Greetings AC Family and a happy belated Thanksgiving for all of our AC family from the U.S.
Welcome back for Part 2 of our two-part Thanksgiving day Special and I truly hope you enjoyed your fill of turkey and stuffing the other night.
So last week we had a look at the mind blowing world of Leaf Cutter ants
who tend their Lush Fungus Gardens underground and this week we take a look at some really amazing ants that are pretty resourceful
They work hard to harvest their food when its available and they store their harvest in great underground chambers
Today we look into the Lives of the ever diverse Harvester Ants
The secret collectors of the ant world
We also reveal our grand winner of our 500$ gift card black Friday giveaway
and we have a special announcement for Christmas yes I can't wait
so guys stay tuned till the end Ladies and gentlemen
Lets caravan deep below ground level and discover the intriguing world of Harvester ants
Here at the AntCanada Ant Channel
(Music Plays)
Ok So we're back here in LA
Drooling over our GAN Farmer Drew's Collection here
Ok Fine I was Drooling over his collection
He says He currently owns 100 ant Colonies but has owned up to 400 colonies at one time in the past
Look at this cabinet of ants doesn't that just look amazing
For an ant keeper this is like looking at a vault full of golden treasures
its no surprise that he is the top earning GAN farmer of our GAN project in the entire World
Drew was kind enough to have us take a look at his various personal colonies
and I was interested in his amazing Harvester ant collection
now for those who are new to harvester ants
Harvester ant is a generic name for a variety of ant species in genera of ants that collect seeds
they live in arid habitats and collect the seeds to store them in their underground granaries
Which are useful to them when their is drought
and when water is scarce
they also obtain their water from metabolizing fats in the seeds they collect
I was actually surprised to discover how many different Harvester ant species there were
and how many drew here owned
he says he currently owns 9 different Harvester ant species all native to California state
in this video we'll take a look at 5 species belonging to three different genera
I will also include hidden videos of footage of each colony we look at
in case you want to spend more time watching video of them
So feel free to click on the icards as they pop up
Now I want to start with these hard working girls
Native to south western U.S.A
These are Rough Harvester Ants known Scientifically as Pogonomymex Rugosus
These ants were so cool. They are a mature 3 year colony. Look at them they just are non stop working.
They're pretty amazing right?
This Pogonomymex Rugosus colony is housed in a simple aquarium filled with digging medium
and a smaller aquarium placed inside to force the ants to dig closer to the glass.
Harvester ants dig some very impressive burrows deep into the ground.
They're actually very important in the ecosystems they're from.
Because they're great at tilling and aerating soil.
Where they're from, temperatures can be scorching hot and extremely dry
so the deeper their subterranean caverns go the better
Because they can remain cooler and much more damp deep in the ground.
Alright so here's something cool, a quick ant history lesson.
For many decades now,
Uncle Milton Industries Inc,
A company founded in California in the 1950's,
By my idol, the late Milton Levine,
released his famous plastic Uncle Milton ant farm
Which allowed for owners to mail in a coupon,
included in every package,
Which allowed them to receive 20 to 25 worker ants in the mail to fill the ant farm.
My very first ant farm as a kid, was an Uncle Milton ant farm.
When I received my ants in the mail, all the way in Toronto, well
they were all dead upon arrival.
It's okay, I got over it. But what's interesting, is that
the ants that Uncle Milton Industries ship out, are harvester ants!
Did any of you guys have these as a kid?
Remember reading the warning label to not touch the ants because they sting?
Pogonomyrmex certainly do have stingers.
Many hardcore ant keepers out there, like myself, share the exact same story.
If it wasn't for these Uncle Milton ant farms,
I would never have gone on to seek other ant farm options
and wander into the world of pro ant keeping,
and, eventually, open AntsCanada.com.
So, to Uncle Milton industries I pay all my respect as they
are pioneers of the ant keeping hobby
and, as the inventor of the first ant farm,
Milton Levine will always be the godfather of ant keeping.
Which brings us back to this thriving harvester ant colony.
this huge colony was raised from
just a single queen. If you look there
you'll see a chamber full of pupi this
species creates naked pupi so the
people i don't have a silk outer casing
like in some sense and you'll notice
that some of the Pupi Paillard orange
these pupi are close to eclosing which
means adult workers will be emerging
from them soon
harvester ants are digging machines and
their bodies are perfect for their
lifestyle so another quick and history
lesson number to support this economic
sense have this need structure called a
psammophore but a basket of long hairs on
the underside of the ants head that
kinda looks like a beard right?
