But something is still worrying me.
Our Titans, our Asian marauder ants have disappeared from sight yet again.
The last time they disappeared, we happened to find them in pretty impressive numbers
after pulling out some weeds.
But since then, their disappearance has been very unsettling to me.
I see wandering black crazy ants inside, but no Titans.
Are the Titans still alive?
There was only one way to find out!
Please SUBSCRIBE to my channel, and hit the bell icon.
Welcome to the AC Family.
Enjoy.
I can't believe it's come to this.
I had to know.
All I needed to see was even a few workers, from a scoop of soil within the Garden of
Eden, this terrarium home to our Titans, who needless to say, have gone through a lot over
the past several months since moving in here.
AC Family, believe me when I say this, you will want to keep on watching until the end!
This Garden of Eden series has been called the Dragon's Curse Saga because it has all
been quite a twisted and eerie tale, I've never before experienced in all my years of
ant keeping.
There were signs this terrarium was cursed, perhaps by the great bearded dragon who had
inhabited these lands in the Garden of Eden's prehistoric times but died earlier last year.
It seemed the dragon's spirit lingered, as we attempted to re-cultivate it into a land
to house our ants.
You, the AC Family, voted for the Jawbreakers, our Trap-jaw ants to move in, but before that
could happen a colony of wild black crazy ants broke into the Jawbreakers' setup and
extinguished our Jawbreakers.
We then decided to move in our Titans, our majestically polymorphic marauder ants.
Once inside, the colony's health immediately began to show signs of fading and we thought
they had all died out.
We then tried to move in our Dark Knights, our black crazy ants, who immediately broke
out of the setup, so we had to literally vacuum them out and place them back into their original
setup.
We received a ray of hope one day when we discovered that the Titans were actually still
alive, but that was short-lived when literally out of the soils appeared an ant-baby-eating,
self-cloning snake, which we managed to collect but died before we could do anything with
it.
The Titans disappeared once again, but thankfully resurfaced again, and just when we thought
it was all over, a colony of black crazy ants and wild pharaoh ants broke into the Garden
of Eden and invaded Titans' lands.
We captured the pharaoh ants to keep as pets but they ended up mysteriously contracting
mites which immediately ended our journey with them.
As for the Black Crazy Ants, they still actively frequent Garden of Eden lands, seemingly ruling
it now.
Isn't this all just one huge crazy story?
I cannot believe everything that has happened.
Which brings us to this ultimate moment, after the Titan's third disappearance for weeks
from sight, it was time to truly take matters into our own hands and get to the bottom of
this Dragon's Curse Saga, literally.
It was time to dig out the Garden of Eden, and see if our Titans were simply growing
their numbers underground or had truly died.
Like an aggravated tempest, I tore and ripped away at the vegetation of the Garden of Eden,
which once used to sit so pristine and beautiful.
Now, it was like a thick impenetrable blanket hiding the truth of the darkness that lay
within.
I saw nothing so far.
Clearing away some of the brush, I immediately spotted the wild crazy ants within one of
the driftwood pieces.
It was where they had setup camp.
They scrambled carried their brood in a panic.
I had to keep going.
We needed our Titans to survive!
I moved earth and tried my best to dig at the surface.
All I wanted to see were some Titan workers, perhaps hit a vein of their underground network
was all I needed to stop.
I saw nothing of this.
I removed the first piece of driftwood.
There was nothing under it.
No Titans, just lots of wild black crazy ants scrambling for their lives.
I removed the second piece of driftwood.
Nothing still.
I began to dig at the earth, turning up the soils.
All I could see were earthworms.
Earthworms everywhere.
They had done a great job at keeping the soils conditioned.
My wish was that the Titans were as thriving and successful, somewhere below.
As I continued to dig away, I had to make sure I was careful not to dig too deep or
too forcefully, in hopes to not injure the queen.
If I accidentally split the queen in half during this major excavation, the colony if
alive would definitely be irrevocably doomed.
Again, all I saw were earthworms.
I removed the final piece of driftwood, and dug away at the earth to find signs of Titan
life.
Wild black crazy ants scrambled about, as well as the various tiny creatures like Springtails
and snails, but no Titans.
And then I saw it.
I was shocked AC Family.
Look at what I found laying in the upturned soil.
It was, a decapitated Titan head.
I wasn't sure if it was the head of a supermajor or that of our Titan's queen.
My heart sank.
We had to keep looking.
Let's keep hopeful, AC Family.
There was still a chance our Titans were hiding in a subterranean refuge somewhere in here.
I dug deep, into the first corner, the second corner, the third corner, and fourth corner.
After literally 2 hours of digging, I found...
Remains of our Titans, and sadly it looked like gaster segments of her royal highness,
the Titans queen.
My worst fears were confirmed.
I'm afraid, AC Family, our Titans are gone.
I checked everywhere.
The Garden of Eden which used to be a beautiful sanctuary for creatures and our ants, was
now an upturned and devasted land of wreckage.
I am sorry, AC Family.
I am deeply saddened by this loss of our Titans.
Marauder ants, known scientifically as Carebara diversa, though an impressive species have
been known to be extremely difficult to keep in captivity, but I didn't want to make that
an excuse.
I did my best to keep them alive and happy by providing them with all the resources and
space they needed to thrive, but this succession of just so many endangering events befell
them, that they failed to prevail.
It was an amazing journey keeping these ants for the 8 months that they were with us, but
as is true in nature, only the strongest live on.
It ensures the vitality of all living things on the planet, as only the best genetic combinations
get passed on to the next generation, driving evolution forward, and keep life resilient.
I try to document on this channel, the real and epic lives of ants as they unfold in front
of our eyes in our ant room, and sadly sometimes that does mean death.
May the Titans, our Asian marauder ants rest in peace, and hopefully as well to the Dragon's
spirit and the conclusion this curse.
AC Family, we have finally come to the end of this epic ant story.
In order that we may start
a new one.
AC Family, welcome to El Dragon Island.
Oh my, AC Family.
Who would have ever thought keeping and watching ants would be such an emotional rollercoaster?
Tune in to next week's huge episode, when I show this new paludarium, a half terrarium
- half aquarium setup, for which so many of you have been requesting forever, specially
designed for our new, yet unnamed Polyrachis colony from last week's video.
If you're into aquatics, you won't want to miss next week's episode, plus I got an official
species and biology profile on our new Polyrhachis ants, and AC Family, I know you will be thrilled!
You won't want to miss it, so do remember to subscribe if you haven't yet and join the
AC Family, and hit that LIKE button every time, even now.
AC Inner Colony, I have left a hidden cookie for you here, if you would just like to watch
a tribute video to our Titans.
Before I proceed to the AC Question of the week, in case you haven't watched our past
few videos, I wanted to quickly plug my new DAILY VLOGGING CHANNEL, yes that's a new video
every day, for those who may be curious as to what I work on in between these weekly
ant videos.
If you assumed I was just some ant geek keeping ants in his condo, yes, you're absolutely
correct, but you may be surprised to see what you find on my vlogging channel.
Thanks to all AC Family, who have already subscribed.
It means a lot to me!
Alright and now it's time for the AC Question of the Week.
Last Week we asked:
What evidence did we see that show ants take gulps
when they drink?
Congratulations to Evan Sisneroz who correctly answered:
The drop of honey was pulsating.
Congratulations Evan Sisneroz, you just won a free ebook handbook from our shop!
In this week's AC Question of the Week, we ask:
Name any of the creatures we found while digging into
the Garden of Eden.
Leave your answer in the comments section and you could also win a free ebook handbook
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!