The Death Sprites (painted toads) have arrived and they’re ready to annihilate some ants! This team of toads has been commissioned to exterminate a problematic population of mite-infected ants, hopelessly doomed members of the Golden Empire (yellow crazy ants). The majority of the Golden Empire is thankfully recuperating from the mites in quarantine, the mite-infected Golden Empire ants left behind in the Hacienda Del Dorado must be killed off, so that the mites that parasitize them do not move on to infect all the other ants and critters in our Ant Room, hence, the addition of our new Death Sprites! But the events that happened, following the introduction of the Death Sprites, and the added complication and need to introduce a second Death Sprite team, were nothing less than epic, suspenseful, full of problem-solving, crises, perseverance, and indeed cuteness overload. By the end of it all, I was left in utter breathlessness at the miraculous splendor of nature. This has got to be one of my absolute favourite (and longest) episodes on this channel, so sit back and enjoy how I created a haven for Death Sprites and a hell for zombie, mite-infected ants. Oh yeah, and AC Family, you guys will love the major event happening at the end!

DEATH SPRITES: Creating a Frog Haven & Ant Hell

Now where in Ant-Man’s quantum world am I?” the ant wondered, as she waved her antennae through the air, trying her best to smell what lay beyond. This all appeared very strange to her. Everything was just so unfamiliar. She thought she’d memorized these Hacienda del Doradan lands like the back of her pre-tarsus, but suddenly tonight, it was like she had woken up to a totally different kingdom. Something wasn’t right… and then suddenly… “Ahhh, an itch!” The plague of body mites that had touched the entire ant colony as of late had sadly made its way onto this ant’s body. But though encumbered by the mites, the ant had to keep going. Her job tonight was to bring back food to the rest of the colony. But emerging from the nest to find this strange world above ground truly psyched out this ant, as she cautiously tried her best to navigate the foreign terrain, which was strangely oscillating, bobbing up and down in eerie waves. In fact, upon further investigation, it appeared as though she was completely surrounded by water! She was on a raft of plants. So now the question was, where do you go when you don’t know where the heck you are? Maybe here? Hmmm… something doesn’t smell too right on this side. Or perhaps over here? Ok, something smells pretty interesting in that direction. Yes, it’s a fellow ant from the Golden Empire. Perfect! It was time to go meet her and figure out what she knows, might be going on here. But now to get to her. “Shall I try this way? Hmmm… No. My anty senses are telling me I need to go around this way.” The ant makes her way around the outside of this floating plant to try to get to her fellow colony member, who didn’t seem to want to move from her spot. Man, navigating the confusing entanglement of unfamiliar plants was proving to be quite the challenge for this ant. She felt lost again, quite disoriented, and itchy! How did she even wander out here in the first place? And all this time, she couldn’t quite put a mandible on what smelled… toad-ally off about all this. But she knew that once she could compare her notes with those of her fellow Golden Empire colony member, she could get all the answers she was looking for. The ant crossed over to the other side to join her sister. When reunited with her sister ant, she reached out into the darkness of the leaf fold in which she hid, “Hey, sis! Isn’t all this pretty weird? Let’s go find food together!” But the fellow Golden Empire ant was not moving from her spot. How odd! She knew something, and in just a moment, this ant too, would get all the answers it needed. It decided to wander off on its own to try its best to get back to its business of finding some food for the colony. “You know, it was okay that things were a little different. Not a problem for this ant! They were the Golden Empire, after all, always victorious in the face of any danger! And hmmm… what an interesting rock!” Please SUBSCRIBE to my channel, and hit the BELL icon. Welcome to the AC Family. Enjoy! You guys totally should have seen them the day I introduced them into the Hacienda Del Dorado. It was hilarious! I could hear the lid clicking as they hopped around inside. The moment I lifted the lid, like a jack-in-the-box, the Death Sprites sprung out onto the scene, revealing themselves to us for the first time. AC Family, let’s have a look, shall we? They appeared rather froggish for toads, with all that wet, slimy, and squishy skin. And sure enough, upon further researching these painted toads—known scientifically as Kaloula picta, native to the Philippines where I live—they actually don’t belong to the family of true toads at all. So for the purposes of this video, we’ll call them painted toads or frogs, even if they’re technically Microhylid frogs. Boing! And they jump like frogs, too! So if you’re new to the channel and are wondering why the heck so many people care about watching a video about frogs in a terrarium, well, first off, welcome to the Antiverse! What you’re witnessing here is the beginning of Phase B of what we, the AC Family, call “Project Cloverfield – the introduction of Death Sprites.” We all have been anticipating this deployment