Guys, some awesome news!
I’ve got a new huge ant colony that I think you guys will truly love!
They’re super unique, and it’s time we enter their dynamic world, here on the AntsCanada
Ant Channel!
Please SUBSCRIBE to the channel and hit the BELL icon!
Welcome to the AC Family!
Enjoy!
AC Family, today we’re going to be feeding this awesome beast of an ant colony, and I
know you guys will just love watching them, as much as I did!
As you’ll be seeing shortly, they have a lot of character!
But guys, do stay tuned until the end as I will be asking you guys a very important question
regarding this new ant colony of ours.
Also, a lot of you have been asking for an update on our carpenter ant colonies, so I’ll
be doing just that as well later in the video, so stay tuned for all that coming up!
Alright, so before we go ahead and feed this new ant colony!
Let’s meet them shall we?
Guys, this is a Polyrhachis ant colony.
We’re very familiar with this genus of ant on this channel.
They come in blue, a species whose colony we tried to look for in the jungle last year,
as well as the Golden Ants we had named the Gilded Warriors.
Sadly, I regret to inform you that our Gilded Warriors recently passed away and I’m unsure
why.
They just stopped eating two weeks ago and died out.
Which is why I sought out this Polyrhachis ant colony, to give it a second shot.
In ant keeping, not all ant colonies adapt well to captivity but sometimes you just need
to keep trying because every colony is different.
So a bit about these guys, this is a golden species of Polyrhachis native to my country.
I obtained them from someone who collected the colony from outside.
They’re super unique in shape, and I just love their golden colour.
This colony has about 200 or so workers and multiple queens all laying eggs and hiding
somewhere inside the caverns of this crumpled paper towel.
I’m actually unsure how their previous owner managed to get the ants in here, as their
nests are usually one big ball of mud carton, and all I saw was this big bunch of paper
towel.
No worries.
We’ll make these ants a worthy place to live soon!
But they’re pretty cool, right?
So guys, what should we name this colony?
As we always do on this channel, please do let me know your name suggestions for this
Polyrhachis ant colony in the comments and I’ll choose my top 5 favourites for all
of us to vote on in future video!
Or maybe we should name them the Gilded Warriors 2.0?
Now the genus Polyrhachis are really interesting as they are characterized by their body spines,
also why Polyrhachis ants are called ‘Spiny Ants’.
Check out the sharp spines on these ladies.
I’ve tried picking them up between two fingers to see if I’d get spiked, but I didn’t.
Guess those spikes are a non-danger to human skin, but painful to swallow if you were a
frog or something wanting a Polyrhachis sandwich!
Now most of the ants seem to chilling out inside folds within the paper towel.
I suppose they’re treating this paper towel like a temporary nest.
You see, what makes Polyrhachis ants so unique is they actually build their nests above ground
using mud and debris all glued together using web spun from their larvae, kinda like weaver
ants.
In fact, Polyrhachis ants like these are categorized in myrmecology as “lesser weaver ants”.
I noticed many of the workers were actually quite busy doing various things.
I watched as an ant carried around some garbage to dump into their community garbage site.
And another carrying a dead ant to their community graveyard.
I also noticed some males hanging about.
They look more like skinny wasps than ants.
These males do nothing in the colony but wait around for breeding season to mate with virgin
queens.
This poor male ant here seems to be dying and will soon be placed in the graveyard.
Now AC Family, I was certain these Polyrhachis ants were hungry.
Check this out!
See the tube!
They were clearly eager to burrow their way out!
And so AC Family, I had just the thing to fill their hungry ant bellies!
AC Family, behold!
A new addition which I’ll now be connecting to their living space.
This is an AC Test Portal from antscanada.com.
It can serve many functions, but for our purposes it will provide our new ants a venue to feast
and drink to their little hearts desire!
Have a look.
It comes with a perforated lid, which also has a smaller feeding chute for convenience.
I also have attached two test tubes: one full of fresh water, as I’m sure this colony
was thirsty, and the other with a sugar-water mix.
The ants should appreciate this sweet liquid, and man, wait until you see how they react
to it!
The third opening will just be plugged up using perforated AC Plug which comes with
the kit, as well as the tube which will be ultimately connected to the colony.
