Oh no!
My pet fire ant colony is in danger.
But I won’t panic now as this can be fixed.
I woke up this week to a rather shocking discovery when peeking into the City of Ashes, metropolis
home of our beloved and expanding fire ant colony named the Phoenix Empire.
Everything seemed normal, the workers were all active, the brood pile, massive as ever,
and the queen Ember Empress tucked snugly in her bed of ant babies.
But just when I figured all was well as usual, I saw this.
The colony’s primary water reservoir had strangely turned pink!
Oh no!
Something needed to be done immediately, you guys!
I was familiar with this pink water, and it wasn’t good news.
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Enjoy!
So what is this pink water, how did it appear, why is it bad, and what do we have to do to
get rid of it?
AC Family, I’ll be getting to all those answers in just a moment, but I must say,
in all my years of ant keeping, this ominous and mysterious pink water has only happened
to me once before many years ago, and if you are planning on keeping pet ants, you might
want to take note of this in case it happens to you.
Also, guys, an important decision is coming up and I’ll be needing your help today,
to make a major decision for this colony via a VOTE at the end of this video, so please
stay tuned for that!
So if you’re new here, the Phoenix Empire is a colony of fire ants that I grew from
just a single queen ant some 10 weeks ago.
Together on this channel we cared for them, watched them grow, and evolve, even making
their first kill last week.
They’re dear to us and are set to become a great and mighty fire ant colony of millions
in the not so distant future.
But if you’ve been following the channel for awhile, you’ll know that sometimes we’re
met with challenges and crises that Mother Nature throws at us, threatening the lives
of our dear ants that depend on us to keep them safe.
Wild ant invasions, parasitic mite plagues, and catastrophes like that periodically occur,
forcing us to take certain actions to save them.
Our Golden Empire, for instance, a mighty yellow crazy ant supercolony, who were almost
exterminated by some blood sucking mites last year, were thankfully saved by way of quarantining
the colony with predatory Hypoaspis mites, which thankfully ate the bad mites off the
yellow crazy ants.
For all of you who’ve been asking for an update on them, rest assured that today the
Golden Empire is healthy again, and bouncing back in numbers.
So now about this pink water.
Though I’m not certain what exactly causes this pinking, I do feel it’s either some
kind of microbial outbreak in the water, i.e. some bacterial, fungal or other microcellular
organism-involved contamination, or some substance that is produced by such a microbial outbreak
in the water, causing it to discolour.
Either way, I feel this is not a good thing.
Ants should have clean fresh water at all times, so the Phoenix Empire will be needing
a new water source and reservoir right now.
And here, AC Family, is where I can show you guys how to properly make an ant test tube
setup!
All you future ant keepers, let’s get into ant keeping tutorial mode!
First, I’ll be needing these two AC test tubes from AntsCanada.com.
These AC Test Tubes are designed specifically for us ant keepers.
They’re extra long with lots of space, and have these small ridges that keep them from
rolling off a table giving your ants the nightmare roller coaster ride of their lives.
So, before doing anything else, the first step is to make sure your hands and instruments
are as sterile as possible.
Test tube setups need to be super clean to minimize microbial outbreaks from the get
go.
You can wear gloves or wash your hands followed by a hand sanitizer, which I’m hoping all
of you out there watching have by now.
Next, it’s important to wash and disinfect all instruments used.
This is our pokey!
Then, it’s important to use clean, bottled water.
I like to fill it to this rim which is placed on the AC Test Tubes to help guide you.
Then, you place a cotton ball inside and with a pokey the key is to press down quickly so
you don’t have bubbles.
And so…
Down we go fast!
Boom!
Shake away any remaining droplets and there you have it: a perfect test tube setup!
While we’re at it, I also wanted to create a new sugar-water test tube setup seeing as
their current sugar-water test tube cotton has also gone foul with mold.
This time, I’m mixing in honey and water together.
Done!
Popped in some AC Test Tube adapters, opened up the top of the Fire Forest, and attached
the newly made test tubes to the setups, dumping any ants that happen to be in the old test
tubes inside the Fire Forest to rejoin the colony.
