Greetings, AC Family! This week we had an interesting 1 hour session with all the ant colonies on our Youtube channel for a live streamed feeding. We chatted about each colony, ant keeping, and about exciting things to expect on the channel! Hope you enjoy the video!
What’s up, AC Family! This is AntsCanada tuning in. Oh, I see you guys tuning in—thank you! This is a live feed.
Welcome to the AntsCanada Ant Channel! Yep, we wanted to make a live video this time. Oops, maybe I should turn off the mic.
We always have problems with that during these live streams. Thank you guys for tuning in, really appreciate it.
We did a poll on Twitter, and basically… hold on, let me turn off this… there we go. Sorry, guys, let’s start this again.
Welcome to the AntsCanada Ant Channel, guys! This time we’re going to do it in landscape mode.
We did a poll on Twitter asking you what you guys wanted to see, and you voted 60% to see a live-streamed feeding of our ant colony.
So, this is what we’re going to do—we’re going to feed our ants! I’m so excited, guys. Thanks for tuning in!
I see all of you guys tuning in now. I’ve got the cockroaches ready, and I can’t wait to show you how the colonies have been doing this week.
Uh-huh, I see you guys tuning in! Shout out to you guys—Erly, Sebastian, KittyCat, I see you!
Also, feel free to leave your comments and questions, and I’ll answer them as best I can.
So, I’m going to set the camera down around here. Now, usually, I feed them in that bowl there, but today I’m not going to do that.
I’m going to feed them just close to the glass so that you guys can see all the action.
Ant love forever, guys! I see you!
Actually, before we do that, I want to show you what we’re feeding. So, this is what we’re going to be feeding, guys.
We’re going to be feeding Dubia roaches—see them? Do you guys like Dubia roaches?
We’ve got different sizes, but I’ll be feeding mostly adults. There’s a lot in there—that’s a lot of protein!
Now, for those of you who are keeping ants, you have to make sure that your ants have a protein source like these roaches here and a sugar source, like honey, fruits, or sugar water.
Now I’m going to feed these roaches. They’re going to have their protein today, our ant colonies.
So don’t worry, stay tuned until the end because I’m going to update you on every single colony we have on this channel in my ant room.
By the way, guys, this is the ant room where we film all the stuff. Mm-hmm.
Black crazy ants are here. One of you guys was asking about them, so we’ll update you on them as well. So stay tuned!
Okay, so our first colony is the Golden Empire, of course! You know the Golden Empire—they recently overcame their issue with mites.
We don’t like mites, of course—we hate mites. In fact, I’m going to set you guys down here.
Alright, time to feed. Now, I like to feed mostly male cockroaches because it leaves the females to continue laying eggs and having babies.
Here we go, guys. I’m going to put that there.
Another thing I’m going to do is cut up this cockroach so that the ants can get the insides. Oops, I’m sorry—this cockroach is…
I pre-killed it, but it’s still moving. Cut that up—sorry, guys, it’s kind of graphic, but the ants need their protein.
Okay, there we go. You guys see it? They have to fold it here. Yep, so all the ants now are discovering it.
There weren’t that many ants there earlier, but the message is going to spread throughout the entire Golden Empire that there’s a cockroach there.
See, they’re already starting to bring away the wings even though they don’t eat the wings. Not sure why they bring it to the nest. See?
One of you asked, “What’s the difference between Dubia cockroaches and pest cockroaches?”
Well, these Dubia cockroaches are not typically domestic roaches—they’re not pests. You usually find them in the forests and fields of the country that they’re from.
But they’re a very popular feeder insect.
See that? I know it’s pretty graphic, guys, but the colony must eat.
I made sure not to feed my ant colonies for two days just so they would be hungry and eager for this live stream that you guys voted for.
You see that? They are swarming that roach now.
As you know, this is the Golden Empire. You guys voted for that name, and it’s our yellow crazy ant colony.
Anoplolepis gracilipes is the scientific name, and they really love this space.
As you can see, there are some anthills down there. This plant, I believe, is dying because of the aphids that have been sucking it dry of its fluids—its inner plant juices.
So, I might have to replace it.
And if you saw some of our previous videos, you’ll see that the ants actually “milk”—they acquire honeydew from the aphids, which is kind of cool.
We’ve got the ants swarming now, and eventually, they’re going to bring this cockroach into their nest.
