It’s been such a hard week for me, as it has for I’m sure all of us around the world
in these crazy times.
But guys, I’m afraid I have a really sad announcement to make.
For those of you who have supported me and have been watching the channel for awhile,
you may be reading the title of this video with a tonne of questions, but I promise I’ll
tell you everything in full, and explain why I had to make the very tough decision this
week to release many of my ant colonies, including some of the OGs, back into the wild.
Please SUBSCRIBE to my channel and hit the BELL icon.
Welcome to the AC Family!
Enjoy!
Today, I will be going over which ant colonies I’ve had to release back into the wild or
other pets that have made appearances in these videos, that I’ve had to give away.
I’ll also go into the reasons why I chose to release or rehome them.
Now, the good news is I’ve chosen to keep some of the ant colonies and critters, but
before I get into the shortlist, I have one request: please hear me out until the end
before reacting, as there’s a lot to cover.
I do acknowledge that some of you might be upset if your favourites have left the Antiverse
and this channel, but please be kind with your comments and just please keep in mind,
I did it for the well-being of the ants and for ant love.
OK, so let’s get to it.
Now, right off the bat, I realize a lot of you come here, expecting to not hear about
the bad news sweeping the world, so I’m not going to expound on it further, but in
my corner of the world, it’s completely shookt my country, my community, and indeed
right down to our precious Antiverse, our Ant Room, here in my condo which is so full
of various life forms that we’ve so carefully protected and nurtured over the years.
Now, normally, I have a helper who comes over every day to help me with the maintenance
of all our creatures.
Together, we handle feeding duties, cleaning, maintenance and repairs of equipment like
filters and irrigation, and random tasks like water changes, and such.
As you can imagine, caring for millions of ants, ecosystemic terrariums, and other pets
is a round the clock, time-consuming, and expensive endeavor.
But three weeks ago, due to current, ongoing circumstances, it became mandatory lockdown
where I live.
Luckily a week prior, I completely stocked up on as many pet and ant supplies as I could
just in case things got dire, and it’s a good thing I did, because today my city is
in strict lockdown, enforced by police and the military, where nobody is allowed to leave
the home unless it’s for essential travel, like picking up groceries or getting medicine.
This means, not even a quick stroll for fresh air outside is allowed.
All my go-to pet stores are closed down, as are all non-essential businesses and public
transportation.
It feels like life has stood still everywhere.
So, for three weeks now, I haven’t left my condo not even once, have been eating food
cooked at home from my stash, growing my own veggies and herbs for consumption, shooting
and editing these ant videos to get them up on time every weekend, and without my helper,
I’ve had to handle all the maintenance of the ants and pets myself.
Now, I was okay with the pet workload, as I’ve always been fulfilled working around
my pet ants and critters, however the decision to let them go has not been a result of not
being able to keep up with maintenance, but rather a result of not being able to keep
up with the food demand.
You see before lockdown, I bought as many roaches, mealworms, and superworms as I could,
and hoped this lockdown would be done before I ran out of feeders.
Sadly, it looks like what I thought might be a quarantine of 3-4 weeks, is now looking
like it may last months, and so here I was with a dwindling feeder population, and a
tonne of ant colonies and pets needing feeder insects.
The message in the math was clear: I needed to let many of the ants go, for their own
good and the good of the ants I would be choosing to keep.
And so AC Family, it’s a nightmare that I even had to get to this point, but here
is the shortlist of ants and creatures I've chosen to keep, and the ones that sadly had
to be released back into the wild.
Let’s start with the Dark Knights.
This supercolony of black crazy ants is one of the OGs of the channel, as I’ve had them
for almost 4 yrs.
AC Family, I’ve chosen to keep these ants.
They’ve been easy to feed.
They’ll even eat leftover meats from my table, as well as fish food, so they wouldn’t
be taking up many feeder insects.
The Dark Knights fandom can relax.
Moving on to the Golden Empire, our super colony of yellow crazy ants.
