It's Moving Day for the fire ants!
Meet the Phoenix Empire, our 12 week old fire ant colony that we’ve raised on this channel
from just a single queen fire ant, named the Ember Empress.
But in 12 short weeks, the Ember Empress in her humble test tube chamber has amassed an
utterly explosive fire ant army, that I felt was ready for their next big step in life:
receiving their first proper ant farm, and you guys will love their reaction to their
new home, as they get to experience the act of digging tunnels for the very first time.
Welcome to the AntsCanada Ant Channel!
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Welcome to the AC Family!
Enjoy!
They don’t know it yet but the inhabitants of the City of Ashes are about to get the
living space expansion of their lives!
Be sure to watch until the very end to see how the fire ants like the new ant farm you
guys actually voted for and chose for them in last week’s video, as well as how happy
they are to finally have the opportunity to dig tunnels.
The queen also does something super funny during the move, so stay tuned for that coming
up!
Now before we go ahead and introduce the Phoenix Empire to their brand new ant farm, I first
wanna see if any of you can spot what amazing thing I saw this week in the colony.
Did you see it?
AC Family, the supermajors have arrived!
Check her out with that massive, over-sized head!
It’s packed with muscle for brute jaw force for when the colony needs it.
She is one of two supermajors the Phoenix Empire now has walking among them, and she’s
definitely not the last.
Now the Phoenix Empire’s brood has constantly been increasing every single day, it’s almost
mind-boggling to imagine that the workers are tending to each egg, larva, and pupa providing
them the care they need, leaving no fire ant baby neglected.
The queen has been super prolific with her egg-laying since last week.
The brood pile practically reaches the end of the test tube now!
Now, in last week’s video we saw that the colony’s water source was contaminated by
a sudden and strange pink microbial outbreak, and by the way, about that, one of you AC
Family commented saying the unidentified pink “microbe” was actually Serratia marcescens
bacteria, which occurs when there is pet or animal waste in water.
One or several of the ants must have disobeyed the colony rules and went to the bathroom
onto the cotton.
My guess is, the colony bathroom areas have become too full, because they’ve set up
another bathroom site here, and so some ant decided to ruin it for everyone else and went
to the bathroom onto the cotton!
Booo!
Just kidding.
Contaminated water is rich in phosphorus which can breed other harmful bacteria, so we gave
the colony a fresh new test tube and thankfully today, the Phoenix Empire will be moving out
of here!
So let’s give the Phoenix Empire what they need right now!
Behold, their new ant farm, an AC Ant Tower from AntsCanada.com.
You guys chose this formicarium for the Phoenix Empire in last week’s vote.
I can’t wait for you guys to see how the Phoenix Empire reacts to it once it’s connected!
Let’s remove the red film for now.
Now before we watch the ants move into this Ant Tower, we need to quickly prepare it.
First, we’ll add some hydration medium to the bottom ring.
This is coco fiber.
You can use cotton, sand, or even leave it empty and just fill it up with water, but
I prefer coco fiber because it’s highly water absorbent and doesn’t mold easily.
The ants won’t be able to get into this layer but it will help hydrate the entire
nest and can be replaced if needed.
I trimmed off the fly away with scissors.
Next, time to add the digging medium!
More coco fiber pressing down lightly with tweezers to ensure the ants have some integrity
to their nest structure when they dig.
Today will be the colony’s first opportunity to dig, and I knew they’d love digging into
this coco fiber.
I always see them trying to dig tunnels in the Fire Forest, so they’ll surely love
digging here.
I appreciate that most of you out there felt it was an important thing for the fire ants
to satisfy their innate need to dig.
I’m sure if the Phoenix Empire could, they’d be thanking you today.
Alright, and now for a quick water pour to hydrate the medium, and though not necessary,
I created a starting hole for the colony so they could begin the digging process sooner.
I popped the lid back on and now all was set!
Now all I had to do was detach the colony’s test tube from the AC Test Tube Portal and
connect it to this port.
Here we go, guys!
Let’s do this.
Carefully detaching the test tube.
I used my finger to plug up the nest hole of the test tube and placed a plug in the
test tube portal.
I then placed the test tube into the new Ant Tower.
AC Family, let’s watch!
The ants emerged from the test tube hole and cautiously inspected the new territories beyond.
That’s funny, this didn’t smell like the test tube portal they were used to.
Time to inform the colony!
It called for nearby ants to come check things out!
The colony at this point had no idea they were in for a big move soon!
Come hither pheromones were beginning to build up at the entrance of the test tube which
attracted curious ants to come join the inspection party.
Finally some courageous ants make the brave move and step onto the virgin lands of their
new nest, and so began the awesome process.
“OMG, guys!
Come check this awesome place out!” the scouts shouted with pheromones, which brought
a wave of ants pouring into the Ant Tower.