Austrian taxonomist Gustav mayor saw
this beard this psammophore and named the
genus Pogonomyrmex which actually means
bearded ant this basket of long hairs is
actually used to help carry sand grains
and seeds could you imagine if humans
could use their beard to carry things
like this
oh and by the way it's the females that
have this beard
another cool thing about this species of
harvester ant is the way they settle
territorial disputes with neighboring
colonies of their own species this
species engage in wrestling matches
that's right all you WWE fans in this
photo taken in tucson arizona too rough
harvester ants from neighboring nests
engage in a wrestling match where they
push and shove each other in a display
of force but don't actually harm each
other it's thought that colonies use
these mock battles to gather information
about their neighboring colonies
knowledge about the strength of
competing colonies helps
and settle territorial borders without
loss of life
imagine if human solved our territorial
disputes this way in the wrestling ring
ok another mind-blowing thing here it's
time for our third ant history lesson
number three okay so get this guy's look
how strange this species is one of the
strangest recorded and phenomena is a
hybrid zone between these pogonomrymex rugosus
and another
different species pogonomrymex barbatus
apparently these two species hybridized
in their ancient past leading to a pair
of genetically complex daughter lineages
that continually need to crossbreed with
each other in order to make worker ants
the Queen's and males remained
genetically separate young Queens need
to mate with their own species to
produce more Queens and males but in
order to produce worker ants they need
to mate with the other species in the
same nuptial flight
this means that in every single nuptial
flight Pogonomyrmex rugosus and
Pogonomyrmex barbadus each need to mate with their
own species to give birth to alates but
the Queen's also need to make with the
male's of the other species during the
same nuptial flight in order to produce
her own workers isn't that weird
in other words if you took all the
Pogonomyrmex rugosus ants in the world
and place them on a single Island
and all the Pogonomyrmex barbadus
ant in the world and place them on
another Island both species would be
incapable of producing their own workers
and of course this would mean that both
species would die because well there
aren't any worker ants to do any of the
work the two species need each other to
survive
isn't that mind-blowing guys could you
imagine if the continuation of the homo
sapien species depended on our mating
with a closely related species so weird
now drew also has some other pogonomyrmex
species like the smaller yet charming
pogonomyrmex californicus here in a dirt
setup sandwich between two panes of
glass and pogonomyrmex magnacanthus a
small species with big eyes in a dirtless setup.
he also had several other pogonomyrmex
mix colonies but we'd be here all day if
we have to cover them all so let's move
on to a different genus of harvester ants
these cool ants
Are Novinesser cockerelli really look at how
cool they look I love how large and
leggy they are with seeds they drink
honey water and accept insects they're
kept in a neat homemade setup composed
of resin and ceramic now check out these
Veromesser pergandei now for all of you
in Europe with Messer ants it was thought
that these veromesser pergandei were
related to Messer but DNA tests showed
they were not related but just evolved
similarly these ants are polymorphic
which means they have various sizes of
workers from tiny miners to huge
supermajors they're just spectacular
alright so if you would like to keep
harvester ants what are the things you
should know first off let's look at the
diet of course you need to offer these
ants various kinds of seeds
you also should supplement with insects
depending on the species and sweets
a varied diet is the key second let's
look at their formicarium you can
offer your harvester ants with a formicarium
that allows for digging like in
this very impressive setup from our Ants Canada
partner in utah Brian who owns a
very impressive pogonomyrmex occidentalis
colony housed in an upright dirtnest
setup made of wood and two panes of
plastic attached to AC outworlds where he
feeds them just a reminder that the ants
will establish graveyard sites and leave
husks from the seeds in their outworld
so you need to clean that up regularly
for them or you can choose to house
your harvester ants in a formicarium
that doesn't have digging medium at all
like in Drew's setups here now if it's your
first time to house harvester ants and
you want to eliminate all guestwork and
are looking for which products at the
shop you would like to get just simply
go to our shop and click the tab pogonomyrmex
and you'll see all of the
products that we recommend for harvester
ants i'll put a link in the description
box i personally highly recommend any of
our omninous series for formicariums as
seen here in this video sent in by
ricardo Blackwood of his Messer
Barbararus colony or a pogonomyrmex hybrid
nest which is made for harvester ants