These are also OGs to the channel and have been through a lot, including recovering recently
from a devastating mite plague.
AC Family, I’ve chosen to keep the Golden Empire in the Antiverse.
They, too, are easy to feed, and though they do need feeder insects to survive, I just
want to see them get back to the millions they once were.
They’re a colony that fought to survive all these years, and so I too am willing to
fight to keep them.
Now on to another OG colony, the Titans.
This supercolony of Asian Marauder ants live in a tall soil terrarium called Olympus.
They are endemic to where I live, and have been my dream species for the longest time,
with their massive super majors and prolific colonies.
Here’s the thing, being so prolific has suddenly become a major drawback.
They require a tonne of insects, and though they will eat meats and egg, they still do
best on a high insect diet, and so sadly guys, the Titans will not be staying with us on
the channel.
I’ve asked for one of my building staff to relocate them to a plot of land in my neighbourhood
during one of his permitted trips to the grocery.
I’m sorry, guys.
Like I said, this wasn’t easy.
Moving on to the Bobbleheads, my super colony of big-headed ants.
These little, polymorphic bundles of energy have been such a delight to keep.
But AC Family, I have chosen to keep them in the Antiverse.
They also can do well on fish food, meat scraps, and the odd superworm or mealworm.
Despite there being so many ants, they are so tiny that one piece of food goes such a
long way for them.
Bobblehead fans, I’m happy they are remaining with us.
And now to the great Emerald Empire, our arboreal colony of Asian weaver ants living in the
Canopy of Vortexia.
These ants were collected from my area as a mature colony and have also been a dream
species of mine!
AC Family, you guys will hate me, but I’ve decided that the Emerald Empire would be much
better off back in the wild right now.
Though they initially had roaches proliferating in their terrarium, they’ve pretty much
hunted them all down to extinction, so needless to say, this massive weaver ant colony also
needs a lot of insects to support their growth and activities!
I’m so sorry Emerald Empire fans, this one hurts, but it was for their own good.
I also had the colony released onto a vacant mango tree in my neighbourhood that I could
see from my window.
The Jawbreakers, my OG colony of trap-jaw ants, now living in the Hacienda Del Dorado,
were also collected from my area.
Jawbreaker fans, I’m so sorry, but these ants also didn’t make the shortlist.
They’ve been eating a lot of insects, even if they have soil creatures like springtails
to feed on.
I took the time to dig the majority of the colony out and had them released into another
field in my hood.
I’ve decided to keep the small, unnamed trap-jaw colony in the terrarium in a bottle
episode from last Christmas, though, but if they start getting more demanding for insects,
I’m afraid I’ll have to let them go, too.
Now, on to the Black Panthers, my dual colonies of Asian Bullet ants.
These ferocious, giant ants are currently living in two separate ac connected setups.
The two colonies are actually involved in a sort of experiment of mine where I’m hoping
to keep the two colonies going indefinitely by getting males from opposite colonies to
cross-breed with the egg-laying gamergates of the other.
The thing is males won’t mate with their mothers, and these ants don’t have a queen,
but rather a fertile worker that lays all the eggs while it is alive.
These egg-laying workers, called gamergates, need males that aren’t their own sons to
mate with, so cross-breeding should solve that problem.
It’s an experiment of which I would like to see the results, so I’ve decided to keep
the Black Panthers for now.
The ghost ants on Skull Island from last Halloween.
Well this one’s easy, the ghost ants ghosted their island setup.
Yup!
They disappeared one day.
I’m assuming they learned to cross water.
Don’t worry!
They’re established naturalized invaders in my country and have been for decades, found
in pretty much every household and building nationwide including my own, so their escape
makes no ecological impact.
I’ve been living with ghost ants moving in and out of my place for almost 10 yrs now,
part of the ordinary domestic wildlife I’ve become used to seeing daily.
They’ve always been such a nuisance, though, especially when I’m trying to film!
