become the royal kings and queens of their future colonies, sealing
themselves up underground in a royal chamber where they continue to make love until their
dying days.
Isn’t that so romantic?
And AC Family, check this out!
Here is what a typical queen ant looks like when the colony is mature.
This here in the middle of that protective mass of worker ants, is a fire ant queen in
an AC Hybrid Nest, and as you can see, she’s fat and full of eggs, a condition known as
physogastry.
She moves around the nest and doesn’t really have a royal chamber so to speak, but may
have preferred parts of the nest she prefers to hang out.
But now, guys, check out what it looks like in the royal chamber of termites once a colony
has matured!
Like right out of a sci-fi thriller, the queen’s physogastry is totally out of this world!
Her abdomen is so full of eggs, she looks like a pulsating white sausage!
It’s generally not practical for the queen to be romping around the nest like this, so
she generally stays put with the king in their royal chamber.
What’s even cooler, guys, is if either the queen or the king were to die, termite colonies
can actually create a new king or queen to take their place.
Also, in some species, the queen termite can produce back-up queens who can actually just
stand-by to take her place, in case she dies.
Here is a back-up queen, and even a third type, the back-up queen’s back up queen!
Studies suggest that these stand-by, back-up queens, are actually produced via parthenogenesis
by the main queen, which means through cloning herself.
So if the main termite queen were to die, no worries.
The king has an exact clone of her waiting in the wings to take her place, so he could
continue living his “happily ever after”, mating for life.
It’s an amazing evolutionary adaptation termites have, to ensure that if the monarchs
are replaced, a father termite isn’t mating with his daughter, genetically speaking.
He’d just be mating with a clone of his former wife, if ever.
Crazy right?
That’s not all!
Termite society is just so different from that of ants.
For instance, in ants, pretty much all the members of the colony are females.
Queens and workers are all female.
The males in the colony just wait in the nest doing nothing but eating and waiting to breed
on nuptial flight.
Male ants simply act as living sperm receptacles, with no other function other than for mating.
In termites, however, it’s all about gender equality!
Workers can be either male or female.
Also, another thing that sets termites apart from ants is life stages.
Ants undergo complete metamorphosis where they go from eggs to larvae to pupae to adult.
In termites, it’s incomplete metamorphosis, where an egg hatches into a mini-version of
an adult termite, called a nymph, which just keeps molting as it grows.
Other differences between ants and termites are termites can have different forms of soldiers
or majors, termites use their own feces to build their nests, termites can actually eat
and digest wood which ants can’t, not even carpenter ants which just discard the saw
dust, many termites have this special sticky glue-like substance they can shoot out of
their heads in defense, and termites generally live longer than ants.
So in light of all this ‘termite coolness’, when I saw the termite nuptial flight happening
on that humid, cool night in the mountains, I made sure to capture some of the alates,
even if I hadn’t brought proper equipment.
The first thing I noticed was that these termite alates were huge, compared to the ones I had
in the past, I would say twice as big!
I don’t know what species of termite they were, but perhaps some of you termite experts
out there might be able to identify them.
Could this be Macrotermes gilvus?
They exist in my country and based on photos look quite similar.
I also didn’t know the sex of these three alates.
Who was a king and who was a queen?
Was this one king and two queens?
Two kings and one queen?
All kings?
All queens?
Lastly, I wasn’t even sure if this trio was quote-unquote “married”.
Can termites form a throuple, meaning a union of three alates, instead of pairs?
Whatever the case, it was time to give the termites what they needed: a more suitable
place to start founding a colony.
Now, the way I did it the last time was I placed a paired termite king and queen in
a test tube setup then buried the entire thing in soil, then sealed it all up in a tank.
But the problem with this setup was, I could never again see the queen and king nor watch
the entire founding process happen nor see any of the nest action.
In fact, the only time I could see the termites, was when they built their poop tunnels against
the glass, or if I broke a piece off their nest.
So this time, I wanted to try something different.
I needed a setup that would give us visual access to the royal chamber so we could actually
get in to observe and film the workings of the colony.
I also wanted to go with a setup that didn’t allow tiny unforeseen cracks that would allow
for outside invading ants to break in!
And so AC Family, after thinking about it for long awhile, I came up with an idea for
housing our future termite farm!
AC Family, behold.
An AC Hybrid Nest 2.0 from antscanada.com.
Now my team and I designed these specially crafted ant farms to house ant colonies, but
I had heard that some of you AC Family have been able to house other creatures inside
them, including rolly pollies, burrowing insects, and even termites.
If this was true, then I felt this Hybrid Nest would be the perfect solution for housing
because they are amazing for viewing ant colonies, they don’t let outside ants to break in,
and hopefully would offer an ideal underground environment for our future termite colony.
It’s designed to simulate an underground nest of an ant colony, and this particular
one was our Lasius version, inspired by Lasius ant nest.
I felt this nest was suitable because it had very large chambers from which our termite
royals could choose to create their official royal chamber.
The nest has four exits, which I could plug with AC Plugs which are perforated for ventilation.
The nest also had microholes in the floor at certain areas, through which water and
humidity could enter via a bottom tub.
All I would need to do is add water to this area, and it would flow underneath the nest
to either evaporate up or enter the nest via capillary action if a medium is placed inside
this tub.
