Welcome everyone to our AC Antiverse.
Night has fallen and everything is still.
The whole world is asleep, but the ants are up working their night shifts within the safe
havens of their carefully crafted palaces.
At Silver Rock Canyon here, the Dark Knights are busy making their way to and from their
newly introduced nest, but little do they know there is someone creeping along their
escarpment, snooping around the fringes of their territories.
It's a black crazy ant!
Oh no!
Have the Dark Knights found a breech in our tubes?!
Have they found an escape?!
It's over!
Now hold on, one sec.
What will surprise you is this ant is not a member of the Dark Knights.
No, she is an outsider.
AC Family, introducing feral ants!
Today we take a look at the ants that live on the outside, ants with free roam of my
place.
Now hold on, I know what you're thinking "Ew gross what?!
His place has ants?!".
Well, actually here in the tropics, we have no choice but to deal with domestic ants and
I'll explain why in this video, and show you what it's like to literally live with ants.
And a special treat, many of you have been asking for humane ways to help get rid of
pest ants from your home.
Well, I'll cover that too, and separate the truth from the myths!
You won't want to miss all of this wild ant goodness ahead, so AC Family, let's take a
step back and turn our eyes upon the outsiders, the savages of our ant world, as we look at
feral ants, in this episode of the AntsCanada Ant Channel.
Please SUBSCRIBE to my channel and hit the bell icon!
Hope this video doesn't make you itchy!
Enjoy!
It's garbage disposal hour, and my trash is about to be tied up, and picked up to be taken
far away.
Out on my balcony where all organic trash is kept, the collecting smells are attracting
some wanderers.
Let's look.
Black Crazy ants are brewing, scouting the area for any food they can find.
Believe it or not, here in the tropics, no matter how clean you keep your place, you
are forced to deal with ants just like these.
They manage to find their way around and inside your home.
It's just an inescapable fact of life.
They make their unwelcome entrances through various holes in the home like, as is in my
case, through the drainage and piping.
These black crazy ants visit my home every afternoon right before my garbage is disposed
and carried away.
So, just for kicks, let's summon forth these feral black crazy ants, shall we?
Let's give them a taste of the rich delicacies our Dark Knights get to enjoy.
Let's give them some decadent raw honey imported from Canada.
Surely something these feral ants have never tasted before.
Savages, come show yourselves!
Ok...
Come on...
Don't be shy!
Alright one ant discovers the honey, and soon a second, but it runs off to tell the colony.
A third worker, followed by more, and notice how some of them decide not to stay to eat
but instead run back to the colony to tell them of the news first so they can get more
members to the site as soon as possible to drink up the food.
And here comes the rest of the colony.
Efficient little ones aren't they?
These black crazy ants are the same species as our captive colony, the Dark Knights, but
let's take a moment to compare their differences: The Dark Knights vs this Savage Tribe of Black
Crazy ants.
Shall we?
OK, our valiant Dark Knights here, with the exception of the queens, were all born in
captivity under the watchful care of we, the AC Family.
Always protected from predators, the elements, and stress.
These ants however born from the Savage Tribe were all born in the wild, having grown up
constantly on the move, dodging a plethora of animals wanting to eat them, dealing with
challenges like disease, rain, and other competing feral ant colonies, all while chasing vital
resources like food and water for their entire lives.
And speaking of food, one could say our Dark Knights have it pretty good, as they get fed
every day, various morsels, and for them, it simply just falls from the sky.
The feral ants, however have to work for it, actually needing to forage for their food.
They search high and low for it, and I am certain they move from condo unit to condo
unit in my entire high rise building looking for homes with available food.
And when these feral ants can't find food in my place, guess where they look next to
steal it from - our ants!
Watch this feral ant trying to look for ways into the Dark Knight's setup.
It can smell that there's food inside, that our Dark Knights are well-fed.
I see ants from the savage tribe trying to do this even though the Dark Knights would
totally kill this ant had it entered the Dark Knight's Kingdom.
That is how desperate these savage ants are.
I actually see ants from the Savage Tribes checking out the Dark Knights territories
often.
Sometimes, I imagine these savage ants wish they could join the Dark Knights.
Look at it just standing there.
Could it be Hungry?
Sad?
Both?
OK cue Ariel's "PART OF YOUR WORLD" song.
Perhaps this is proof that it's truly better on this inside.
The persistence of these feral ants is actually quite admirable, and it's this persistence
that keeps my housekeeper and I on our toes, forcing us to go the extra mile to keep my
place as clean of food as humanly possible, so these feral ants cannot find a single crumb
of food anywhere.
AC Family, so check out what I gotta do because of these ants first, as mentioned all organic
waste is kept outside on my balcony, and never left sitting around in my kitchen or anywhere
in my home, not under the sink in a bin like my family used to do growing up in Canada,
and it absolutely must be disposed daily.
The garbage man picks it up every evening.
Next, as an avid coffee drinker, all sugar and creamer must be pre-packaged and not just
sitting open inside jars.
