Warning: Don’t eat while watching this episode!
So, I was checking out my yard yesterday and was utterly shocked to find fire ants all
over some cow poop just outside my property.
It seemed like the ants were eating the cow poop.
But why would ants ever want to eat cow droppings?
What is in cow dung that ants would find valuable?
Well, AC Family, after some research turns out the answer surprised me and I’m sure
it will surprise you, too.
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Welcome everyone to Antopia, the name we the AC Family have given to this approximately
3,000 sq meter plot of land, that is the future home to this channel’s Ant House, a home
I’m building for the various ant colonies and exotic pets featured on this channel.
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If you love nature or are intrigued by the real life stories of insects, you’ll fit
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selected, because Youtube is sometimes a bit sneaky and likes to unsub you guys from time
to time, just to see if y’all are paying attention!
Haha!
No shade, of course.
So, as mentioned, here on the channel, we usually follow the epic lives and stories
of the various ant colonies we house in ant farms and terrariums in our Ant Room in a
condo in the city, where I currently live.
But lately, I’ve been doing a lot of snooping around our future yard discovering that it’s
the site of some truly crazy scenes of nature, ant wars, predation, and symbioses.
It seems all life forms living in the tropical habitat that makes up Antopia is interconnected
and interdependent, and as you’ll find out in this video, even the cows of my neighbourhood,
and yes, we now have cows as neighbours here at AntsCanada, are important players in the
ecosystem of Antopia.
But there’s just one problem: Team Invasive Ants!
So get this, guys: There’s a group of ant species that we here on the channel classify
as “Invaders”, because of the fact that they’re not natively from here, and have
migrated to Antopia by way of human activities over the past recent decades.
Now ant newcomers are cool and all, but the problem is, these new invaders can totally
disrupt a local ecosystem, as we’ve seen evidence of in previous videos.
Team Invasive Ants, include the Black Crazy Ants from India, Pharaoh Ants from West Africa,
Ghost Ants also from Africa or possibly other parts of Asia (scientists aren’t exactly
sure), and the infamous ants we’re going to look at in this video, the formidable fire
ants from South America.
All of these invasive ants invading Antopia are in a constant war against the native ants
of the yard, and as I’ve discovered it’s all just truly a crazy, crazy story arch Be
sure to follow the Antopian War series from the start here, at this playlist after this
video if you guys have time!
It will truly blow your mind, guys!
So, the other day, I was cow poop watching, because as an animal-lover that grew up in
cities my whole life, seeing and watching cow poop was oddly fascinating.
I mean, at first glance, I couldn’t believe how big cow poop was.
They were like mine bombs just waiting to be stepped on if you weren’t looking down,
but if you were tilting your head down slightly navigating around, they were pretty conspicuous
black-coloured rolls of smooth cow waste.
I’ll tell you what I discovered was inside cow poop in a sec, but first, check out all
the crazy creatures cow poop attracted!
Let’s go down to poo-level, shall we?
Now of course we all know that poop and flies go together like burgers and fries, right?
You’re welcome for ruining it for you burger and fry lovers!
But have you guys ever seen flies like these?
I personally haven’t, and it was interesting to see a few of them sparring over the spaces
provided by these giant dung piles.
They were a bit more elongated in body shape and almost made me wonder if they were ant
mimics, as they seemed to have that signature waist segment known as a “petiole” that
is unique to all ants.
I watched as these flies danced over the dung’s surface inspecting all the goodies, I assumed
they were eating.
Any Dipteran experts out there know what species of fly this is?
They even have these bulbous orangish things at the base of their abdomens.
Are those eggs or organs of some type?
But though I did expect to see flies and other familiar critters around the dung, like springtails,
I did not expect to see fire ants!
What on earth would fire ants want in cow poop?
I mean, isn’t it just digested grass?
I saw the ants going to town on the poop, digging burrows in it and seemingly eating
it.
In last week’s episode we saw that the weaver ants in the yard were collecting bird poop
to feed on.
To me this was a bit understandable because I assume the birds eat insects like caterpillars
and such, which ants also love, as I’ve seen the weaver ants totally hunting caterpillars
to feed on in their nests, and if you look carefully in the bird poop from last week’s
episode, you could actually see what looks like an undigested caterpillar head.
But again cows eat plants, so what could the fire ants be finding nutritionally valuable
in digested plants?
And so I decided to research what cow poop contained, and the answer was surprising.
So cow poop or cattle manure is basically made up of digested grass and grain.
But you may be surprised to know that it is high in organic materials and quite rich in
nutrients!
It contains about 3 percent nitrogen, 2 percent phosphorus, and 1 percent potassium.
The great ‘NPK’ fertilizer gardeners need for growing healthy plants, fruits, and vegetables.
Due to its constituents, dung apparently can also be used to produce biogas to generate
electricity and heat.
In some places in the world cow dung is even used as a building material for homes.
I had no idea cow poop was so important!
So as for the fire ants, after looking into it, turns out the fire ants are mining nutrients
from the poop, and apparently the most valuable nutrient to them in cow dung, is protein!
Yes, there’s apparently protein in cow poop!
I guess the digestion process leaves some trace protein from the grass and plants the
cows eat in their droppings.
Now as you all know, all ants especially fire ants with their rapidly growing ant colonies
need as much protein as they can get.
Protein is fed to the queen so she could produce more and more eggs, and to the larvae which
help them grow and mature rapidly into adult ants, and in the ant world, the more eggs
the queen can lay, and the faster you can get these eggs to mature into adult ants,
the better chance the colony has of success, because greater numbers means more help around
the house, more food collected, better protection of the colony, a better advantage over competition
with other ants, better communication among colony members, and just all around a better
life.
In all the years of keeping fire ants, I had no idea they could find protein in cow dung!
DId you?
It was indeed interesting to see the ants acquiring nutrition from such an unconventional
source.
They apparently can even get these same nutrients from the droppings of other animals like dogs.
Have you dog owners out there ever seen ants eating your dog’s droppings?
Now, I did see a couple weaver ants around the poop and a few other ant species but it
did seem the fire ants had stuck their flags onto the poop piles to claim it their territory!
Now here’s the thing about that: as you know, fire ants belong to Team Invasives and
I’ve been thinking of ways in which we can somehow put the fire ants at a disadvantage
in their great Antopian War against the native ants in my yard so I did tell myself I would
attempt to remove and dispose of any food that the fire ants or other invasive ants
might be feeding on and taking from the native ants, but I don’t think I want to remove
these poop piles because they are valuable for the soil and the plants of Antopia.
What do you guys recommend, and don’t say hand pick the fire ants off, because I am
NOT about to do all that!
Anyway, hope you guys learned a thing or two about how cow dung benefits other life forms
both expected and unexpected.
I certainly did, and love visiting the wonderful world of Antopia with you all.
Thank you for watching, and supporting the ants, and cow poop!
It’s ant love forever!
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In this week’s AC Question of the Week we ask:
Name one nutrient found in cow dung?