and if you want to see them dig you can
even add digging medium into the setup
safety
whatever the case harvester ants do not
do well in moist nests and of course
what nests would mean they're stored
seeds germinate which isn't desirable
harvester and queens can be found from
March through October depending on
species and VeroMesser can be found
as early as February Drew says for him the
easiest way to catch harvester ants is
to dig out the dl alaits that have
freshly dug out their founding Burrows
after a nuptial flight this is what the
Founding burrows look like you can also
find them wandering above ground and
they fly after Desert thunderstorms or
if you happen to be from southern US you
can visit our GAN project page on our
website under the tab queen ants for
sale and see if we have a GAN farmer in
your state selling young colonies of
harvester ants like Drew here who's
colonies range from 20 to 60 dollars USD
depending on colony size rarity and
difficulty in rearing he also has sold
mature colonies of hundreds of thousands
of workers for 100 to 200 dollars and
just a note guys that in the u.s. it is
illegal to transport and colonies with a
queen across state lines so our again
farmers in our GAN project can only
sell ants to you if you are from the
state that they're from and you need to
pick up the ends in person as we do not
allow mailing of live ant colonies so
there you have it AC family i find
harvester ants to be some pretty amazing
ants wouldn't you say?
I hope you enjoyed this part 2 episode of
our thanksgiving series and get the
chance to keep harvester ants if their
from your area
alright AC family you guys have been
asking me for an update on them non-stop
and so next week we finally revisit the
Fire Nation so many of you guys have
been asking me what they're up to and
boy do I have a video that was shocking
they're guaranteed to be on the edge of
your seats as we watch crazy natural
disaster befall the Fire Nation you
won't want to miss it so be sure to tune
in next Saturday to catch every intense
moment until then AC family its ant love
forever <3 and of course we can't end the
video without announcing our AC question
of the week for our AC grand black
friday giveaway so here we go last week
we asked what is the name of a
specialized bacteria found on the bodies
of leaf-cutter ants
congratulations to Kayla m correctly
answered actinomyces now we would have
accepted a whole broad array of answers
because there are actually several kinds
of bacteria and there are actually
several kinds of active my sins and
categories that the bacteria can follow
me but a huge congratulations to Kyla m
you just want a five-hundred-dollar USD
gift card to Ants Canada.com! enjoy
your new ad products and for this week's
question of the week we asked what is
the name of the anatomical structure
down on harvester ants that inspired
Austrian taxonomist Gustav mayor to come
up with the name pogonomyrmex leave your
answer in the comments section and you
could win a free AC t-shirt which will
be coming to the store very soon which
means you get to wear one before it
comes up
ok and now time for an announcement
for those of you who are said because
you didn't win this time around
don't worry because if you're a beginner
and keeper or if you just always wanted
to own an AC for Macario now is the time
to make the dream real first and
canada.com is having a big christmas
sale and a beginner's promo this year I
am super excited to announce our
christmas sale of twenty percent off on
all omninests products including our
omninest all you need starter kit
and our AC outworlds and on top of that
we have our ant keeping beginners promo so
check it out if you order on omni all
you need starter care pack just add our
ultimate and keeping handbook ebook to
your shopping cart and we give it to you
absolutely free using the coupon code
beginner the all you need Omni starter gear
pack is a great setup especially if
you're a beginner it contains absolutely
everything you need from the moment you
catch a queen to the time your colony
which is maturity and the and keeping
handbook will ensure that your pro by
the time you're done reading another
great thing is if you're worried about
getting your order before Christmas will
also be selling digital gift cards which
you can give to your recipient and he or
she can choose his or her own products
from the shop this coming year is the
best time to start a new hobby and based
on personal observation the ant keeping
hobby has never been as big as it is now
so if you're looking for a unique gift
idea something educational and
fulfilling come and keep together with
me and order a professional and set up
this Christmas from our shop we can and
keep together guys and this channel
along with our very helpful team will be
with you every step of the way to ensure
an amazing antkeeping experience
because well you're all AC family mark
your calendars guys the AC christmas
sale an hour and keeping beginners promo
starts December first now you'll need to
order the sale items before December
eighteenth to receive them before
Christmas so be sure to plan ahead
Thank You AC family and until next week
it's ant love forever