If you look around, you’ll see the random holes that the ants have dug. See?
They’ve got a lot of plants—actually, this is a very small community of animals. It’s really great.
So, you have the plants, and then inside there are also springtails, which eat the decaying matter of the ants.
So, the ants have a symbiotic relationship with the springtails—a mutualistic symbiotic relationship.
The ants provide the springtails with food, and the springtails break down the ants’ garbage so it doesn’t sit around and fester.
See that? And yes, you guys are asking if there’s music playing in the background—yes, there is!
I just didn’t want it to be completely silent, so I’m just playing an instrumental playlist in the background.
Alright, so let’s move on. Do you guys want to see the Fire Nation? We’ll come back to this to see their progress.
Who wants to see the Fire Nation? You guys haven’t seen the Fire Nation for a long time, have you?
I know. Well, the Fire Nation is here. See, this is them. I’m going to take the light closer so we can see this feeding.
Alright, just one second. Adjust that light.
Okay, guys, here we go.
So, this here is the Fire Nation. They are a massive colony, and you’ll see them come out in just a second.
I’m going to set this down carefully. There, you see them?
Now, another reason why I feed males is because—I don’t know if you guys saw our fire ant video when they were eating the cockroach and the cockroach gave birth—I don’t want to witness that anymore!
So, I try to feed males.
So, here is a male cockroach right here. Now, these ants sting. Look, they’re already agitated because they can smell me.
The ants can smell that I’m here, and they know it’s dinnertime.
So, what I do is—I, of course, crush the cockroach. I pre-crush it; I just feel it’s a lot more humane.
And then I just place it inside.
Now, you might be asking, “What is this?” That’s a spoon. I remove it; I go in there once a week and remove all the items that are in there because I’ll put honey on a spoon and just stick it into the nest.
Oh, the ants are agitated. These are fire ants. These are Solenopsis geminata, tropical fire ants, and I put that right there.
And they sting—they’re very aggressive. Watch—they’re going to swarm this cockroach here.
The ants are hungry! Yeah, I know, some of you just said, “Poor cockroach.” I do feel bad for the cockroach, but they’re feeder insects.
Now, this colony eats a lot, so I usually feed them three or four cockroaches a day.
So, I’m going to place another one here, right there, separate down this way, over here.
See, look—they’re already on my fingers!
This here is a nymph, a cockroach nymph. It’s immature; it’s not an adult. I’ll feed these as well because they won’t have babies.
It’s a lot of ants, right? Isn’t that crazy, AC Family?
So, they’re going to continue eating like that. These three cockroaches will provide a good amount of protein for the Fire Nation, our rare tropical fire ants, for 24 hours.
And what’s cool is, if you look over here, news has already spread to the other parts of the colony—other parts of the Fire Nation.
See, they’re going crazy here because they want to go and visit this basin so they can eat the cockroaches.
I’m paranoid that this camera will fall into the basin!
See that? They’re so aggressive, it only takes a few moments before the cockroaches are completely dead because they get stung to death.
I’ll let you guys enjoy the Fire Nation here.
Now, what do you guys think? Should I have a 24-hour live feed during the week, or perhaps on certain days of the week?
What do you guys think? Where I live stream one of the colonies and we rotate, we do a cycle.
We could do the Fire Nation one week, we could do the Golden Empire another week, or our new Marauder ants another week.
Would you guys like that? Would you guys actually tune in?
And what day do you think we should do that? Should it be a Wednesday? A Monday? Let me know, guys.
I know some of you might have school, so I want it to be on a day that works best for as many people as possible.
Maybe I’ll stream for 24 hours with one of the colonies.
Yeah, I was thinking of Wednesday, guys. You guys are saying Wednesday, someone says Thursday.
But if you’re not subscribed, I hope you can subscribe, guys, to the channel.
Don’t forget to hit like, comment, and share if you do like our videos—it really helps me as well.
I love hearing your feedback, I love hearing what you guys like to watch.
And don’t forget to also follow us on Twitter, find us on Twitter and Facebook, because I’m very active on both those accounts.
And if you like looking at ants, follow our Instagram as well for pictures of ants.
Okay, we’ll come back to this Fire Nation in the Fire Palace in just a sec.
Let’s move on to our next colony.