No matter how tightly fitting the jars are, the ants find a way inside.
Also, get this, anything open including boxes of cereal, oatmeal, chocolate bars, coffee
beans, trail mix, fruits, pretty much food of any kind even if they don't require refrigeration,
must be placed into the fridge, I mean, the Silver Glacier, so it is untouchable by feral
ants.
And our famously treasured honey, which cannot be placed in the fridge because it would be
rock hard, must instead be protected by a moat, in a bowl of water.
But, not so fast!
Ants haven't survived for millions of years and a mass extinction for nothing.
Some feral ants are extra crafty.
Despite all these measures, sometimes the ants are able to catch things, we humans overlook
and find ways to get what they need from us.
Presenting my aquarium, a dangerous pool of fish that would relish any ant that had the
misfortune of slipping in.
But look!
If we inspect closer, despite this swirling pool of death below, there are some feral
ants that are managing to steal from the very menacing fish that wish to eat them.
AC Family, these little thieves are Destructive ants (Trichomyrmex destructor).
These ants are small enough to fit into this tightly sealed container of fish food, right
through the spaces between the ridges that keep the lid screwed on.
These buggers!
Off!
Guess, I need to put my fish food into the Silver Glacier, as well.
Unlike the savage tribe of Black Crazy Ants, these destructive ants are new to my place.
They must have moved in this week, and now that I've removed their bounty, they'll probably
move out in the next couple of days.
We gotta give it to them, though.
Assuming the destructive ants came in from somewhere outside, the fact that one ant managed
to wander around my place, find this container of fish food then travel all the way back
outside to tell its family is pretty amazing!
That's some hundreds of thousands of miles of foot travel if it were the size of a human.
Now, the destructive ants are not the only new kids on the block.
There are also some other tiny ants that moved into my place just a month ago.
AC Family, introducing to you Ghost ants, Tapinoma melanocephalum.
I used to have a colony of Ghost ants, but gave them to a friend after acquiring the
Fire Nation and the Dark Knights.
Well, turns out, a few months later a feral colony of ghost ants decided to move in and
they have a likening to the Golden Empire and the Dark Knight's setup.
Let's give them a bit of our ants' cherished honey, too, so we can get a better look.
These ghost ants get their name because of their dark heads and semi-transparent gasters
which kinda make them look like they are floating ant heads, and guess what.
I discovered exactly where in my place they were setting up residence.
No, not my laundry bin.
I don't think any living thing can survive in there.
But venturing in my walk-in closet, I followed them up and into my drawer where I keep some
old books.
Those little sneaks!
So what am I going to do about these ants, you ask?
Well, surprise of the century: NOTHING!
I sorta don't mind that they come reside temporarily at my place.
They're a bit of a nuisance yes, but, as mentioned earlier, ant colonies like these come and
they go and they are in inescapable part of life in the tropics.
And for you AC Family members who do live in a tropical country, that might be saying
to yourselves "So you mean there are places in the world where it's not normal to have
ants living in the home?"
Yes!
I know in Canada and US, if you find ants in the home it's a very serious and scary
matter.
Once I had a family member visit from Canada sleep over for the first time, and just as
he was about to head to bed, he saw a trail of ants on the floor.
I told him not to worry as the ants are normal.
He then told me he was checking in to the nearest 5 star hotel!
Haha!
Oh, well!
One reason I don't mind these feral ants being around is that they prey on other bad pestiferous
insects like termites from entering my place.
Plus the ants are food to the cute house geckoes which appear here and there and which I also
don't mind sharing my place with.
Only thing is they leave me presents periodically that I need to clean up.
OK, but what if you're not as willing to share your home with feral ants?
Understandable!
How do you get rid of pest ants in the home safely?
Well, there's good news and there's bad news.
Bad news first!
The bad news is, in most cases, there is no 100% sure-fire way to evacuate pest ants from
a home humanely.
The only way to get rid of ants with the most certainty is to hire an exterminator, but
even then the ants can come back, so you will need to hire the ant killers again and again.
OK, but the good news is, there are ways to help discourage ants from staying with you
after they've started to appear in your home!
Let's go over them.
First, I wanna settle this big "Cucumber Theory" once and for all.
I've been hearing people say that ants hate cucumbers.
So, let's conduct an experiment and try placing a slice of cucumber around these ants and
see.
Hmm....
unphased.
Maybe a second slice?
Hmmm....
Nope, doesn't look like the ants really care about the cucumber.
And some ants are passing right through between them stress-free!
Ok so the cucumber method is a flop!
Let's cover some effective methods, I recommend!
First, Vinegar!
This is your secret weapon to destroying pest ant traffic signs and billboards!
It is the bane to their "Ant Google Maps", so to speak.
You see, ants communicate through pheromones, biochemicals laid on surfaces that tell ants
various things, like where to go for food, where to go to find the nest, etc.
So, I suggest that when mopping, use vinegar as it is effective at breaking down biological
compounds, including the ants' pheromones.