Immediately, the ants checked out the new living space attached to the City of Ashes
and rejoiced at the new fresh water source, as well as their new sugar source.
Haha!
Look at how excited they are to make the new discovery!
Now, as for the colony living inside the pink water test tube, I’ll leave it to the ants
to move out on their own.
At least now, the colony had a clean source of water to drink from again.
When they’re ready, they’ll make the emmigration to the new test tube setup or perhaps this...
Guys, it’s now time for our final order of business.
Get your voting fingers ready, AC Council!
In last week’s episode, I asked all of you, to vote for the next grand attachment to the
City of Ashes, and turns out you guys voted saying you wanted the Phoenix Empire to finally
receive their very first formicarium, i.e. a proper ant farm for them to nest in.
And so, guys, behold the potential real estate options for the Phoenix Empire: Please watch
carefully and help me decide which to choose for them.
First, before you I present what is called a Hybrid Nest Mini.
It’s a smaller nest for new beginning colonies their size, that comes with a cover for the
Phoenix Empire’s ultimate dark-loving comfort, with chambers and tunnels already cut out
for the ants with a section for hydration through the floor which is refilled by way
of an inner tub.
The pros of this nest is visibility is superior, and we’ll always be able to see everything
going on in the nest whenever we want, from brood, to workers, and the queen.
Cons are, we won’t be able to see certain natural behaviours taking place, like the
ants building tunnels on their own and ant hill construction.
Next option, we have an Ant Tower Small, which contains an area inside in which we’re to
fill with digging medium for the ants to actually physically dig into and construct tunnels
and ant hills close to the glass.
A red film that keeps the ants thinking they’re in the dark seeing as they can’t see red
light, peels off for when we’re observing them.
Hydration also happens from below via a hydration ring.
Pros to this option, are we get to finally watch the fire ants dig and build tunnels,
which I am certain the ants have been eager to do, as I see they’ve long been attempting
to dig and create a nest in the Fire Forest.
As well, in the Ant Tower we can finally introduce some symbiotic, beneficial soil creatures
like springtails and isopods which eat their garbage and poop.
Cons are, this is midway to an actual terrarium, so once the Phoenix Empire moves in here,
visibility of certain things may be a challenge due to the fire ants being so small, and there’s
a chance we might never see the queen again as they’ll have an easier time hiding her
here.
And so, AC Family, you guys never let me down with these votes.
Both picks make great and worthy first nesting sites for the Phoenix Empire, but now that
you guys know the options, please take a moment to VOTE here, for the Phoenix Empire’s next
royal home.
Thank you AC Council for your input.
Whichever option wins, will be officially added to the City of Ashes in next week’s
episode, and I’ll be sure to film their reaction to the new space you’ve chosen
for them!
I appreciate that you all have been so involved with caring for these precious creatures from
the very start.
I do feel like we are taking care of the Phoenix Empire here cooperatively, as we marvel at
their growth and rise to their fire ant glory years!
I wish these fire ants could know and understand how many of us, watching from around the world
are rooting for them, learning from their evolution, rejoicing at their milestones,
and as we’ve done today, fixing their environment in the hopes to optimize their chances at
success.
Like the ants do, it’s all been a beautiful team effort so far, wouldn’t you say?
Thank you all for watching, and being part of this epic journey.
I appreciate you for quietly supporting the ants, and I’ll see you again next week,
guys.
It’s ant love forever!
AC Family, did you enjoy today’s episode?
Be sure to tune in next week, when we give the Phoenix Empire their very first proper
nest, 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, 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, guys.
Thank you!
AC Inner Colony, I have left a hidden cookie for you here, if you would like to watch extended
play footage of the Phoenix Empire in the City of Ashes.
We got lots of relaxing footage of the ants as well as fun footage of the ants discovering
their new test tubes.
Also, just a note: It’s anting season, and nuptial flights start in the Northern Hemisphere
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 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:
What is the name of the toxin fire ants inject when stinging?
Congratulations to Nora Garcia who answered:
Solenopsin
Congratulations Nora, you just won a free Ultimate Ant Keeping handbook from our shop!
In this week’s AC Question of the Week we ask:
Why do we need to push the cotton in quickly when making a test tube setup?
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 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!