Let’s move on over here. This, of course, guys, is the Dark Knights’ formicarium. It’s basically just a basin, and as you can see, there are some remains already of yesterday’s cockroaches.
I’m going to feed them now a fresh one—that’s really good.
I usually spot-clean. I go in here and clean once a week—ants can get very dirty.
Oops, there you go. See them? They love cockroaches.
I love this species. This species is Paratrechina longicornis, the black crazy ants, and they’re found in almost all tropical countries.
And you can tell that they’re black crazy ants right away by the way they move—they’ve got a very specific and very characteristic movement.
They kind of spiral around. You can spot them right away.
No one actually knows where this species originated, but some people think that they originated in India and then spread to other parts of the world via human activities.
Now I’m going to help these ants out by cutting it up. There you go. Kind of gross, yes, sorry, but that helps them get into the innards—the good stuff—because the ants can’t consume the exoskeleton, it’s too hard.
One of you guys asks, “Is it illegal to buy ants from another country?”
If you watch our video “Where to Buy Queen Ants,” I explain everything. It’s usually illegal to ship any kind of fauna without any kind of permit out of most countries.
And aside from that, it’s also ecologically not a good thing to do because if, say, a foreign ant species establishes in your ecosystem, it can displace your native ants, possibly kill them, and transmit diseases as well.
So, for those of you looking for queen ants, you’re in luck because you can catch them yourself—it’s nuptial flight season if you’re in the Northern Hemisphere.
But another option is to check out our GAN Project, which is the Global Ant Nursery, where you can find ant sellers in your area who are selling ant colonies.
I hope all of you guys do consider keeping pet ants because ants are so neat—it’s like a little city.
And they depend on you to care for them for everything.
For all you gamers out there, a lot of ant keepers are actually also gamers, and it’s no surprise because, you know, a lot of games now are about the development of an army, growing them, gathering resources, and stuff, and then warring them.
Now, although ant-keeping doesn’t necessarily mean war in your ants, it’s still the same.
It’s like nurturing a small army and growing it.
See, the ants are now eating the insides.
Guys, don’t forget to hit like and leave a comment—I love hearing from you guys.
Let’s get a closer look—see that, guys?
And the Dark Knights are living in here. Now, this is the colony that has a tube, which actually runs all the way down to my first floor, where there’s another outworld, and I put food in there as well.
See that? Alright, let’s see how our Golden Empire is doing—they’re loving this!
Alright, okay, so you guys want to see the Trap-jaw ants, huh? You guys voted for them to be called the Jawbreakers.
I’m going to put them here on this chair because these guys are kind of a challenge to film, only because they’re in a container.
Let’s see if I can position this camera in such a way that it’ll be easier to film them.
Okay, there, now you guys are secure. Hang tight. I’ve got the Jawbreakers right here.
Now, this is going to be a bit of a challenge. Why? Well, it’s going to be a challenge because this is kind of a spoiler!
I love that this is so live—it’s happening right now, real-time. Usually, it takes me a week to edit these videos.
It’s hard now because there are so many workers in the Jawbreakers colony.
This trap-jaw ant colony is now at 30 or so workers—isn’t that great? They’ve grown so fast.
I love it. They’re amazing!
I was afraid that they wouldn’t be able to make it in captivity because they’re not an easy species to keep, only because they’re so picky with food.
But here, I’ve got a baby cockroach, and this is what I’m going to feed them.
Now, it’s a challenge because when I open it, they get very defensive right away, and I don’t want to be stung by these guys,
And I don’t want to be bitten by them either—it really hurts!
See them there? This is the entrance to their home.
Now, I wonder if I can actually remove the entire cover without them… oops! Here, eat it!
They’re so picky with food. What if I leave this right here—will they get it? I usually wait to see if they’re going to take it, because if they don’t, I’ll just remove it.
Now, these ants are kind of cool because they sort of have a mind of their own. They’re not like most ants, where there’s kind of a hive mind.
I almost feel like there’s a hierarchy among the workers. Some of the workers are more dominant than others, and it’s almost like they think independently in a way.
I don’t know, it might just be me, but it’s the sense I get watching these ants.
Someone said, “I love the Jawbreakers.” Yeah, I know—I love them too!
Oh, this ant is inspecting—see it? Take it, take it… no, look, I dropped it right in front of it, but it doesn’t seem interested.
