Welcome to the future Ant House…
It’s the up and coming place for all the ant colonies and beasts on this channel to
live, as well as our new home, AC Family.
Over 4 thousand square meters of tropical forest, field, and farmland, as well as home
to dozens of local ant species for us to discover and possibly keep.
We’ll be moving in very soon, and I just can’t wait!
But, there’s just one problem.
You see there is a great ant war happening in our yard, and it seems the current conquerors
with the upper hand are fire ants!
I’ll explain everything in this video.
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Welcome to the AC Family!
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So if you’re new to the channel, the Ant War happening in the yard of our future ant
house is between a team of Native Ants, who’ve lived here since forever, and a team of invasive
ants, who’ve been introduced here via human activities many years ago.
What’s bad is, the invasive ants compete with the native ants for food, resources,
and space and can totally disrupt an ecosystem.
Today, I did a quick survey of the land and it does seem that sadly Team Invasive are
winning.
I’ll be needing your help for suggestions as to what to do towards the end of the video,
so do keep on watching until the end.
Now before we have a look at the swarm of fire ants I filmed this week, I wanted to
show you these guys which I spotted.
I think you’ll love them!
Take a look!
I saw a huge group of these little orange and black bugs on the trunk of one of the
trees.
AC Family, do you know what they are?
Turns out these are good guys in our yard!
Native and important.
These are baby Assassin Bugs, scientific name Vesbius purpureus.
I knew they were babies because they were radiating outward on the bark from this egg
sac.
Assassin bugs are part of the order of insects known as Hemiptera, the order of true bugs,
and yes, the name bug is often commonly used to describe any insect or critter, but in
science and to be factual, not all critters are ‘bugs’, but these assassin bugs are.
There are over 7,000 described species of assassin bugs around the world and they come
in different shapes and colours.
As mentioned, they are very important predators in an ecosystem.
If you look closely at their face, you’ll see a long tube-like appendage known as a
proboscis, which has a sharp end and acts like a straw, which they stab into their prey
and use to suck up all the juices, meat, and guts from their prey’s bodies.
Pretty gruesome, right?
I’d hate to be an insect killed by an assassin bug!
They’re called Assassin Bugs because they ambush their prey and pounce!
I was happy to see these predators around because nearby, AC Family, gathering above
the soil were some insects that I didn’t like to see around.
AC Family, fire ants!
Fire ants are some of the world’s most formidable invasive insects.
Originally native to the harsh tropics of South America, fire ants are aggressive, their
colonies grow extremely quickly in the abundance of food, they sting, they prey on all meats,
they culture and protect plant pests, they can survive floods by floating on water, as
we’ve seen in previous video of our Phoenix Empire swimming and even scuba diving using
body bubbles in their semi-aquatic setup, and are highly adapted to a variety of environments.
They also sweep the floor and eat everything!
Here they are feasting on a piece of chicken bone.
Have a look at the carnage!
This chicken bone was probably tossed here via one of the construction workers who had
chicken wings during his lunch break.
Little did he know, this would feed one of the most dangerous forces in our yard!
After a quick survey of the yard, I did see a few colonies of good ants from Team Native
Ants, including Weaver ants, Flower Ants, Marauder Ants, and Slender Ants, but the concentration
and density of such colonies had clearly decreased from last year, and I attribute it to the
fire ants driving them out and displacing them.
I also spotted several black crazy ants, also a very dangerous invasive ant species, carrying
a fish bone across the ground to their nest somewhere.
No!
And so, AC Family, here is our problem now.
It seems just based on a quick survey of the yard that Team Invasive ants are winning.
I suspect it can be in part due to the fact that the construction of the house in this
area of the yard has necessitated us to temporarily clear a lot of important shrubbery and thus
habitat that the native ants seem to need.
Also, the lack of shrubbery has exposed the topsoil to sun and has thus dried out the
soils a bit at many areas of the yard, which may have also made it hard for some of the
native ants to thrive, giving the invasive ants which can pretty much adapt to nesting
in dry areas to advance and grow in numbers.
Once the Ant House is completed in a few months, I definitely intend to start replanting shrubbery
and trees in the area, as well as cover the dried surfaces with mulch to help the soils
moisten up again.
I feel this will help Native Ants make the return to our yard.
Thankfully, upon investigating the side lot, which we haven’t touched nor spoiled, as
well as the lush forest at the back of the property which you saw in a previous video,
which we also don’t intend on touching, the ant biodiversity of native ants is thriving,
and I literally see zero fire ant and black crazy ant colonies in those areas.
So, here’s where I ask you guys for your opinions and help.
Should we just go the natural route and create more habitat for the native ants once the
Ant House is completed, or should we take additional measures, like uprooting fire ant
colonies all over the yard and pouring boiling water on them.
This idea sounds extremely cruel to me, because I realize it’s not the fire ants’ fault
that they are here, but this is something I have read senior myrmecologists suggest
doing for those with fire ant problems because they are so ecologically devastating.
It seems we’re caught in a bit of a moral dilemma here, AC Family.
In a previous video where Marauder Ants were invading my current temporary home and space,
I just fed them and they retreated, but that definitely won’t work here because the marauder
ants are native, and these fire ants are invasive, and feeding them would only give them the
resources to grow their colonies bigger and more powerful which we don’t want.
I also am unwilling to use bug spray or pesticides, guys, so if you were about to type this to
suggest it, just no.
This is non-negotiable.
Anyway, what this very difficult situation has taught me is that it is super important
to protect our natural spaces.
Yes, I acknowledge that the native ants of this area, didn’t ask for us to come here
and build a house, but our Ant House once done, and once we start creating more and
more of these ant videos which you guys all seem to really enjoy, will be a continual
and radial source of information on ants and the value of conservation, which I hope in
turn will inspire people everywhere to protect their local ecosystems.
You guys can also all start to support your native ants in your backyard by planting more
trees and shrubs to create more natural habitats and niches for your native ants to occupy,
as well as use eco-friendly products to ensure you don’t contribute to the constant poisoning
of ecosystems.
Yes, the ants and insects didn’t ask for us humans to build homes and cities on their
land, and to be fair, I realize you watching personally also never asked for it so it’s
not your fault either.
All of us living things are just doing what we need to do to survive.
Survival is what drives all of us, ants, assassin bugs, and humans alike.
So I say, though we can’t just move somewhere else, the least we can do is try to fit in
without making too much of a mess, and spread the word to protect and restore natural spaces,
for those important creatures that are living with us.
I can’t wait to hear your suggestions to our Antopian fire ant predicament.
We move in, along with the ants and beasts we love, in just a few more months.
Hang tight, AC Family for the new Antopian Era!
Thank you all for watching and supporting the ants.
It’s ant love forever!