Last week, during our full ant room tour update video, we fed my biggest ant colony in the
Ant Room, our OG fire ant colony, we call the Fire Nation, some sweet jelly and an entire
cockroach.
This was actually the first time I offered them food on this open rock platform in quite
awhile, just so we could see them for filming.
Ordinarily, I’d drop their food directly into the thick vegetation around their mothernest
where the ants would finish off their meals in private.
But this feeding would be different, and it wasn’t long before I noticed something quite
strange.
This was what the feeding site looked like several hours later.
Usually, the fire ants would be swarming all over this food, but here as you can see, there
were only a few ants.
Where did all my fire ants go?
And what I saw a few hours after that, brought a sick feeling to the pit of my stomach.
There!
Did you see it?
Wild feral black crazy ants and ghost ants were inside the Fire Nation’s territory.
This never happens!
The territorial pheromones of the fire ants were enough to scare all feral ants in my
home from coming anywhere near this tank.
Now, they were seen inside!
Something was terribly wrong.
What happened to the Fire Nation?
Where was my most beloved and biggest pet ant colony of my entire collection?
There was only one way to find out.
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I couldn’t believe what I was seeing!
Ghost ants and black crazy ants entering the Selva de Fuego, the Fire Nation’s massive
paludarium kingdom.
I even spotted one black crazy ant making away with a dead fire ant worker!
What had happened here?
Well, I got to the bottom of it all and I explain what I believe happened so keep on
watching until the end.
I couldn’t believe that just a few months ago the colony looked like this.
Millions of ants, swarming above ground, in celebration of their annual nuptial flight
event, where reproductive males and females hope to mate with those of other fire ant
colonies.
Of course, seeing as I don’t have any other fire ant colonies in my room, all the reproductive
queen hopefuls and males, ended up not mating with anyone and dying out within the territories
like they do every year at this time.
It was shocking to see a colony which I’ve had for over 4 yrs go from millions to just
a few.
This fire ant colony was definitely the most popular ant colony on this channel, and I
would say was responsible for taking this channel and all of us AC Family, where we
are toda y.
The Fire Nation has accumulated over 153M views collectively.
Their first break out viral video My Fire Ants Are Planning an Escape currently has
over 39 million views.
Shortly after, they showed us the savage side of nature in the video Cockroach Giving Birth
While Being Devoured by Fire Ants, which was featured on Nat Geo and Discovery Channel.
Together we watched as the Fire Nation devoured Donald Trump & Hillary Clinton during US elections
season, and showed us the miracle of how they survive floods by literally creating air chambers
using their bodies and by floating on water.
They showed us how they amazingly could walk a tight-rope to get to food across my room.
When the channel hit 1 million subscribers, I tested my luck by placing my honey-covered
hand into their nest, at which of course they riddled me with stings.
On Christmas, we gave them a glittering cockroach christmas tree which they devoured lovingly.
Eventually they moved from their formicarium to this enormous half land - half water simulation
of the Amazon River and rainforest which they dominated and ruled for two very epic years!
We marveled at the Fire Nation’s display of blood and flesh-lust as they tore apart
a bird-eating tarantula, a chicken head, a mouse, a monitor lizard, and even compete
with an army of maggots for a decaying turkey head!
They even gave me battle scars on occasion to remind me that they were an ant colony
to be respected.
A super organism and force of nature that wasn’t playing around!
We’ve also been lucky to spot, her royal highness a few times, the Queen of the Fire
Nation, whose name is Queen Solis, sole egg-layer of the colony, birther of this ant army of
millions, who once even narrated an episode.
There’s no denying that this ant colony, though the most challenging ants I’ve ever
kept, always keeping me on my toes, was also one of the most amazing collection of animals,
I’ve ever had the honour of caring for.
And so it was time to get to the bottom of what had happened to the Fire Nation.
It pained my heart to put on my gloves, knowing that this could possibly be the last time,
I’d be arming myself to go into the Selva de Fuego, the kingdom I had built with my
own hands just for them.
My heart raced as I stared down at the location of their mothernest.
If the Fire Nation was still alive, they for sure would be in here somewhere.
My mind started to come up with possibilities.
Perhaps they had eaten a lot and weren’t so hungry.
But no, that had never happened before ever!
AC Family, it was time to get our answers.
I went in and removed the driftwood that formed their mothernest.
I looked for fire ants which ordinarily would be swarming right now as they did the last
time I worked in here.
And AC Family, what I saw next shocked me to the core, as the entire life of the Fire
Nation flashed before my eyes.
Nothing.