Hmm, what if I tried feeding it a leg—a cockroach leg? I don’t know… which means I have to go in and pull a leg off a cockroach.
Ant keeper problems, right?
Okay, let’s find them. Here, I’m just going to pull one of the legs off this cockroach… oh, it took it! Okay, good.
Now I don’t have to pull a leg off.
See her? She’s going to carry that cockroach into the lair—into the nest. I’m going to actually put another baby cockroach in there for them to eat.
Here, take this, guys. I love when they just accept it off my tweezers—I feel like I’m hand-feeding them.
Whoops, I totally dropped it inside the nest.
So, I usually feed this colony three Dubia roaches a week.
You see it? It’s like they’ve got a mind of their own. They’re not like typical ants—they remind me of a colony of, I don’t know, a colony of rats or something. They’re very inquisitive.
Alright, so I’m just going to leave those there. I’m sure they’re going to eat them.
That there was our trap-jaw ant colony, species Odontomachus infandus.
Do you guys like this colony? I really like this colony, and I think I’m going to move it into a larger setup soon because there are so many workers now.
Really cool, right?
Alright, and now, moving on to our newest ant colony. Guys, I am so excited about this ant colony.
Did you guys see our video last week?
Did ya? This here is our brand-new, totally cool Carebara diversa ant colony.
Now, these ants are just fantastic. The polymorphism in their worker caste is unbelievable. They have huge super majors!
And I want you to look into this nest. Watch this. Here, I’m going to have to move this just to the side so you can see how big the nest is.
Oh, wait, is that the queen? No, those are super majors. You guys see that? See how big those chambers are? Isn’t that amazing?
See? It’s just totally cool. Look how big the chambers are—they’re just so, so big.
Guys, don’t forget to hit the like button and comment—I want to read your questions and answer them.
Sorry, I’m trying to do this as still as I can. See that?
Alright, so we’re going to feed this colony now. I recently attached this colony to a test tube portal.
For those of you who don’t know, this is an AC test tube portal—you can’t find it anywhere else.
And the cover comes off, but I don’t remove the cover. It’s got micro holes so ants can breathe, but they can’t escape.
This trap door opens if I want to put anything inside, and it just acts as a connector.
It gives the ants a nice space to either come here to the water tube, which they’ve blocked up with some dirt—not sure why—and the tubes.
So it’s kind of like a little central meeting place. And these here are just condiment containers—they’re just simple kitchen containers I bought from a hardware store.
I drilled a hole on the top and placed cotton.
The reason why I’m using this and not any other kind of outworld is because these guys are escape artists. They can cross any barrier I’ve discovered, including baby powder.
They really are escape artists, and they’ve started to dig down here too. So, it’s really, really neat.
Now I’m going to feed this colony a cockroach. If you guys saw last week’s video, you’ll know that this is a very aggressive species.
Here we go. I’m going to see how I can situate this so that you guys get the best view.
Maybe I can do something like this, where you guys can see it if I put it down like so.
What is a super major? Well, a super major is basically a worker that is very, very large. It’s born large, and it specializes in defense and in cutting open food, like seeds and stuff.
I love this species because the minors hitch rides on the majors!
Sorry, guys, I got disconnected. The internet isn’t the fastest here in the Philippines.
Alright, okay, so we’re back, and I’m going to feed this cockroach. I’m going to open this. Some of the ants will escape, but we have no choice.
So, let’s put you guys down here for a second. There we go.
Wish me luck! Hold the ants in there now… pop it in, close the lid… oh, some ants escaped!
Alright, and there it is—there’s the cockroach.
They are going to swarm that cockroach.
I try to squish them as best as I can, but even if you split their body in half, the cockroaches can still move because their brains are… well, they’re essentially ganglia.
They have clusters of nerve cells that run down the center of the cockroach’s body, so they’re still capable of movement even if you split them in half.
Guys, don’t forget to hit that like button and subscribe if you aren’t subscribed yet! Be sure to comment—I love reading your comments.
And let me know what you guys like and what you guys don’t like.
Now, for those of you who are just tuning in now, I was thinking of possibly doing a live feed sometime during the week.
Maybe one day in the week where I do a 24-hour livestream of a rotating colony. So, one week it’ll be this colony, and another week it’ll be the Fire Nation, and another week it’ll be the Dark Knights.
Do you guys like that idea?