Oh boy!
AC Family, we did it!
We finally reached 1 million subscribers on this channel!
You guys are absolutely amazing!
Thank you.
Because you all have shown the ultimate love by tuning in each week watching these ant
videos, today I too have decided to finally take up the ultimate challenge.
Years ago, I told myself I would never attempt such a crazy stunt, because I always feared
and respected the sheer power of the world infamous fire ants.
Having owned colonies of fire ants for years, I know all too well that they are aggressive,
fearless, hungry, and deliverers of extreme pain to anything or anyone who has the misfortune
of being stung by their potent stingers.
Though I love the videos of folks like Coyote Peterson and RIP Steve Irwin, I've always
felt there were other creative ways to showcase the amazing aspects of animals besides endangering
myself or allowing them to inflict bodily harm.
But today, I changed my mind.
I wanted to try an experiment.
Today, I was going to stick my hand into the Fire Nation, but here's the catch I was going
to do it completely covered in honey.
Would the ants simply feed from my hands and not attack me, or would they riddle me with
their potent stingers?
Keep on watching until the end to find out, and also just a note, we will also be giving
out some cool prizes including a free complete ant setup from AntsCanada.com, so look out
for details on that, all at the end of this video!
AC Family, welcome to the 1 Million subscribers episode of the AntsCanada Ant Channel.
Please SUBSCRIBE to my channel, and hit the bell icon.
Welcome to the AC Family.
Enjoy!
Ladies and gentlemen, presenting the Fire Nation.
If you're new to the channel, this here was the ant colony that began the world wide explosion
of ant love on this channel.
This ant colony has been featured on sites of the likes of National Geographic and Discovery
Channel, and rightfully so.
This red tropical fire ant colony, named the Fire Nation, of the species Solenopsis geminata
is truly a great force to recokon with!
This colony started off as a medium-sized ant colony of about a couple thousand members,
but has now grown to a massive colony that I estimate to be at over 1 million workers,
so I thought for our 1 million subscriber video, it would be more than appropriate to
feature them in their firey glory.
The Fire Nation is always on the move, they never stop working, and are always ready to
attack should the situation require it!
Now, what's totally amazing is that hiding somewhere within this enormous colony is one
queen, yes, just one who is laying all the eggs.
Each of these workers live for about a month or two, but this egg-laying queen whom they
protect with their lives, lays somewhere deep in this nest.
She lives for years and years, simply laying eggs nonstop to keep this entire fire ant
colony growing and functioning.
Fire ants recently trended online due to the mass formations of living rafts during the
recent Texas Hurricane floodings.
On this channel, we've seen how adapted fire ants are to floods, where we watched this
colony totally prove to us that in the ant world fire beats water.
But let's get to this experiment shall we?!
Fire ants get their name due to the notorious firey pain felt from their stings.
At the ends of their gasters they possess long retractable stingers which act like hypodermic
needles, capable of injecting a potent dose of a neurotxin called Solenopsin.
This venom is strong enough to completely immobilize small prey in seconds, and for
larger animals, it's truly an excruciating experience, one I was willing to undergo,
in the name of ant love.
And here's where the ant love part comes in.
My relationship with these fire ants has always been a sort of one way love.
I've cared for them all this time to the best of my ability, feeding them, cleaning after
them, expanding their home, but my interaction with them was always met with their natural
agression, with me sometimes leaving with a sting or two while working around them despite
wearing gloves.
They naturally always treated me like an enemy, an intruder.
This was just expected as they were simply following their instincts.
To them, I was a threat to their colony's livelihood, or possibly even potential food
for the colony.
But then I considered, what if, for once, I came to them not as an intruder, but rather
as a benevolent agent bearing a gift.
And what better gift than their favourite food - honey.
It was official, AC Family.
I was going to stick my hand into the Fire Nation covered in the sweetest honey I had.
Perhaps this time, I could feel the joy of having these ravenous and beloved beasts actually
feeding from my very hand.
This was going to be epic!
Now before I proceed I must warn you guys to NEVER, EVER try this at home!
This is very dangerous, and if a recipient of an ant sting happens to be allergic to
their venom, it could lead to a serious reaction or even death, so this challenge should actually
not be called a challenge at all.
I don't want AC Family out there to be trying this.
I know for a fact that I am not allergic to their stings, because I've been working with
these ants for years and have been stung by them before.
I was willing to try this as an experiment, and I also had all medication on hand in case
I needed it, as well as after-care products.
I am an adult, but if you out there watching are a kid or a teenager, once again do not
attempt this!
Actually, even if you're an adult, don't try this at all.
Please.
So, AC Family, here were my tools.
I still needed gloves for this experiment.
One for my left hand, and the other was for my right hand, but I needed to cut it up.
This was going to be the smooth surface to stop the fire ants from climbing up my arm
while in contact with the ant nest.
My plan was to make it form a sleeve above my wrist, and it had to sit tightly against
my skin so fire ants wouldn't be able to get under it.
So, I needed to tie it up.
Yes, AC Family, you better believe I was sweating thinking about the craziness I was about to
get into.
The next step, was to apply copious amounts of baby powder on this sleeve.
This would cause any ants attempting to climb up my arm to slip off.
I needed the dry surface of the glove sleeve to hold this baby powder because if I were
to put it all on just my skin, for sure the baby powder would soak up all my sweat and
render it ineffective at being a slippery barrier.