My house keeper and I make sure to only use vinegar when cleaning my floors, counter tops,
walls, and furniture.
It is an effective and eco-friendly natural cleaner.
If you can keep getting rid of the ants' pheromonal trails, the ants will be like tourists without
Google Maps and won't be able to do what they need to do properly!
Next keep all food away!
Make sure not a single crumb can be found anywhere.
Bring all garbage outside, and after meals clean up immediately.
Place leftovers in the fridge, as well as any other open food.
I highly recommend you follow what I do in this video if you have an ant problem!
Make your place a ghost town for the ants and they will be more likely to move out of
your home.
This includes, and here's a big one - pet food!
If you have a dog or cat, pest ants love your pets' food!
Don't leave the food out 24-7.
Leave them out just for the duration that your pets are eating.
You can even place your pets' food bowls in a pan of water to create a moat while the
food is left out.
Always clean up the areas after meals of any crumbs left behind, as well.
Another thing you can do is create this super slippery stuff: Baby powder mixed with rubbing
alcohol, the mixture we use to line our outworlds.
When dried, it is super slippery for ants so place a band of this mixture around the
legs of tables you don't want the ants to have access to.
You can place the band of mixture in discreet places under the table so guests don't raise
their eye brows.
Hopefully, these tips when applied over time will help you get rid of these feral pest
ants.
It may take awhile even a several months, but basically the ants live where they are
getting the resources they need and if you cut them off from these resources, they have
no choice but to move out!
So be as persistent as the feral ants are and stick with it, and you may see them dwindling
in numbers over time.
There is, however, in my mind, one ultimate ECO-FRIENDLY solution to getting rid of pest
ants, but it just hasn't been invented yet.
And that is, someone needs to hack into their ant programming!
Check this: so ants are actually very simple creatures that are programmed to perform a
specific set of tasks to specific stimuli.
For example, as you saw earlier, the feral black crazy ants smelled a "here's food pheromone"
laid down by ants coming from our drop of honey, and the ants simply followed the pheromone
trail to the honey.
If they smell a "Time to move the colony out to so and so place" pheromone, the workers
will pick up the brood and guide the queen to the new location.
In fact, this simple programming is how the "Ant Circle of Death" pheonomenon works in
ants.
It is possible for a trail of ants to somehow double on themselves and keep moving in an
inescapable circle until they tire out and die of exhaustion.
They are unable to reason "Hey, we're going in a circle and are getting nowhere.
Let's stop and try something else."
Instead, they just follow the biochemical instructions to keep moving to their mysterious
destination and ask no questions.
So, therefore, the only eco-friendly way I could think of to get rid of pest ants is
if someone could analyze the biochemical makeup of these pheromones that get ants to move
somwhere and duplicate it in the lab, then use this synthetic pheromonal solution to
lead ants out of ones home or in some kind of circle of death.
Of course, there would be some challenges, because well there are thousands of ant species
which presumably use different pheromonal languages, but imagine if we could come up
with pheromone solutions for the most common domestic pest ants?
That scientist inventor would create the ultimate eco-friendly solution to millions of people's
struggle with pest ants in the home around the world!
I see a multi-million dollar idea here!
Perhaps that person may be you, watching out there.
You, a member of the AC Family!
See?
Now, who says keeping ants can't improve the world in a huge way?Thank you so muc for wathing
and until next wee AC Family.
It's ant love forever.And yes, including those feral ants.
What's up AC Family?
So what did you think?
These savage ants are really pesky little buggers aren't they?
If anything, perhaps they're an example of PERSISTENCE is the key to success.
I mean look at this destructive ant risking its life to get a drink of water in this aquarium
where fish would to eat it!
Now if this video scared you folks who may be traveling to tropical countries because
you're afraid they'll get in your bed while you're sleeping, don't worry because the secret
to having your space ant-free is air conditioning.
This is what I do in my bedroom and the ants never come in because it's way too cold for
them.
And as usual, Inner Colony, I've placed a hidden cookie for you guys here for those
of you would just like to watch extended play footage of the ants in this video along with
some relaxing music!
And we can't end the video without the AC Question of the Week!
Last week we asked:
"Name one of the landmarks along the path to the Dark Knights' new Hybrid Nest and outworld."
Congratulations to Blue Helium who correctly answered The Knight's Drop.
We also accepted the Dragon's Stairway, the AC Plateau, the DK Bridge, the Cavern of Darkness,
the Wooden Cliffs, Silver Rock Canyon, and the Silver Galcier.
Congratulations Blue Helium, you just won a free ebook handbook from our shop.
For this week's Question of the Week, we ask:
Name one method to help keep ants out of your home!
Leave your answer in the comments section and you would win a free ant t-shirt from
our shop!
Hope you can subscribe to our channel as we upload new ant videos every Saturday at 8AM
EST!
Join the AC Family and let's discover the amazing world of ants together!
It's ant love forever!