Oh no!
I need some help.
So I fed my Marauder ant colony, named the Leviathans, a baby mouse, and as gruesome
as it was, they picked it apart bit by bit, carried the pieces to their castle within
their terrarium called Marauder’s Alley, and devoured the mouse meat pieces within
their test tube home.
But that sudden surge of protein has caused the Leviathans to explode in population!
I can’t believe two months ago, the colony looked like this.
But two months later, the colony now looks like this.
It’s crazy!
They’re practically exploding out of their test tube.
But, guys, as exciting as this is, I spotted something that concerned me.
What?!
Oh no!
I think we have a problem, a big one.
These ants need to move out of here ASAP.
Sit back, guys.
I have some explaining to do.
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AC Family, we have an emergency situation here, and the lives of our Leviathans are
currently in danger now.
I never thought we’d get to this point this soon, but these ants need to be moved out
of here, and I’ll explain everything and why so many things concern me about this situation
our beloved Leviathans here are in, but guys, do stay tuned until the end because I am certain,
the last thing I have to show you will totally blow you away!
It all started here, as I was watching the Leviathans this week feeding outside of their
castle.
After the mouse last week, I continued to provide the Leviathans chopped up pieces of
roaches to satiate their desires for meat and protein.
The ants had been busy piling gravel and debris on the roach’s sticky guts to make it easier
to work around, while workers went inside to devour the roach flesh to bring back to
the colony in the castle, with completely full social stomachs.
But guys, this roach is pretty much complete, and the Leviathans are scheduled for their
next feeding.
So let’s feed them, another freshly chopped roach!
You guys will love how the ants come swarming from their castle and completely blanket this
roach.
I placed the roach inside, now AC Family watch this!
In a few moments, one ant will discover this roach and run back to the colony to tell the
others, before they all come swarming like crazy.
There!
See the ant?
It discovers the roach and runs back to the colony to inform the others.
Alright here they come!
Any time now…
Hmmm…
OK, so the swarm was taking longer than usual to arrive.
I waited a good 5 minutes and strangely only a small group emerged to deal with the roach.
This was… a bit odd… because usually these ants would be swarming this roach by now.
Were they just not that hungry?
I found the lack of workers at feeding a bit strange, and little did I know, I would soon
find out why the ants weren’t so interested in food now.
Anyway, aside from the roach, if you look there, you may also notice another active
trail, at the end of which lies something truly vital for the colony.
Have a look!
This here is the colony’s water test tube, their H20 drinking source, and it sure looks
like the ants have been thirsty.
Look at all those ants drinking.
Usually there are only one or two ants drinking from the test tube, but this number of ants
drinking from the water seemed a bit more than usual, and I assumed it was because the
ants were extra thirsty from the weather which was really starting to warm up where I live.
But AC Family, little did I know, the reason for this increased need for freshwater, along
with the strange lack of workers feeding at ground level, would reveal itself to me, when
I peeked inside the nest.
I don’t check on the ants every day in hopes to give them as much privacy as possible,
but this time, when I opened the nest, this was what I saw.
Oh my goodness!
Look at all of those ants!
Hmmm…
OK, there were a few things that caught my attention here.
First of all, the test tube walls were completely plastered with brood.
In fact, all I see are ants and brood within this test tube.
The sheer number of ants in here is staggering.
Chains of larvae, pupae, and eggs were draped around in a chaotic mass, I rarely see in
ants.
This was all ok, though.
And oh, is that the queen?
Nope, just a major resting in an ocean of ants, opening its mandibles as fellow ant
workers groomed and cleaned it meticulously, like proud car owners would a bentley.
The sheer size of these majors in comparison to the other workers is jaw-dropping.
It’s actually why marauder ants are one of my favourite ant species on the planet.
They’re polymorphic, meaning the workers come in varying size, and believe it or not,
there are supermajors still yet to arrive in this colony, which are even larger than
this major.
Now where was that queen of ours?
Oh, Titanic Empress!
I usually spot her huge gaster first.
Aha!
There!
I almost missed it.
Like the giant black pearl of the Leviathan Kingdom, the massive gaster of our Titanic
Empress shone like a polished gemstone.
There she was, in all her glory, our Titanic Empress surrounded by her minions.
She was the egg-layer of all these ants and the most important member of the colony.
Now as I continued to gaze upon Her Majesty, something occurred to me that I found rather
peculiar.
Do you see it, too?
What is she hanging on to?
As I scanned the mass of brood and ants around her, I was shocked to realize that she was
actually hanging on to a curtain formed completely of brood and ants.
There was no soil around her at all!
She was literally hanging on to a wall of connected babies and ants.
It worried me to think about how long she had been in this position, if this was normal,
and how hard it must be to navigate around the nest now that there seemed to be a lot
less soil around and much more brood.
In fact, upon a second look over the test tube, man!
So much soil was missing and had been moved out of the test tube!
But how, and where did it all go?
When I stopped to think about where all the digging medium went, I looked above ground
and then realized that the ants had over time gradually moved a lot of soil outside of the
castle above ground, scattering it all around the lands surrounding the castle, using it
to bury their roaches and insect food.
It was also piled up around the end of their water test tube!
Oh man!
Why the ants removed so much soil from their test tube that they made it harder to live
in it is beyond me.
Perhaps in the wild these ants make enormous nest chambers underground.
I wasn’t sure, but this lack of digging medium, wasn’t the only issue.
It was actually a big problem because look!
There was a complete gap between the bottom portion and the upper areas of digging medium,
which caused a major difference in moisture level.
Look!
The bottom was completely wet, but as you go higher due to the inability for water to
wick upwards because of the big gap, the upper portions were dry, especially towards the
top!
This was a big concern because the brood at the top most area was not getting enough moisture.
Then I realized, it’s no wonder the ants were so thirsty!
They weren’t getting enough nest water.
There was less soil now to hold the water for them.
Now normally when I see that the nest is starting to look dry, I just squirt water through one
of the castle entrances with a syringe, but I’m afraid to do that now because look…
What made matters worse was the bottom of the test tube was getting too wet now.
In fact, look at this!
At the bottom most portion were these: seeds, seeds that I had fed to the ants in previous
weeks, which due to all the wetness were now starting to sprout.
And looking downward more, I see that one of the seeds has indeed sprouted and has begun
to rot, with microscopic worms now working on it.
Ewww!
All of this was extremely concerning, because if this rotting were to continue, the ants
would be in immediate grave danger.
Toxic gases, molds, and outbreaks from other critters might ensue.
Overall, I was worried for the Leviathans, and the fact that their appetite had seemed
to be dissipating brought a sickening feeling to my stomach.
It also worried me that our Titanic Empress couldn’t move around the nest like she used
to, adjusting her position and location depending on humidity and temperature.
She couldn’t do that now simply due to a lack of soil to grab onto.
There were so many things, AC Family.
But one thing was for sure: the Leviathans needed to move out of here ASAP, to a larger
space, with more soils, cleaner, and a home more conducive to the distribution of moisture
throughout the nest, and so guys, after a long time of careful brainstorming and planning,
and after assessing all of your comments in last week’s video regarding housing ideas
for the Leviathans’ future setup, I think what I ultimately came up with is something
you all will totally love.
Wait for it!
Bam!
So, what do you guys think?
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