Let's get fired up, AC Family!
We've got some action for you today!
When you own and care for an ant colony, overtime you develop a sort of understanding.
Eventually it gets to the point where you almost know what your colony needs, when they
need it, and how much of it they need.
It's almost like you form a psychic connection with your ants.
And for weeks now my massive fire ant colony, a colony you guys have named "The Fire Nation"
has been demanding that I add new living space to their setup.
The Fire Nation is now bigger and more voracious than ever and has been needing some new living
space, some fresh territory added to their lands.
So finally today, something amazing has arrived for them.
Behold, their new state of the art ant farm, our newest, baddest, larger and most advanced
ant farm yet, the AC Hybrid Nest 2.0.
Today we're moving them in, and learn about what happens when an ant colony picks up and
moves into fresh territory.
You won't want to miss all the awesome fire ant action ahead so keep on watching until
the end!
How will our Fire Nation take to this new specially designed home?
Find out here, in this episode of the AntsCanada Ant Channel.
Please subscribe to my channel and hit the bell icon.
Welcome to the AC Family.
Enjoy!
Let's cut right to it, AC Family.
Look at these fire ants, Solenopsis geminata.
They're ready to move into some fresh new space, and they've been ready for a long time
now.
Adding new living space and removing old living space is important for the health of an ant
colony because in the wild, the elements, creatures, and microbes help keep ant nests
fresh and clean.
New soils are moved into an ants nest by way of rains and other things like winds or animal
or plant activity.
Alternatively, ant colonies will literally pick up and move their entire colony to a
new location or dig their nests into new soils abandoning old tunnels that may have become
too soiled or too lived in.
In a captive ant farm setup, ant colonies don't have this luxury and are forced to deal
with the living space you give them for as long as you hold them in.
So it is important to cyclicly remove old parts of an ants' setup, especially if they
are not natural nests, and replace them with new living space so the ants can benefit from
fresh and clean nesting media.
I am actually in the process of drying out the Fire Nation's outworlds and removing them
from the network just to clean them out and allow them to breathe, free of ant activity
for several months.
So let's look at the Fire Nation's new future home, shall we?
I'm so excited!
A lot of you have been writing to us for years now asking us when our new improved Hybrid
Nests would release, well, the wait is finally over, AC Family.
Proudly presenting our newest flagship formicarium, the AntsCanada Hybrid Nest 2.0.
I've been waiting for so long for these to finally launch at AntsCanada.com, as they
have taken 2 yrs for the AC Team to develop, test, tweak, and improve.
Let's go over its exciting features for us ant keepers!
When you first receive your Hybrid Nest box you immediately notice its size.
This is a huge formicarium.
It is 10 inches long with a living space of 8 inches x 8 inches.
This houses thousands and thousands of ants.
You may notice this is our Formica Hybrid Nest version.
This is the first of our series of genus-inspired formicariums, and we will roll the other versions
out gradually in the coming months.
Though this design is inspired by nests belonging to the genus Formica, almost every species
can live in any of the designs.
Our Fire Nation will love this Hybrid Nest... hopefully.
If we compare its size to our old Hybrid Nests, you will see that these new Hybrid Nests are
much bigger by many times, and in case you wondering about the price, I'm happy to say
these new Hybrid Nests will cost a few dollars less than our previous Hybrid Nests.
So if you look at the cover you will see the name of the version of Hybrid Nest, as well
as an indented area.
I wanted this here for people like me who like to name their ant colonies or label them
by species like they do in museums.
A sticker or label can be placed here in this area for that.
Or you can simply write in this area with permanent marker.
Completely up to you!
Lifting the cover we see the beautiful interior of our Fire Nation's new luxurious home.
Look at all those rooms and corridors!
I cannot wait to see how the Fire Nation makes use of them.
You will also notice several openings on the sides.
There are two openings here and here which act as exits and entrances.
Our AC Test Tube Adapters fit perfectly inside so you can attach a new test tube colony directly
to the Hybrid Nest, and by the way if this is your first time seeing these new test tube
adapters, we have two sizes, one for smaller ants to keep their test tubes humid, and a
larger AC test tube adapter for your larger species like Camponotus and Pogonomyrmex.
You can also use these to accommodate water test tubes for the colony to drink, which
is what I'll be doing for the Fire Nation.
Of course these exits also accommodate our large size of tubing.
You'll also notice this smaller hole which runs to the other side of the Hybrid Nest,
and that is to fixate a heating cable if you're the type that likes to heat your ant colony
for quicker growth.
It is placed on one side so there is a good heating gradient for your ants to thermo regulate
and choose where to position the colony according to their desired temperature preference.
These smaller peg holes above the heating cables are there for some planned features
which we will introduce sometime in the future.
You will notice that there are multiple levels and that the floor is slightly granulated.
This helps with foot traction as well as holding any digging medium in place in case you choose
to add some or in case your ants decide to drag some in from your outworld.
Now lifting the upper portion off the Hybrid Nest, you'll notice the hydration tray in
which you place your hydration medium of choice.
Water poured into this tub here flows freely underneath the living area of the ants and
humidifies the ant colony from below via these tiny microholes.
This is the Formica design, so about a 30% of the floor space is microholed, perfect
for most ants.
Other Hybrid Designs which will be releasing overtime over the next few months will have
slightly different humidity offerings.