Alright, AC Family, now before I do make the connection, I’ve got to add this: a superworm!
This is my superworm stash, and now to pick one: eenie, meanie, money mo!
This one will do!
Sorry fella!
You’ll be Polyrhachis dinner tonight!
I squashed its head and cut it up, and placed a piece into the AC Test Tube portal.
Alright, now all was set!
It was time to feed our new beloved and hungry Polyrhahcis ants.
AC Family, are you ready?
Let’s do this!
Nwo because the smaller tube didn’t perfectly fit into the larger tube of the jar, I needed
to wrap a piece of tape around so I could better seal the two tubes together, and now
for the fun part!
Let’s remove the cotton!
1 - 2 - 3!
And sealing the two tubes together… and done!
Placing a few stragglers that clung onto the cotton through the top chute to rejoin the
colony… and there we go!
AC Family, let’s watch!
The ants excitedly began to run through the tube and emerge from the other end to explore
the strange new space of the AC Test Tube Portal.
At first, the ants seemed to prefer exploring the space over having a taste of our superworm.
I did however spot several ants pulling at the cotton to drink our fresh water.
Awesome!
Drink my lovely ladies!
Drink!
Some also discovered the sugar water and were eagerly pressing into the cotton to drink
the sweet goods.
It was really awesome to see that they loved our water and sugar water so much!
One ant finally decided to give our superworm chunk a taste!
Yay!
Feast, feast!
More and more ants ran back home to the nest to inform the rest of the colony of the interesting
space that suddenly became available to them full of sweet goods, refreshing water, and
meaty finds.
Watching this process as the ants continue to come pouring in is truly my favourite.
So AC Family, let’s just sit back now for a few moments and enjoy the sight of something
we ant keepers love doing: ant watching!
Man, the ants were now swarming the test tube portal!
Ants were enjoying gobbling up the superworm meat, and crazy to see the superworm still
moving despite me crushing its head and chopping it up.
Poor fella!
This superworm however will go on to provide the colony the necessary proteins and nutrients
required for the larvae to grow, and the queens to produce more eggs.
Now looking into the water test tube, woah!
Look at all those ants just eagerly drinking that water!
I was happy to know the ants were receiving the hydration they needed.
And check out the sugar-water test tube!
Looks like the sugar water was a hit!
So much in fact, that I could actually see the bubbles forming on the other side of the
cotton!
How wild!
I have never seen that in all my years of ant keeping.
These ants were truly consuming this sugar water at a record-breaking rate!
I watched as the ants began to pile pulled cotton fibers in the feeding area of the test
tube portal.
My guess was they would quickly be making this space part of their home.
Speaking of which, AC Family, at the start of this video I mentioned that I’d be asking
you guys a very important question regarding these new ants of ours, and it’s this: What
do you think we should house this new colony in?
Would you like to see them in a naturally designed terrarium, a network of ant farms
perhaps, or some other enclosure design?
Please VOTE by hitting THUMBS UP in the corresponding housing option listed under the PINNED COMMENT,
and the housing option with the greatest number of votes will be the new home we give to our
Polyrhachis ants.
Thank you AC Council for your input!
I’m certain we could definitely give them a cooler, more suitable home.
Now I also mentioned at the start of the video that I’d be giving you guys an update on
the carpenter ants which we spent all of the last quarter of last year raising.
Happy to report, they are all still doing well!
The Redwood Warriors and the Ebony Army are slowly growing in numbers, as well as the
various other carpenter ant colonies which are still awaiting rehoming.
I may just release them back into the wild, as these are native ants and would truly benefit
the ecosystem in the forest.
As much as I love ant keeping, I also love ant conservation, so releasing the carpenter
ant colonies I don’t need are totally ok with me.
Let me know what you guys think!
I’ll definitely be keeping two for myself to continue growing on the channel.
And so AC Family, I’ll see you in the next episode when we give this new beloved ant
colony of ours their brand new home!
Be sure to SUBSCRIBE to the channel so you don’t miss out on this continuing ant story!
Until next week, thank you for watching and supporting the ants.
It’s ant love forever!