A swarm of aggressive fire ants have broken into and invaded my Giant Tropical Wetlands Vivarium, named Hydromeda. This fire ant invasion posed a crisis for all life living within the tank, as well as the future of my biological ecosystem project. But despite my attempts to problem-solve, things weren’t quite what they seemed, and in the end, the vivarium suffered a tragic loss. Hope you enjoy Episode 8, Season 4 of my Ecosystem Vivarium Series. Ant love forever!

A Swarm of Fire Ants Broke Into My Giant Wetlands Vivarium

Oh man! I can’t believe this. This is Hydromeda, my giant tropical wetlands vivarium, home to a growing ecosystem of creatures in the water and on land. It’s a personal biological project of mine to study the workings of ecosystems of wild tropical wetlands, all leading up to the second phase of this project, when I finally get to connect Hydromeda to my other two giant rainforest vivaria and all creatures living within them.

But last week, a very major crisis hit Hydromeda, which threatened the life and course of my project forever.

Hey, what was that?

I looked closer. What? An ant! But when I realized what kind of ant it was, my heart dropped to the pit of my stomach. Fire ants!

I could see some swimming on the surface of the water. Wait a second.

I gasped as I opened the door to the vivarium. They were everywhere!

The swarm of fire ants marching into Hydromeda was horrifying! No! Fire ants were breaking into the wetlands?! But where were they coming from?

My heart beat loudly in my ears as I followed the trail down to the floor, across to the other side of the room, and quickly realized where the swarm of fire ants was coming from.

Oh no! Volcania!

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I couldn’t believe my eyes. A long trail of fire ants streamed into Hydromeda like it was prime available real estate. They were marching right onto Hydromeda’s land area, which was very bad news.

These were the Crimson Knights, my pet fire ants, that had broken loose from their setup again!

I know, I know—my bad for keeping them in an open setup, but I had to act fast because seeing that the fire ants were not carrying brood either meant that the queen hadn’t yet moved in, or that the queen and all the babies had long moved in already—obviously, the latter being the worst-case scenario.

But little did I know, the truth about this fire ant invasion was not at all what I was expecting and that a major tragedy was up ahead.

I followed the trail of fire ants along the ground and ran to Volcania, the Crimson Knights’ volcanic island home.

I couldn’t imagine how they could have escaped, though, because I routinely line the edges with diatomaceous chalk, which is kind of like a lethal fire ant electric fence. It kills the ants by cutting them up microscopically, leading to rapid dehydration upon contact.

Checking in on them, the Crimson Knights were preoccupied with another mass dissection project. They were feasting on some raw chicken legs and body parts, their regular meal fed to them once a week.

These red tropical fire ants, a relative to the notorious fire ants of the US, have been an invasive species where I live for decades and are a cause for a lot of ecological problems—namely, their tendency to drive out most native ants, their unmatched aggression with a painful sting, and enormous colonies that grow quickly.

The Crimson Knights have lived in this open-concept volcanic island-style setup for almost two years now, and though the ants have broken loose a couple of times, I’m not quite sure what else to do, as they’re already living here and doing so well.

And I can’t exactly set them free outside, as they’re invasive.

I may have to build some kind of glass fortress around this island, but then ventilation becomes a problem, and having to open and close a door to a fire ant space is a stinging nightmare waiting to happen.

But I had to deal with the escape. I was prepared to bust out my vacuum as soon as I found the escape trail when suddenly…

Wait a sec. Hang on.

As I looked all around, I could see no trail of fire ants coming out of anywhere.

I checked the sides, the back, the front—all over—and still, no fire ants trailing out of the setup.

Suddenly, things got strange.

I went back to the trail of ants, and oddly, the fire ants weren’t actually coming from Volcania.

They were coming from Pantdora.

But oddly, not from inside the vivarium.

I followed the trail some more, along the front of the vivarium, towards the wall, winding around to another wall behind some plants, under some furniture, winding all the way around to the rock wall behind Hydromeda, and eventually back up to the trail leading into Hydromeda.

Ok, what? Officially confused.

Where were these fire ants coming from if they weren’t from Volcania and weren’t the Crimson Knights?

I couldn’t find where these fire ants were coming from. Things weren’t adding up.

There was one good thing, however. Draco, our resident flying lizard, was basking tall and proud on the Arch of Aquarius.

If you’re new, yes, Draco is a flying lizard, capable of gliding through the air as they leap from tree to tree.

He was unintentionally introduced into the wetlands by way of the driftwood—a bonus creature I discovered one day living in the tank.

I always see him basking here on the Arch of Aquarius, or hanging upside down on the mesh.

He’s quite intelligent and doesn’t get spooked by the sudden Hydromedan rains. The irrigation system actually intrigues him.

I still haven’t seen him glide yet. Perhaps he’s still too young.

I had been placing lots of pinhead crickets, as well as various ants collected from Pantdora, into Hydromeda over the past two months that he’s been living here.

Yes, he eats ants, and there really aren’t a lot of animals in the world that actually eat ants.

Which was why, with all these fire ants now moving into Hydromeda, at least now he had a good supply of food around.

I wasn’t sure if fire ants were part of his natural diet, but I would soon find out.

Once the Great Connection Event between Hydromeda and Pantdora was made, Draco would be able to choose from a plethora of different ant species to feed from in both Pantdora and Orchadia.

