Guys, it finally happened.
My massive, ravenous pet fire ant colony escaped their ant farm, and today you’ll see why
they broke out and what I had to do.
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Now I know what you guys might be thinking: Bust out the raid!
No way!
It’s not worth it!
There’s a better way, and I’ll show you exactly how I managed to recover them as well
as how and why my pet fire ants, the Phoenix Empire, escaped, so keep on watching until
the end.
Take note all you ant keepers with newly caught fire ant queens this year, this video may
be a peek into your not so distant future!
The ants were everywhere when I discovered them walking into my ant room one morning,
and it made my stomach drop because this was the worst colony to be free and loose in the
Ant Room!
So, first thing’s first!
I had to secure any and all creatures that were in direct danger, namely one of my tarantulas,
which I rehomed into a different enclosure now.
The Golden Empire, my yellow crazy ants colony, also shared the table top, next door to the
Phoenix Empire, but I wasn’t concerned about them, as they were protected in ac setups,
and were safe from outside fire ants breaking in.
Next, I needed to locate the breech.
Where had they broken out?
I immediately found that they had managed to break out from the single least secured
space of their setup.
This DIY section in which I used to offer their sweet jelly cups!
I quickly disconnected it and tapped all remaining ants into the outworld.
This is why I often avoid DIY ant farm setups, because if you have a species known to be
escape artists, like fire ants, you run a greater risk of a break out like this.
Now that all surrounding creatures were secured and the breech dealt with, I had to deal with
the masses of escaped fire ants.
Judging from the number of ants all around, it seemed it had only been a few hours since
the ants had broken loose.
I saw no movement of brood anywhere, thank goodness.
That would’ve been bad, if we saw the ants marching somewhere with brood, because that
would have meant that the colony had initiated an official emmigration and there was a chance
the queen had also moved out of the ant farm and into the room somewhere!
All ants wandering the table were scooped up using two paint brushes.
I have a tutorial on this channel on how to deal with escaped ants, and having two paint
brushes on hand to safely sweep up escaped ants is one of my favourite ways to handle
escapees!
I brushed them back into the outworld.
Lucky for me, I noticed that the ants had congregated in a bag of soil which I had laying
nearby!
Thank goodness!
I could easily scoop up the ants with soil and place them into the outworld, as well.
For the fire ants crawling all over the floors, which were now also making their way to my
bathroom where there was moisture, I vacuumed them all up with a hand vacuum, also a handy
tool for dealing with escapees, then tapped them all into the outworld to reunite with
the colony.
After literally 6 hrs of work, and many stings later, I was able to recover the escaped fire
ants.
This doesn’t happen often, but again when using DIY setups, there is always that risk
of escapes.
But guys, turns out there was a deeper reason the fire ants chose to escape.
After some investigation, I discovered why the Phoenix Empire, our beloved fire ants
had attempted this epic ‘break out’ in the first place.
I also can’t wait to show you, just how I plan on ensuring these ants don’t break
out like this again in the future!
Now over the almost 10 years of owning this species of fire ant, I’ve learned a lot
about what makes them do certain things, like attempt to escape a setup.
I find a fire ant colony that is content, well-fed, busy with life’s various activities,
with all provisions given, will typically not attempt to break-free.
However, if any of these things are not met in a satisfactory nature, the ants will have
no choice but to do all they can to escape in order to fulfill their needs.
For instance, if the colony is hungry due to not having enough meat or sugar, they’ll
attempt to escape.
If there’s not enough to do in their setup, like build tunnels or hunt, they’ll attempt
to escape.
If it’s too hot or cold, if their setup is too moist or dry, they’ll attempt to
escape.
So I looked to their setup, the City of Ashes, to find out why the ants had attempted to
escape.
I opened the Magma Chambers, their ac Hybrid Nest Mini, and woah!
Look at the colony just jam-packed inside!
Brood were piled up in the various chambers and highways of ants moved all around.
The colony had truly filled in this space nicely.
I then looked to the Fire Fortress, their ac Ant Tower, and as expected, jam-packed
with brood and ants.
And so, AC Family, I believed we had our answer.
The colony was outgrowing their setup.
They needed more nesting space, and evidence for that need of nest expansion was seen in
the fact that the colony was starting to move into that bag of nearby soil when they broke
out, as well as my bathroom.
And so, guys, behold!
The future satellite nest add-on to their setup.
I was waiting for the day I could introduce the colony to this ant farm!
This is a full-sized ac Hybrid Nest from antscanada.com, with very spacious tunnels and chambers.
This happens to be the Camponotus design, but it can be used for any species, and the
Phoenix Empire should truly appreciate all these spacious chambers.
It comes with four entrances into the nest, into which our ac tubing fit perfectly.
A porous floor with microholes that allow for humidity to evaporate upwards into the
nest by way of a water tub below, will give the colony all the moisture they need!
It’s a lot of state of the art ant tech and real estate for the ants, which I know
they’ll just love and need.