This message made its way back to the colony which brought forth a barrage of workers coming
to inspect the rumours.
It’s amazing how you can actually visually see how a message makes its way to a whole
ant colony, and how some workers drop what they’re doing to check things out.
Soon the Ant Tower was the new talk of the town!
And guess what?
They’ve discovered our starting tunnel!
Soon message of this starting tunnel will also make its way back to the colony and hopefully
give them the idea to make the mass emigration into the Ant Tower.
As expected, ants within the starting tunnel released pheromones to attract other ants
to come check it out.
Now to help speed up the moving out process I also used a bright light.
This here is an LED energy-saving bulb and doesn’t produce much heat at all, but does
produce a lot of light.
I don’t recommend using heat to move your ants out of a test tube as you risk cooking
them, but light works quite well as it makes them uncomfortable and want to move elsewhere,
like our starting tunnel in the Ant Tower.
Now it was in this very moment, that I stared at the colony.
I knew that these were probably the last moments I would get to fully admire the colony like
this, seeing as they would soon be moving into the digging medium.
I knew I would be missing the queen, and seeing the brood like this, all with various colours
due to the different food I’d been offering the colony over time.
But inside, I knew it was for the best.
Our Phoenix Empire needed to dig and feel more at home.
Also, we can probably connect an AC Hybrid Nest in the future when the colony is much
bigger and get to see them again there.
I was surprised to see that it hadn’t taken the ants long to expand from the starting
tunnel.
They were busy preparing new tunnels and chambers to accommodate the colony.
I watched the colony for a couple hours as they made preparations for the official move.
Ants dug, and dug!
It was important there was enough space for the colony to fit so that no brood would be
left on the surface exposed to the elements and potential predators.
I replaced the red film so the ants underground would feel they were in darkness, and before
I knew it, the time came for the whole colony to move!
This is where things get really interesting!
There were two signs I was looking for which meant the ants were officially moving in.
First, I knew once we saw the younger lighter-coloured ants leaving the test tube, it meant they
were moving, seeing as usually they are, by fire ant law, not allowed to leave the nest.
And there they were!
Young, yellowish-coloured ants leaving!
But these weren’t rebellious teens in Miami wanting to party when they should be staying
home, these were ants on the move!
And then, I began to see the colony moving the brood!
Yay!
They were officially moving into the Ant Tower!
I kept my eye out for the queen, and before I knew it she flew by, but watch!
She turned around and fell flat on her back!
Woops!
She seemed afraid to move into the new space.
But eventually, she followed the biddings of the colony and went with the flow.
And in seconds, she was out of sight and gone.
Farewell, Ember Empress!
We’ll really miss you!
It took a whole hour for the colony to move the rest of the brood out of the test tube,
and when they were finally done, I disconnected it from the setup and tapped any left over
ants into the Ant Tower to rejoin the colony.
The colony was officially now all in their new home.
You guys will love what I saw the next day.
Peeking into the Ant Tower 24 hours after the move, this is what I saw.
The fire ants had created some impressive ant hills, and inside, there was the brood
pile.
Check out all those awesome tunnels and chambers they’d constructed.
So cool, right?!
I tried to look around for the queen, but as expected couldn’t find her.
They were doing a good job at hiding her here.
No problem though, as it was more assuring to know, the ants were enjoying a more natural
life in their new ant farm.
Now guys, you know what’s next: What should we name this Ant Tower?
Let me know in the comments and I’ll choose my favourites for us to vote on in a future
video!
Let’s give this new home base a cool name, guys!
So it looks like all is well in the City of Ashes now, and the Phoenix Empire will continue
to grow in their more natural nest, but guys there was one more thing, that needed to be
done, and it something that was super important to the well-being of the Phoenix Empire, that
we haven’t yet done for them.
In nature, their poop and garbage is normally eaten up by a special team of clean-up creatures,
and I felt, now was the perfect time to introduce the Phoenix Empire to their clean up crew
of creatures.
Behold, AC Family, straight from the Nucleus, the Phoenix Empire’s future friends.
AC Family, did you enjoy today’s episode?
Be sure to tune in next week, when we introduce the Phoenix Empire’s cool new biological
clean up crew, 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 believe notifications seem
to be broken but the Youtube support team is on it.
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 footage of the Phoenix Empire moving into the Ant Tower.
Also, just a note: It’s anting season, and nuptial flights start in the Northern Hemisphere
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 also offer full email support if you need our help!
Visit AntsCanada.com today.
And now it’s time for the AC Question of the Week.
Last week, we asked:
Why do we need to push the cotton in quickly when making a test tube setup?
Congratulations to Riley Marimla who answered:
To prevent air bubbles!
Congratulations Riley, you just won a free Ultimate Ant Keeping handbook from our shop!
In this week’s AC Question of the Week we ask:
Name one sign that indicates the emigration to the Phoenix Empire’s new nest was official.
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!