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an insect beast is about to be devoured
by carpenter ants
the beast lies within this test tube
what is this beast you ask
it looks like a cricket some of you may
be saying indeed you were right if you
drew that conclusion
but if you look closely you'll notice
it's not your ordinary cricket
see its face and those highly developed
bear-like claws
this beast of an insect ladies and
gentlemen is known as a mole cricket
this particular beast from the genus
grillo talpa
i've actually been raising it over the
past few days feeding it brown rice and
plant roots getting it ready for its
final destination
i've learned that it's quite a stunning
creature perfectly adapted to life
underground where it spends most of its
life it's currently their breeding
season and i caught it as it was flying
around looking for a mate now in a
community tab post i asked you guys
which of the three insects you guys
wanted to be fed to our pet carpenter
ants that we've been raising on the
channel
a cockroach a normal cricket or a
mystery beast insect and the results
were very clear over 80 percent of you
voted that the mystery beast insect be
the new prey of our carpenter ants who
have never before known the taste of raw
flesh of another insect it would be the
very first time our ants would be
tasting meat
and guys the time has come to give our
ants the protein they've been craving
for
warning
what you're about to see next is not for
the faint at heart
welcome
to the antscanada
ant channel
please subscribe to my channel and hit
the bell icon welcome to the ac family
enjoy
thank you mole cricket for giving up
your life to nourish my ants this is the
mini prayer i say in my head before
dispatching any and all prey insects i
feed to my ants i also don't like to
show the first killing blow not sure why
but i find it to be the most brutal but
now i'm cutting it up like a butcher
wood some beef or chicken if some of you
are disappointed that i didn't just
throw in the entire beast insect into
the ant enclosures well i couldn't do
that for three reasons first this
massive cricket was way too much meat
for just one of our young colonies the
carpenter ant colonies we're raising are
still too small and would not be able to
tackle a beast insect like this alive
the cricket would surely win and we'd
lose many worker ants which at this
early stage of the colony's development
would be lethal
second
this huge beast insect was enough to
feed all eight of our ant colonies as
you will see in this video and third i
just find it less cruel to kill the prey
insects first instead of it having to
die a long painful and drawn out death
again with several ants also dying from
the process this beast cricket would
have surely mangled many ants if the
prey was a tiny fruit fly or something
that would have died quickly after being
seized by the ants i would probably
consider feeding live whatever the case
today you guys will be witnessing the
super cool reaction of our pet carpenter
ants to their first taste of meat from a
prey insect up until today they've only
known the sweet jelly blobs i've been
giving them since they first began
eating solids and i know you guys will
just love their reaction to their first
prey insect meat
a lot of you have also been asking for
an update on the other carpenter ant
colonies we've been raising that i
haven't been showing much lately so do
stay tuned for all that coming up
alright first up to eat
the redwood warriors
behold our red team of carpenter ants
that we've named the redwood warriors
living in their ac ant tower of wood the
ants are feisty in there they're hungry
and it's feeding day but little do they
know they're not getting the usual sweet
jelly carb they're used to
they're about to receive some fresh
beast cricket steak
dropping in the meat let's watch
it wasn't even 15 seconds before a
curious ant was following the scent of
something it had never smelled before
but something it knew it light
cricket blood
it began to search around waving its
antennae through the air to hone in on
the location of our meat offering and
bingo instantly it locked on and sprayed
formic acid on it
amazing how this thing knew how to
attack despite it not having met a prey
item nor enemy in its life
as soon as the ant realized the cricket
meat was not a threat it began to feed
from the wet guts of the cricket when it
was finished it left to return to the
nest to tell the others and here's where
things get super cool watch the swarm
emerge
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before long the meat was being devoured
by a swarm of carpenter ants who were
loving this strange new food they just
loved the taste of protein i wondered
how the ants were going to strategize
processing this huge chunk of meat some
ants break the meat pieces up and carry
them back to the nest some ants bury the
meat to conceal it while the ants eat
all the food on the spot and some ants
just carry the entire chunk
cooperatively back to the nest i
wondered what our carpenter ants were
gonna do i watched it looked to me like
the ants wanted to carry the meat chunk
but strangely they were carrying it away
from the nest entrance
okay perhaps they still needed to master
direction and coordination let's give
them some slack they're still noobs most
of the ants consume the soft edible
parts on the spot while a select few
individuals seem to want to move the
piece from its location presumably to
the nest but they kept carrying it
further from the nest
at some points when i had thought they
finally had it they stopped moving the
meat and just continued to devour so
funny these ants
let's just sit back for a few moments
now and watch the ants feed from the
meat chunk and let's see if they manage
to eventually carry it into the nest
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so close girls enjoy your first piece of
meat
so while they're busy managing this meat
chunk let's go ahead and feed another
piece of meat to our second ant colony
the ebony army
dropping in the meat anand found the
peace and began to feed
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the worker took a quick moment to clean
itself went back to eat some more
