Guys, you’ll love this! So they say weaver ants, a type of tropical ant that build nests within
the leaves trees, are a difficult species to grow in captivity, into a big mature colony
from just a starting queen ant, and that little is known about how weaver ant colonies actually
start up in the wild. Well, I was determined to find out, and was definitely up for the challenge!
Day 1 - Our gorgeous green weaver ant queen was captured and placed
into a bottle where she instantly laid eggs. We named her the Jade Empress.
Day 8. The eggs hatched into larvae, and the queen fed these larvae a self-made nutritious soup from
liquified muscle tissues in her thorax. Day 15. The larvae turned into pupae.
Workers coming soon. Day 22. The first worker ants arrive,
officially making this ant family a colony. We named the colony the Jade Empire.
Day 29. We fed the Jade Empire their very first meal ever: a baby roach.
Day 36. The ants established a garbage site inside their bottle, making conditions a bit poisonous
for the Jade Empire, so we poked a hole into their bottle cap, and placed them into a spacious
terrarium where they could dump their garbage and forage for food, as they would in the wild.
It’s now Day 43, and despite being at the stage that most ant keepers
start to see their weaver ant colonies dying off, the Jade Empire is still thriving, and so today we
execute the ultimate next step in their care, and construct an epic arboreal terrarium,
to become the new tropical treetop kingdom of our Jade Empire.
Welcome to the AntsCanada Ant Channel.
Please SUBSCRIBE to the channel and hit the BELL ICON. Welcome to the AC Family! Enjoy!
AC Family, we’re going to have so much fun today! I have a tonne of updates on our Jade Empire,
and last week I asked you guys to help me choose a type of plant
to use as the main tree on which our Jade Empire would hopefully build their nests in one day.
The choice of plant was super critical, because it could determine whether or not
our Jade Empire actually makes it to become a successful colony,
but I highly believe you guys who voted chose quite well, and you’ll see what I mean later.
Now before we construct our ants’ epic tropical terrarium kingdom,
I have something awesome to show you first!
I approached the terrarium this week only to discover something truly amazing!
Do you see it?
The colony had finally created their first silk chamber! I was spellbound by the construction.
Weaver ants are special because like spiders, they actually build their homes using
webs. The webbing comes from silk produced by their pupating larvae,
and it forms the glue and walls of weaver ant nests.
Isn’t that just awesome, guys?! Now it looks like the ants built a sort of tent-like structure
over the queen and brood. When we first opened a hole up in their bottle, I totally expected
the ants would build a silk wall around the opening to decrease its size and perhaps
decrease the air movement within the bottle so the entire bottle would be like a nest, but nope!
The ants actually had an even better idea. Treat the bottle like a giant leaf and just build a nest
on the surface so that way, any decaying poop or garbage they might leave inside the bottle
would not cause an accumulation of poisonous ammonia, as it could leave through the opening!
What little engineering geniuses!
Now here’s something else I wanna show you!
An ant makes its way up a wooden limb, leaving a pheromone trail along the way to direct other
hungry ants looking for food, and enters the great sugar water test tube for some sweet goods.
I’ve been placing their sugar water up here, not too far from the nest.
After having their fill they make their way back to the colony following the pheromonal trail,
enter the bottle through the hole, and feed the other colony members
through mouth-to-mouth food transfer called trophallaxis, as you see here.
Our Jade Empress here is loving the unlimited supply of sugar water
her workers have been feeding her! In terms of protein, which the ants also need,
they didn’t touch the large roach I offered them last week,
and I suspect because the prey is too big for such a small colony to lug back home, but they have
been taking crushed baby roaches, which they keep around the silk chamber to munch on when hungry.
And the queen has certainly been benefiting from all of this food.
The Jade Empress’ gaster is the fattest it’s ever been now, and her brood pile
seems to look bigger and bigger every time I see her. Lots of eggs, larvae, and pupae.
What’s interesting is that I no longer see the Jade Empress caring for the brood anymore, like
she used to when the colony was in its earliest stage. All the babies are now cared for
exclusively by the workers, all babies fed, licked clean, protected, used for web building, and
organized according to age. The queen no longer needs to do anything else but pump out those eggs.
For water and humidity, I just simply mist the outside of the bottle near the opening once a day.
Now as much as this very simple setup is fulfilling its purpose,
there was one thing the ants weren’t quite getting. You see within the nests of wild
weaver ants, the internal ambient air is regulated by the plant on which the ants live. You see,
plants naturally release water vapour from their leaves which is perfect for providing the humidity
needed to keep the brood from drying out. Also, as a result of photosynthesis, the plants release
fresh oxygen for the ants to breathe and take in carbon dioxide exhaled by the ants,
so all the ants within these weaver ant nests benefit from this internal nest air regulation.