I’ve glued the glass down onto the Hybrid Nest using elmer’s school glue, and the
whole nest can be covered with a cover to keep them nice and dark.
Alright, and now to connect the colony!
My plan was to connect this portion of their setup containing water and sugar test tubes
to one hole of the Hybrid Nest, and the tube leading from the rest of the City of Ashes
to this hole.
The other two holes were plugged up using ac plugs which come with the kit.
I had placed a fresh roach into their outworld to create a diversion so there would be less
ants at our disconnection point.
OK!
Let’s do this, guys!
I had to work fast.
Disconnecting and connecting the tube to one hole, and the other to the other hole.
Now, let’s watch them move in!
Ants immediately began to march into the Hybrid Nest.
It was so awesome to see them traveling around, smelling and investigating all areas, they
could explore.
This nest would soon become Phoenix Empire territory!
Now, you might notice some areas of the nest look a bit soiled, and it’s because this
Hybrid Nest used to house a past ant colony of mine, and I’ve simply washed it and reused
it for our Phoenix Empire here, as these Hybrid Nests are definitely reusable.
In no time, the fire ants had established a clear trail to and from both entrances into
the nest, and I just loved watching the ants moving through this giant space which I couldn’t
wait to be filled with ants, brood, and crossing fingers the queen!
Alright, so now all we gotta do is cover the nest and come back later to see if they’ve
moved in.
A few minutes later, peeking into the nest… and woah!
Looks like the Hybrid Nest is the latest talk of the town!
Look at all those ants!
At this point you can see the ant highways, their trail patterns even more clearly!
See it?
The ants form primary lines along this general path.
So cool, right?!
I don’t know about you guys but I could literally watch this all day.
Another thing I loved was how I could really appreciate just how big our Phoenix Empire
has gotten.
I mean, just 5 months ago or so, this colony was only a single queen ant with eggs!
Just amazing to see how mighty our beloved Phoenix Empire had become, and for a moment
I stared my ant-loving heart fulfilled.
I was quite happy the ants seemed to like this new space so far!
OK let’s cover them up and check up on their progress tomorrow!
The next day, I opened the Hybrid Nest to check up on the ants.
Had the colony moved in yet?
AC Family, this is what I saw.
The ants hadn’t moved in yet.
But the ants had moved some dirt and pebbles inside.
Just like when I first introduced their Hybrid Nest Mini, I suspect it will take some time
before they fully explore and trust the space enough to call it home.
It’s a smart survival strategy to not move the colony into a space immediately, no matter
how tempting, until enough ants have secured the area and made sure it isn’t some home
of a predator for instance, nor a place that randomly floods, for example.
I’m actually super thankful for this survival strategy, because it was this survival strategy
that also bought me enough time to recover the fire ants when they escaped into my ant
room, before they moved their royal queen out and all her brood.
Alright, I think you guys know what’s next.
What should we name this new massive addition to the City of Ashes?
What should we call this Hybrid Nest?
Leave your name suggestions in the comments, and I’ll choose my favourites for us to
vote on in a future video.
I’ve found ant keeping to be a funny relationship between human and ants, where we as the ant
keepers, need to constantly read the ants in order to know what they need as they grow
and evolve, seeing as they can’t exactly send us handwritten messages with a shopping
list.
As the ant keeper, or caregiver of any pet for that matter, I’ve learned it’s a constant,
never ending journey of detective work and reading the signs our pets give us, so we
could best fulfill our job as providers of all they need to live out their best lives,
and in the case of ant keeping, all for nothing but the fascination for nature in return.
It’s why I love keeping pet ants, even if they sting me or give me a heart attack by
escaping.
The fascination of it all is totally worth it!
Thank you all for watching and supporting the ants.
It’s ant love forever!
AC Family, did you enjoy today's episode?
Be honest!
Would you have used raid?
I’m glad we didn’t have to resort to pesticides or bug spray, but at least now you know what
to do if you ever need to recover an escaped colony.
So much more is ahead so if you haven’t yet, do SMASH that SUBSCRIBE button and BELL
ICON now, and hit ALL so you get notified at every upload, because I think notifications
are broken again.
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 scenes of the fire ants moving into their new Hybrid Nest.
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:
Which was your favourite creature in the Meadow of the Dwarves and why?
Congratulations to Lloyd Green Ninja who answered:
I liked the neon rainbowfish because of its color and they look AMAZING!!!
Congratulations Lloyd, you just won a free Ultimate Ant Keeping handbook from our shop!
In this week’s AC Question of the Week we ask:
What is one reason a fire ant colony might want to break out of their setup?
Leave your answer in the comments section and you could also win a free ebook handbook
from our shop!
Hope you could subscribe to the channel as we upload every Saturday at 8AM EST.
Please remember to LIKE, COMMENT, SHARE, and SUBSCRIBE if you enjoyed this video, to help
us keep making more.
It’s ant love forever!