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then headed back to the colony to tell
its fellow workers of the new food it
found outside
now the ebony army swarm took a bit
longer to emerge
one thing i noticed was that see that
worker there it was still full from
their last sweet jelly feeding the
colony had recently eaten jelly as you
saw in our last video so my guess was
they weren't that hungry yet but a few
ants were still interested in the new
food type and flavor of our cricket meat
and soon a small gathering of ants were
on site eating the cricket meat
alright we'll come back to the ebony
army in a little bit but meanwhile let's
feed our other carpenter ant colonies
and get a quick update on each
opening the ac test tube portal and
dropping in some cricket me for colony
2. looking at the colony colony 2 was an
impressive size they had about 20
workers or so and a lot of brood they've
been doing very well and look a worker
went rushing in and began to wake
everyone up because it had found some
amazing new food that tasted so good
unlike anything they'd ever had before
the ant did its best to excite the other
ants wafting its i found food pheromone
all around
and even giving one of the ants a tiny
taste of what it had eaten
before long several ants emerged one by
one to feed from the piece of meat this
was just so satisfying to watch
feed colony three colony three was also
quite massive about 20 workers and lots
of brood
a couple ants honed in on the scent of
the meat
and began to feed again those that fed
came back to the nest to inform the
others of the awesome new food they had
eaten which caused more ants to emerge
to enjoy the new cricket stake
colony iv
colony iv was doing super well less
workers than the last two colonies but a
bigger brood pile and look how fat the
queen is this colony was also very
impressive now so many of you were
wondering about queen 5 which turned out
to be an unfertilized queen ant well
she went on to give birth to a whole lot
of mail ants so yeah still unfertilized
and unable to found a legit ant colony
just a fleet of mail ants on the way
still don't know what i'm gonna do with
them but i fed them as well
gave them the head enjoy all that tender
head meat guys
colony six also an impressive size with
lots of brood look at the various jelly
colors in the larvae's bellies
i threw them a chunk
and finally remember colony eight who
suffered the most damage from our colony
mixing experiment a few weeks back well
check them out now
they've got some cocoons developing
which means more workers on the way
thank goodness they still had four
workers who were doing an excellent job
of caring for the queen and the young
there were many eggs and larvae on the
way as well i knew this colony would be
strong and prolific in no time i made
sure to give them some good pieces of
meat
the protein would really help the larvae
grow much more quickly
and that was it checking back on the
redwood warriors and they were still
unable to drag the piece into the nest
but i knew they would process this chunk
of meat just fine in the wild there
could be interlopers coming around
wanting to steal their precious find but
here in the ant tower they didn't have
to worry about thieves
the redwood warriors looked super happy
having eaten their first taste of meat
they ran all around the nest a worker
ant came to regurgitate some of the
cricket meetup to feed a larva this
valuable surplus of protein would truly
accelerate the growth of the larvae now
and helped the queen produce more eggs
the workers made sure to regurgitate
some of the goods up to feed the queen
as well
i was super happy the redwood warriors
finally were able to feed on meat as for
the ebony army a mini swarm were feeding
now from the chunk and man it was
awesome to see them with full bellies
inside the nest i caught workers feeding
their queen
again it was just so gratifying knowing
our ant colonies were truly enjoying
their first prey insect meat chunks i
would continue to feed them prey insects
in the weeks to come along with their
usual sweet jelly
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by the way guys real quick if any of you
have wanted to get into the ant keeping
hobby with me and you're interested in a
great beginner ant farm these ac ant
tower smalls are now at 20 off at
antscanada.com until january 1st as well
as our ac hybrid nest minis and on top
of that if you use the promo code ant
love forever 21 you get our ultimate ant
keeping handbook ebook complete with
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they make an awesome holiday gift for
anyone who loves ants we ship worldwide
and also offer full email support if you
need our help plus if you didn't catch a
queen ant this season and need ants just
visit the queen ants for sale tab to
look for ant colony sellers in your area
just a reminder i recommend you order
now or anytime before december 17 if
within the us
or december 10th if outside the u.s if
you hope to receive your package before
christmas december 25th we have a
limited supply so get your ac ant farms
now before they run out for the year
also the ant towers do not come with
wood as i made these wood pieces myself
but they do include sand for the ants to
dig i'd love for you guys to keep ants
with me it's super easy and fun
and so concludes another awesome day for
our pet carpenter ants i'd say today was
a success and they truly enjoyed their
first taste of prey meat did you enjoy
watching them enjoy their food what
other things would you like to see them
try let me know in the comments after
all variety is the spice of life just a
reminder though i come from an area
where i know they don't spray pesticides
so it was safe for me to feed our ants
this cricket despite it being wild
caught it's much safer to feed ants prey
insects that have been raised by you or
farm-raised for the pet hobby like
crickets feeder roaches mealworms super
worms etc i'd say it's better safe than
sorry anyway happy belated thanksgiving
to all our american ac family and to all
the fellow ant keepers watching may your
ants feast to their little ant hearts
desire until next week ac family thank
you all so much for watching and
supporting the ants it's ant love
forever
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you