The Fire Nation was nowhere to be found in the location of the mothernest.
I could see empty chambers which once held teams of fire ants, brood, and formed the
passageways frequented by queen and male alates, as well as Queen Solis.
They were empty now and ghost tunnels.
But then a movement caught my eye.
It was a lone supermajor crawling around in the soil.
I also spotted a minor worker crawling around in the empty dirt.
The truth made me so sad, but I had to accept it.
AC Family, I’m sorry to say that I believe the Fire Nation was on its final days.
Our Queen Solis, the sole egg layer of the entire colony must have died and these ants
here were the last remaining ants of her final batch of eggs.
I’m so sorry, AC Family.
I’ll be honest, I don’t think I ever felt such sadness over the loss of a colony like
I do now.
Now that you guys know how epic the entire four year journey was with this amazing ant
colony, you can probably understand why I cried when I realized I had lost these amazing,
amazing creatures.
I know, crying over ants.
It sounds so weird to new ears but it’s just one of those things where you need to
be there on the whole journey with them to understand.
I felt this was the end of an era for the entire Antiverse, the end of the most amazing
ant colony in the world in my heart.
I placed the driftwood piece back in its spot and left the Selva de Fuego to allow the final
workers to live out their final days in peace.
The Fire Nation was about five years old, and though I’ve been saying on this channel
that though the workers only live for a couple months and that ant queens live for up to
30 yrs, I think I failed to clarify that this was assumed by the ant keeping community seeing
as it was recorded in a German laboratory that a Lasius niger queen lived that long,
but the truth of the matter is, there are thousands of species of ants and we haven’t
kept every ant species in captivity long enough to be able to tell and verify how long the
queens of each ant species actually lives.
I think the passing of the Fire Nation, assuming they didn’t die out from some freak disease,
has taught us that the queens of Solenopsis geminata, red tropical fire ants, live for
about 5 yrs before passing away.
Queen Solis must have died, some time in November.
In a typical fire ant queen’s life, during those five fruitful years she lays millions
of ants, spawning hundreds of generations of workers, creating hundreds of thousands
of reproductive ants during nuptial flight season every year which go on to mate with
those of other fire ant colonies and continue on the species, to complete the circle of
life.
The Fire Nation’s passing was such a tough reminder that the Circle of Life is indeed
a full circle, and our once booming fire ant colony was inevitably destined to come to
an end and eventually die.
Though the passing of the OG ant colony of the channel was sad, I also realized that
we had learned so much from them over the years, and that they had not lived in vain.
Some of the footage and discoveries we made of their intriguing, secret lives in the soil
and water, during the course of the four years we’ve followed them on this channel, have
not been documented by science.
By providing the Fire Nation the best possible care we could give them to live out their
best lives, they rewarded us back with such a wealth of info, discovery, and heart-stopping
and adventurous moments, and that to me is the essence of what ant keeping is all about.
I have been contemplating for a long time about what to do with the Selva de Fuego,
now that it was devoid of an ant colony, other than these feral ants which by the way we
need to discourage from being here, so I was hoping to get your opinions AC Council.
Should we get rid of the Selva de Fuego and rehome all the aquatic life, or move in another
of our ant colonies in here like the Golden Empire or the Titans?
Or should I try to find a brand new fledgling fire ant colony to start all over again from
scratch, to be the Fire Nation’s successors, a Fire Nation 2.0 of sorts.
Let me know in this ipoll here.
AC Family, this week, I lit a candle on our behalf to celebrate the life and death of
one of the most amazing ant colonies in the world.
Rest in peace to the Fire Nation.
Goodbye, my beloved fire ant colony.
I’ll miss you greatly.
AC Family, it was a tough two weeks for me when I first noticed the Fire Nation population
had dwindled and then later discovered they had died out, but I suppose it’s all part
of the hobby.
So much is in store ahead so if you haven’t yet, 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.
Thank you, guys!
AC Inner Colony, I have left a hidden cookie for you here, if you would like to watch some
extended play footage of some of my favourite memories of the Fire Nation.
And now it’s time for the AC Question of the Week.
Last week, we asked:
Which was your favourite creature featured in today’s full pet ant tour?
Congratulations to Alexander Churchill who answered:
I love Jabba the Hutt, the Surinam Horned Frog.
Congratulations Alexander, you just won a free Ultimate Ant Keeping handbook from our
shop!
In this week’s AC Question of the Week we ask:
Which was your favourite memory of the Fire Nation?
Leave your answer in the comments section and you could also win a free e-book handbook
from our shop!
Hope you could subscribe to our 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!