Now in terms of my arachnids, like my scorpion and my tarantulas, they have such a low food
demand: live insects once a week or less if they’re approaching a molt, so they are
all staying.
My carnivorous plants very rarely need insects so they stay, too.
All fish and aquatic invertebrates are staying, as they eat fish food.
My axolotls eat worms from my worm composter, as well as fish pellets, so the Axolotlanders
are also staying.
Jabba the Hutt, our Surinam horned frog, eats his frog pellets so he stays.
Now as for my veiled chameleon, sadly, I’ve had to rehome her as she has a very high insect
demand, and would truly be exhausting my feeder populations if she remains with me.
It was sad to see her go.
Valentino, my green tree python, luckily has been converted to eating frozen mice, and
eats once a week, so he too stays.
And of course, my parrot doesn’t eat insects at all, just pellets and veggies so she also
remains with me.
Which finally brings me to the Phoenix Empire, our now exploding colony of fire ants.
I think we all know how much this colony eats.
As we’ve seen with their predecessors, the late Fire Nation, their food demand is extremely
high.
Guys, this may come as a shock, but I’ve decided for them to go..
nowhere!
At this size, the colony only needs a superworm a day, or an earthworm from my composter,
and later even scrap meats.
I believe if quarantine and lockdown must continue for the next few months, I’ll be
able to handle their food demands.
Phoenix Empire fans, our fire ants are staying.
And so, AC Family, this is the new Antiverse.
The ant colonies that we’ll have to say goodbye to on the channel are now free, enjoying
life back in the wild where they were collected, and in case you were concerned, they were
already wild ants when they were collected and have all their survival instincts still
in tact, so it’s not like they’re captive-raised animals entering the wilderness for the first
time, needing to learn survival skills, and being collected from my area, they’re also
native, so they’re not an ecological threat.
For me, keeping them now would have been selfish, and I’m a pet caregiver, not a pet hoarder,
so I was at peace with saying goodbye.
We can always try looking for them again in the future to return to the channel, once
all of this craziness is over!
And as for the ones that we can still look forward to seeing, they’ll remain here with
me for as long as I can possibly manage.
I believe my current feeders will be able to sustain these remaining ants and creatures
for several months.
Before I officially run out of mealworms and superworms, I’ve completely ramped up my
roach habitat to encourage greater breeding, converting old Vortexia into a lush roach
sanctuary, with Dubia roaches and Madagascar Hissing roaches now living in a blended self-perpetuating
colony to hopefully provide my pets a constant supply of food for the months to come.
I say months but I’m hoping this world crisis comes to an end sooner than we expect.
It’s times like this that I look to the ants.
If there’s one thing that peeking into the profound lives of ants has taught me, it’s
that life is always changing, and sometimes it’s tough, but like the ants, we need to
stick together and cooperate, and eventually, we’ll endure to make it through, coming
out stronger, and more resilient in the end.
And so I want to conclude by expressing how much I appreciate you guys for watching my
videos, and supporting the ants.
I know the world is really crazy right now, but no matter what, AC Family, rest assured
you can count on the Antiverse and all our ant friends living within it, to be the beautiful
safe haven we can each escape to every week.
Stay healthy, everyone!
We can do this.
It’s ant love forever.
AC Family, did your favourite colony remain?
Was there a colony you were disappointed to see go?
Anyway, there’s still lots ahead for our ants, 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.
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 hear the
good news I have to share about one of the creatures in the Ant Room.
And guys, did you know it’s anting season in the Northern Hemisphere, and you don’t
even need to leave your home to start an ant colony?!
You can catch pregnant queen ants from the safety of your own backyard, balcony, or open
window starting 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 ship worldwide and 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:
Which of the soil creatures do you love the most?
Congratulations to Queen of Random who answered:
Springtails
Congratulations Queen of Random, you just won a free Ultimate Ant Keeping handbook from
our shop!
In this week’s AC Question of the Week we ask:
Which creature or ant colony in the Ant Room is your favourite and why?
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!