I was happy to know that a very exciting and bright future was up ahead for Draco—or so I thought.

But speaking of a bright future, the waters of Hydromeda were certainly looking promising.

Have a look at the aquatic wonderland that was developing below. Hydromedan waters were just bustling with life.

We had recently added all these schools of fish, which truly gave these watery lands a colorful flare, as fish gregariously traveled in the most beautiful schools amidst a gorgeous scenery of greenery.

The plants were truly thriving now, and so much life was springing forth everywhere you looked.

And look! My Buce is blooming beautifully!

I wonder how pollination would work underwater. Are the shrimps the ones who pollinate the plants like bees?

And man, look at that fire moss! Stunning.

I was so pleased with the progress of our wetlands below the waterline.

There was, however, another invasive species that was beginning to take over these waters, but I’ll get into that later.

For now, I had to deal with the issue of the fire ants.

The fire ants were now inhabiting the soils of Hydromeda, so I needed to come up with a solution to deal with them.

But it was late, so I decided I should sleep on it and deal with the fire ants in the morning.

Little did I know, I would be waking up to the most tragic event that would befall the most tragic creature.

The next morning, I checked around the vivarium and saw that Draco was not in his usual spot basking.

That’s odd.

I looked all around for him, and when I spotted him, my heart sank.

Draco!

His body lay lifeless by Cascadia Falls.

No!

Our flying dragon had died, and I had so many questions.

How?

I then spotted a fire ant crawling over his body from a gaping hole in his abdomen.

The fire ants had completely consumed his insides.

AC Family, I’m so sorry.

I think the fire ants had killed him somehow—perhaps stung him to death and ate him?

Either that, or he had died from some other cause, and the fire ants ate his body after the fact.

I wasn’t sure, but I was so sad to lose our first Hydromedan OG.

I left Draco’s body to decompose naturally by Cascadia, to become part of the wetland ecosystem forever.

A week went by, and I never did find the origin of the fire ants, even though I checked everywhere.

And after that first day, the trailing had completely disappeared, and they never emerged again, so it was impossible to tell where they came from.

My guess was they were emerging from some unforeseen hole in the floor tiling or walls.

There was once a surprise fire ant nuptial flight that happened last year in the Ant Room, so it’s possible a successful mating led to a queen ant hiding in a small hole or even the floor drains.

The colony could also be breaking in from outside from some hole I can’t see.

I find it interesting that the fire ants chose to move into Hydromeda and not my other vivaria.

Perhaps they could smell how ant-infested the other vivaria were and chose the most unoccupied lands to move into.

Perhaps they just loved being close to water.

Meanwhile, you guys voted in my Community Tab poll to exterminate the fire ants, so I have placed diatomaceous chalk along the sides.

That’s the best I can do for now without poisoning our ecosystem, as the chalk is non-toxic.

Plus, there isn’t much food in here but a few flying insects.

Any fire ant colony in Hydromeda would starve right now.

As per whether or not an entire colony had moved in, including the queen, there’s really no way I can tell currently.

But every worker lives for about a month or two max, so we’ll know for sure before the Great Connection Event.

If we continue to see fire ants past the two-month point, I will know a queen had definitely moved in, and I probably should postpone the Great Connection Event of the vivaria until we properly deal with the fire ants.

My instincts tell me there isn’t a fire ant queen in here and that these fire ants were merely the first batch of movers, not the tail end of a colony that had completely moved in.

Which would then mean some hidden fire ant colony has free access into my Ant Room at any given time, and I should be prepared to deal with a sudden fire ant invasion in the future.

I’ve got emergency chalk and a vacuum ready anytime I need it.

I’ll also have to recheck the design of the vivarium so break-ins from the outside don’t happen again.

But despite this tragic event, the takeover and killing of life by invasive species, like fire ants, does happen in the wild.

Fire ants have conquered much of the world and are notoriously known to threaten native ecosystems.

We were able to see that firsthand with the death of Draco.

The best we can do is support native ecosystems by taking actions to help increase biodiversity, like planting trees and supporting the protection of wild spaces.

Because the more robust and biodiverse an ecosystem is, the more capable it is of dealing with potential invasive threats.

I believe our wetlands will be okay for now, and as much as my heart will always be pierced by the loss of Draco, an ecosystem is what I sought to create with this project, and death is and always will be part of the whole life process.

It’s how Mother Nature works.

Nutrients from Draco’s decayed body would flow down Cascadia’s waters and be delivered throughout the aquatic system for plants to absorb.

Little bits of edible matter from Draco’s body would be picked off by the shrimp, catfish, and schools of fish.

In a healthy ecosystem, death always contributes to more life, and that was something I had to remember most on this bittersweet path of Hydromeda’s evolution.

But on the topic of invasions, as mentioned earlier, there was another invasion happening underwater I had to deal with.

As amazing as Hydromeda’s waterworld was, there’s been a sudden emergence and population explosion of a certain invasive aquatic species, that I knew was on the brink of getting out of control:

Bladder snails—every aquarium hobbyist’s nightmare.

They can completely take over a tank, and indeed they were now seen everywhere in Hydromeda.

It actually freaked me out to see how many snails there suddenly were.

But AC Family, I had just the solution to control this unwanted snail explosion, and I think you are going to love them!

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