I did also add baby powder on my skin to keep my sweat from dripping onto the sleeve.
I also had a jug of water ready in case I needed to wash all honey and ants off my hand.
And now it was time to add the honey.
Here we go!
My heart was racing like crazy.
And just like that, I was now ready to stick my honey-covered hand into the Fire Nation.
AC Family, watch what happened.
OK here we go.
This is going to be the craziest thing I have ever done ever in my life and I've done a
lot of crazy stuff.
But I am curious to see what an interaction with these ants is like where it is not an
aggressive interaction, because usually it is an aggressive interaction.
So let's try it.
Wish me luck, AC Fam.
Here goes nothing.
1 2 3...
They aren't biting me yet.
Ahhhh!
They are biting me now.
Ahh...
Ahhh...
Ah it's hurting.
Ok, I can't do this!
I can't do this!
Ahh.
Ah!
Ow!
Ahhh!
Ow.
Ow...
Ahh...
Ow...
Oooohhh....
In the name of ant love!
Ouch!
That hurts.
That's hurts a lot.
Ok so.
I'll show you where they've stung me.
They've stung me here.
Over here ah it's burning.
On here.
They've stung me here.
They stung me.
Yeah this is really burning here.
Where else have they stung me?
Mostly here and here.
I'm assuming that my sweat combined with the honey and they knew I was not food, or if
ever they knew I was food and they wanted to eat my hand.
Ohhh.
That really hurts.
And there you have it!
I lasted about 23 seconds.
The fire ants began to sting me around the 12 second mark.
It seems there's no fooling these ants.
Their sense of smell is certainly on point and I am certain along with the sweet aroma
of honey that my hand was presenting to them, there was also that alarming and oh so familiar
human sweaty stench that caused them to go into attack mode.
The ants know me all too well.
In all fairness, though, had my hand been completely bare with no honey, I would have
been met with much greater aggression in much quicker stinging time.
I am sure the layer of honey did a good job at distracting the first barage of fire ant
workers that came in contact with me.
So it turns out our hypothesis that the ants wouldn't attack and simply treat me like a
branch offering them food was incorrect.
The Fire Nation is not stupid.
Silly me for thinking I could fool them.
I should know by now that these ants are masters at life.
And I was good with that skin to exoskeletal interaction with the ants.
I didn't need to step further or upset them like that any longer.
As mentioned, I feel there may be other creative ways at showcasing their splendor, without
having to resort to causing harm to myself nor being too intrusive.
And so far, on this channel, we've been achieving that, wouldn't you agree?
I gave the Fire Nation some cockroaches to enjoy for being relatively kind to me.
Watching them feed, I was reminded what started this entire channel in the first place.
A simple but deep fascination for these creatures which I felt most of the world didn't see
or think about.
I always knew ants were truly one of nature's most amazing creations, and experienced this
fact the most when I observed them first hand, doing their every day activities like this.
After having my first pro ant farm, I made the decision that the world needed to see
this, needed to see just how awesome and epic ants really were!
Let's feed the Dark Knights.
It's been a long and amazing journey of discovery with you guys, and it fills me with such joy
every week to see all the love and support from all of you out there who tune in to watch
these ant videos every week.
Reading all your comments, and hearing your collective voice in the results of all the
polls we hold in our ant videos, has actually given me much hope in the future.
You know why?
Here's let's feed the Golden Empire first.
Seeing all this ant love gives me hope, because of all the things, you could be watching on
youtube, netflix, TV, or elsewhere, in the vast sea of videos and content out there,
you guys prove to me that this generation still sees value in learning about nature.
I cannot begin to describe how inspired I am by all of you guys who have watched these
ant videos over the years, and given ant love a chance.
For as long as you guys keep watching, I promise to keep making you these ant videos to discover
with you the amazing world of ants.
Ant love is truly forever.
As I attempted to feed the Titans in their terrarium, something suddenly caught my eye.
I couldn't believe what I saw.
O.M.G!
Thanks so much, AC Family for watching and again thank you guys for 1 million subs.
We did this together!
And to celebrate this triumphant hallmark for the channel, we at AntsCanada.com are
giving away a free all you need Omni Gear Pack to a lucky winner on our Facebook.
Here's how to win!
Go to facebook and like our page.
The link to our Facebook is in the description box, and simply answer the question in the
post that is pinned to the top of the Facebook page, as a comment on the Facebook post.
I will choose a random winner by next week to win the free All You Need Omni Gear Pack.
3 runners up will also receive some other cool items from our shop.
Be sure to make your answers creative, and feel free to also leave your answers as posts
to us on our Twitter, Instagram, and even on this video for extra points!
Good luck to all, AC Family entering!
AC Inner Colony, I have left a hidden cookie for you here, if you would just like to watch
some extended play footage of the Fire Nation, the Dark Knights, and the Golden Empire enjoying
some roaches.
And now it's time for the AC Question of the Week!
Last week, we asked:
Name one way in which earthworms help in an
ecosystem.
Congratulations to The Shadow Lista aka Lucas who correctly answered:
The earthworms take decomposing material and digest it turning it into
helpful nutrients for plants.
Congratulations The shadow Lista aka Lucas, you just won a free ant tshirt from our shop!
In this week's AC Question of the Week, we ask:
What is the name of the venom which fire ants
inject when they sting?
Leave your answer in the comments section and you could win a free ebook handbook 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!