But in this bottle, we don’t quite have that setup happening, and so AC Family,
I felt it was time to give our Jade Empire, the next logical provision to help them truly thrive:
a host tree on which to live. As mentioned earlier, I asked you guys
to help me choose a plant, and thousands of you voted. You the AC Council had spoken,
and I your Creator of Worlds was ready to do what I love the most in ant keeping.
It was time to give these beloved weaver ants of ours, a kingdom they would truly love.
AC Family, behold! La Selva Verde,
the lush tropical jungle and future kingdom of our Jade Empire.
Do like it? Let me show you around!
The Selva Verde is a tall jungle entanglement of plants and sticks, which I feel will be perfect
habitat for our starting Jade Empire. There is a lot of free real estate here
for the ants to explore and get to know, and all of it will be cherished weaver ant territory.
The ground plants I used were several varieties of syngonium.
I also added a cute pathway which enters the thickness of the junglescape,
as a sort of symbol of the ever winding path of discovery we’re on, keeping these weaver ants.
But my ultimate favourite part of course, are the trees! AC Family,
you guys voted to use money plants as the tree provisions for the Jade Empire,
and I must say, what an excellent choice it was! Good job, guys!
Now these money plants will definitely outgrow this terrarium so I’ll continually need to keep
cutting back the foliage for now, but if al goes well, and as our colony grows,
I can easily transplant these money plants into a large terrarium if needed.
I like these plants as homes for weaver ants because the leaves aren’t too rigid
and can be bent or folded quite easily, perfect for weaver ant nest building.
I really think the ants will appreciate the topography of the Selva Verde,
because weaver ants in the wild occupy niches at all levels from ground foraging, sticks, and tree
tops. There is definitely a lot of territory here for the weaver ants to do what they do naturally.
Alright, AC Family, and now the moment we’ve all been waiting for. Let’s introduce the
ants to their new lush kingdom and fixate their home bottle into the Selva Verde. Here we go!
I carefully placed the bottle into the larger money plant,
using the driftwood as a base. This spot for me, was the best location to put the bottle.
I used the stocks to carefully secure the bottle in position… and done!
I removed the cotton from the opening, and just like that the ants were free to explore. I watched
the scene like a hawk! I could tell the fresh smell of living plants drifted into the bottle,
as workers approached the bottle opening with curiosity.
I caught a pair of tiny antennae flicker out. This was the very first time,
these ants had ever smelled a plant. They had no idea they would soon love living within
the plants, and that their very species was designed to live in partnership with plants.
It wasn’t long before a brave worker ant wandered out
and began to explore the strange yet fascinating Selva Verdan lands.
“That’s funny. This isn’t how I remembered the outside to be like. Hmmm…”
Weaver ants have very good vision so I knew this ant
was also scanning the world around through sight. This was all truly unexplored territory! The ant
returned to the nest to let the others know of the incredible world it had discovered outside.
This soon caused other ants to emerge and explore the Selva Verde for themselves. I
watched the ants all night. The workers didn’t wander too far from the bottle,
but I knew it was only a matter of time before they explored the far reaches of the Selva Verde,
and all its hidden nooks and crannies, potential sights for future nest building, and hunting.
Speaking of which, as we always do on the channel, I gave our jade Empire a house warming gift,
a crushed roach, which they eventually took into the nest to nibble on.
And there you have it, guys! Our Jade Empire was all settled into their new tropical,
lush tree filled kingdom, the Selva Verde. I see this a combined effort since you guys chose
the host plants! Great work, AC Family! I think they’ll truly thrive here. I will continue to mist
the colony as usual to provide them some fresh drinking water and humidity, and will place their
sugar test tube in various places around the Selva Verde. Every few days, I’ll move the sugar test
tube, to encourage the ants to explore and forage for their sugar source as they would in the wild.
Perhaps while wandering around, one of the ants might have the brilliant idea one day
to build a nest into one of these trees, when that will happen,
I can only guess, because right now it seems this bottle has been
doing a great job at providing a nest environment for these ants for now.
It’s truly amazing to me that we’ve come this far, guys. It’s usually at this initial stage
of the founding process that ant keepers attempting to keep this species, start to
see die offs in the colony, eventually leading to the queen dying off, along with all her brood.
But it seems our Jade Empire here is still thriving. We’re still in
the teens in terms of number of workers, but if the colony were reach around 100 workers,
that in my opinion means we will have truly succeeded at growing this colony from its genesis,
making this weaver ant series a valuable record to science,
and hopefully a helpful guide to ant keepers out there wanting to keep the species.
Let’s hope our Jade Empire continues to grow, and one of these days, I just know, we’ll peek into
the Selva Verde, and catch the ants constructing their very first leaf nest. Oh, man! When that
legendary day comes, AC Family, I’ll surely be jumping for joy, and of course filming everything,
so be sure to SUBSCRIBE to the channel to be part of this continuing story
of how a humble weaver ant colony, fingers crossed, grows into an empire of millions.
Thank you for watching and supporting the ants. It’s ant love forever!