I’ll be showing you guys what I mean in a bit, but first, I needed to add something
to this Hybrid Nest to make it much more suitable for our termites.
I removed the glass from the Hybrid Nest.
Next, I needed this.
A bag of decaying wood, coco fibre, and soil which I simply collected from outside.
My plan was to place this stuff into the rooms of the Hybrid Nest.
Let’s do it now.
The purpose of this wood-coco fibre-soil mixture would be to not only offer the termite alates
a digging medium to burrow and create the walls of their royal chamber, but also offer
them a food source.
They could eat this stuff.
Alright, done!
All the chambers were full of the termite food and building material.
Next, I needed this nest to be extra moist so I would need a hydration medium in the
lower tub.
In this case, I decided to just fold a piece of paper towel high enough that it touched
the bottom of the hybrid nest, then poured water onto it.
This paper towel could be used for weeks or months and can be changed if it ever gets
moldy or dirty.
Alright, and now all was set.
Now, AC Family, here was the difficult part.
Having to put the termites in then replacing the glass.
I didn’t want to squash the termites unintentionally when replacing the glass so I needed to have
the utmost accurate timing when the termites were in the chambers and not climbing on the
walls which would be flush against the glass when installed.
So here goes nothing, AC Family.
Let’s do this!
I grabbed the water bottle and I noticed something interesting.
It seemed two of the termite alates had paired off on their own and left the third termite
high and dry.
OK, this to me meant these were officially paired, or perhaps someone had made a final
decision?
Noted.
It would be this pair that would be going into the Hybrid Nest.
With scissors I carefully cut the bottle open and my plan was to carefully drop the pair
into the nest.
It took some careful cutting, handling, and maneuvering but eventually I did manage to
get the pair of termites into the nest, upon which I cleaned up any paper towel pieces,
and half replaced the glass resting the edge on the side of the Hybrid Nest so I could
wait for the perfect time to slide the glass into place when the termites were safely in
the chambers.
I waited for the perfect moment, and when that moment came, bam!
Slid the glass on and the termites were safely inside our Hybrid Nest.
We did it.
Look at how fat they are, guys!
I watched as the pair immediately began to explore the chamber they were in, and it wasn’t
long before I began to see signs of them burrowing.
It was at this time, now that we could see them much more clearly through the glass,
that I marveled at just how beautiful they were together.
It was a very moving sight, watching these two recently married termite monarchs, now
bonded for life, hoping to build a future kingdom and family together, an ancient biological
ritual, eternally embedded into their genetics, that has been handed down and repeated, from
generation to generation, for millions of years in the history of their termite lineage.
Over the next hour, I continued to watch the termite king and queen dig in sheer amazement,
until I decided it was time to allow them to continue the process in the dark and in
private.
This was truly an amazing night!
After 24 hours, I returned to the nest to check up on them, and as I semi-expected,
the termites were nowhere to be seen.
I didn’t mind this.
I assumed they must have been buried somewhere under all that digging medium, already beginning
the egg-laying process perhaps.
I don’t know if they transferred to another room or if they indeed established their royal
chamber in the place they had started to burrow the night before, but I didn’t have to know.
I knew eventually, if all went well and as planned, we would start to see termite workers
in this Hybrid Nest, as well as a huge pulsating white sausage of a queen, busy building her
termite army with her king.
I will continue to keep this Hybrid Nest nicely hydrated and check up on them every few weeks
to see if there is any progress.
AC Family, I sure hope there would be, but meanwhile, I do have a question for you.
What should we name this termite colony of ours if and when they do establish?
Should we give our termite king and queen names, too?
Leave your name suggestions in the comments, and your AC Senate and I will choose our top
favourites for all of us to vote on in a future video.
Here’s to a future flourishing termite colony again in the Antiverse!
Let’s wish our new king and queen the best of luck on the building of their future empire.
I will surely update you on their progress in the months to come.
Thank you for watching.
It’s ant love and termite love forever!
AC Family, did you enjoy today’s episode?
I sure hope this termite colony successfully ends up founding a colony.
I also have an update on our new golden ant colony!
Keep updated on the true life stories of our ants, termites, and other creatures, by smashing
that SUBSCRIBE button and BELL ICON now, and hit ALL so you get notified at every upload.
Also don’t forget to hit the LIKE button every single time including now.
It would really mean a lot to me, guys.
Thank you!
AC Inner Colony, I have left a hidden cookie for you here, if you would like to watch extended
play footage of our new king and queen termite burrowing in their Hybrid Nest.
Go check them out!
And guys, did you know that 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.
And now it’s time for the AC Question of the Week.
Last week, we asked:
What is your favourite thing about these Golden Ants?
Congratulations to Khalid Nature Club who answered:
Their amazing golden gasters.
Congratulations Khalid, you just won a free Ultimate Ant Keeping Handbook from our shop!
In this week’s AC Question of the Week we ask:
Name one difference between ants and termites.
Leave your answer in the comments section and you could also win a free Ultimate Ant
Keeping Handbook from our shop!
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Please remember to LIKE, COMMENT, SHARE, and SUBSCRIBE if you enjoyed this video, to help
us keep making more.
It’s ant love forever!