No matter what species of ant you are keeping you want to maintain a humidity gradient with
some drier parts and some more moist parts so the ants can hydroregulate, super important
for the proper rearing of the young.
Every species has their moisture preference so it is always best to give them a varied
choice and this Hybrid Nest does exactly that.
But enough talk and theory.
It's time to see what the Fire Nation thinks of this custom-designed craft of ant technology.
Let's move the Fire Nation into their new home!
To setup, I first had to secure the glass onto the Hybrid Nest.
I always like to use Elmer's school glue because it is non-toxic and easy to use.
I allowed it to dry over 12 hrs.
Also, I had to add my hydration medium.
For the Fire Nation, I am going to use cotton and toilet paper, but you can also use soil,
Ytong, sponge, water gels, perlite, sand, or whatever media you know your ants like.
I also only put it in the areas under the microholes, but you can fill the entire tray
if you so choose.
This will hold moisture longer if you're the type that doesn't want to have to water every
two or three days.
So my plan was to add pieces of large tubing into the two exits and cut this highly traveled
small tubing, which we call the Geminata Pass that connects the Fire Palace, the rubbermaid
bin, with the surrounding outworlds, and attach the ends here and here.
On the other holes I was going to place water test tubes for the colony to drink from.
All Hybrid Nests also come with perforated plugs in case you want to plug any of the
exits up.
But for the Fire Nation, I wanted this new home to have a function.
I wanted it to be a drinking station, just so it gave the ants a greater reason to move
in to this space and call it home.
So here we go, AC Family, first I had to put on some gloves because as we saw a couple
videos back, these girls pack a good sting!
Alright 1 - 2 - 3.
I cut the Geminata Pass and quickly attached the ends to the two exits.
All escapees were snatched up and thrown back into the Fire Palace.
Instantly, the ants were alarmed at the sudden shifting of their trail which prior to this
moment remained untouched for many months, and they became wary and curious at the new
smell of the Hybrid Nest.
They stammered about, rather confused at first, but then they began to wander into the Hybrid
Nest.
More and more ants came and began to snoop around.
I knew it wouldn't be long before the ants on both ends would find each other and meet
and establish a new trail running through their new Hybrid Nest.
No ant had wandered yet towards the water test tubes.
I covered the nest and allowed the ants to move in.
Let's see their progress 1 hour later.
Lifting the lid.
Wow!
Looks like the move is well under way.
Ants are drinking from the water tubes and the ants are moving about excitedly inside.
They've also established a trail within the Hybrid Nest.
Let's come back later.
2 hours later the fire ant trails running through the Hybrid Nest were now solidified
and very apparent.
Every time I came back to check up on the ants, the trails became more obvious and the
ants more excited about their new home.
I loved watching the ants establishing their trails!
It was like watch ant highways.
Don't they just look mesmerizing?
I could seriously watch this all day, every day.
How about you, guys?!
So the Fire Nation will take a few more days still before they
elect this Hybrid Nest a suitable nesting location.
I will know when they will start to truly call this home when they start moving the
brood into here.
I will be sure to keep you guys updated on their progress.
For now, the ants will continue to leave their pheromones on the surface of the Hybrid Nest
and mark their territory.
Though I do like natural nests involving dirt, I do also love keeping ants in dirtless formicariums
like this because you can actually see the interior nest activities of the ant colony
uninhibited, not just what happens outside of the nest.
Hopefully, soon we'll even catch a glimpse of the queen whom we haven't seen for over
a year!
Let's hope, AC Family.
And by the way, what should we name this new ant territory?
Leave your name suggestions in the comments and I will choose my top 5 favourites for
the AC Family to vote on in a future video.
So if you would like to get yourself one of these cool Hybrid Nests, I have placed links
to this item at our shop in the description box of this video.
The new Hybrid Nests now ship out in less than a week from purchase date and just a
reminder that we do ship worldwide.
Hope you guys can join me at admiring ants in the comfort of your own home.
It's really a different thing observing ants in person than through a Youtube video.
Thanks for watching another episode of the AntsCanada Ant Channel.
This is AntsCanada signing out!
It's ant love forever.
Alright, AC Family, so what did you think?
Do you like the Fire Nation's new nest addition?
Don't forget to leave your name suggestions in the comments for this new section of the
Fire Nation's territory!
I hope you ant lovers out there get a chance to own one of these Hybrid Nests one day and
see how cool it is to watch ants living in it.
AC Inner Colony, I have left a hidden cookie for you here, if you would just like to watch
extended play footage of the ants moving in to their new Hybrid Nest.
And now it's time for the AC Question of the Week!
2 weeks ago, we asked:
List one reason why the praying mantis was an ideal
predator to control the Golden Empire's population.
Congratulations to Animals and Stuff who correctly answered:
The reason the praying mantis is an ideal Predator is
because the are smart, have great eye sight, move with
slow motion but also move quickly if needing to get to safe ground, she can also fend for
her self with no issues, can move without the ants noticing her and also kick ants off
her.
Very thorough answer!
Congratulations Animals and Stuff you just won a free ebook handbook from our shop!
In this week's AC Question of the Week, we ask:
What does an ant colony do when their current nest gets too dirty or too lived in?
Leave your answer in the comments section and you could win one of these brand new Hybrid
nests 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!