of Death Sprites—i.e., these painted toads—into this terrarium called the Hacienda Del Dorado, because these toads have a very special and important purpose: to kill a population of zombie, mite-infected ants living in this terrarium. To catch you up to speed real quick: not too long ago, these lands were ruled by a beloved, thriving, massive supercolony of yellow crazy ants called the Golden Empire, an OG colony on this channel, loved by millions. With seven queens, millions of loyal workers, and a force none could stop… until a plague of parasitic, ant blood-sucking mites crippled the entire colony and reduced them to a sick, weakened population of just a few thousand. We scrambled to extract as many ants as we could from the Hacienda Del Dorado and quarantine a good portion of the colony to treat them using predatory Hypoaspis mites, which eat the bad mites. As we saw last week, this has helped the colony recover. But the remaining mite-infected ants in the Hacienda Del Dorado needed to be exterminated, lest the mites went on to infect all other neighboring ant kingdoms and creatures in my Ant Room. And so, guys, here we are. The first three Death Sprites have landed in the Hacienda Del Dorado—our biological assassins to annihilate the zombie, mite-infected ants. And what ended up happening from this moment on is a story that will leave you mind-blown! The events that happened this week were nothing less than epic, suspenseful, full of problem-solving, crises, and perseverance—and oh yeah, cuteness overload. By the end of it all, I was left in utter breathlessness at the miraculous splendor of nature unfolding before our eyes. This has got to be one of my absolute favorite episodes on this channel, so sit back and enjoy how I created a haven for Death Sprites and a hell for zombie, mite-infected ants. Oh yeah, and AC Family, you guys will love the major event happening at the end! It was the first night the three painted toads would spend in the Hacienda Del Dorado, and I observed them very carefully to see if they would actually perform and eat the ants like we were hoping they would. At this point, the mite plague was bad. It pained me to see these tainted, mite-infected worker ants encumbered by their blood-sucking mites. It was as if they no longer were ants of the Golden Empire but were like infected cancer cells that needed to be destroyed before the cancer would metastasize and spread. The Golden Empire ants, which used to work around the clock when they were healthy, were now only emerging at night when fewer predators were around, in attempts to preserve their numbers as best they could. But oh, the irony of it all! Tonight they were gathered around and feeding on this rotten piece of banana placed here precisely to bring them out. It had also attracted the attention of the resident Guardian Goblin, seen in last week’s video—a house gecko who came to drink from the banana’s sweet juices. But this gecko was not interested in our ants. In fact, it was even more interested in eating the fruit flies the banana attracted. To eat the ants discreetly wandering the grounds tonight, I was really counting on the Death Sprites to prove their worth. AC Family, check out this pile of leaves. Below it lies one of our painted toads now. It comes out for a breather. Now, based on what I’ve been able to observe, these painted toads are not foragers when hunting for food but are more ambushers in hunting style. They kind of sit still and wait patiently for food to come near. Have a look at those unique and gorgeous, platinum-colored eyes. And oh… movement. It spotted something approaching and retreated under the leaves. Our Death Sprite was in ambush position as it stared at its food crawling about nearby—an ant dragging its gaster around, likely from the torment of biting mites. My heart raced watching the toad watching the ant, like an assassin waiting for the right time to strike. It shocked me how patient the toad was, not moving from its spot for a very long time, until the ant got close enough. And then! I was relieved to watch our Death Sprite eat its first ant. Over the next three hours, I watched it consume two more ants. But this feeding rate was a bit concerning to me. You see, assuming the toad ate an average of one ant an hour, that means that one toad could consume about 8-12 ants a night. And with only three toads in the Hacienda Del Dorado, that only meant an average of 24-36 ants eaten every night. This was simply not enough to kill the estimated hundreds of ants left living in these lands in due time. We needed these ants, along with the mites on their bodies, eaten ASAP. And now that we knew our Death Sprite’s rate of ant consumption, we knew they wouldn’t be able to carry out their mission alone as a three-toad group. They needed some backup, and I had the perfect plan brewing to make that happen. AC Family, behold! Our second troop of Death Sprites. Within these containers are 15 highly equipped, able-bodied painted toads, each hungry and ready to eat Golden Empire ants upon sight. With 15 painted toads, bringing the Death Sprite count to 18, collectively eating an average amount of up to roughly 216 ants a night, this was a much more promising force at eliminating our infected ant population in the Hacienda Del Dorado. But before I could introduce the toads into these territories, there was a very important and key change I needed to make to these lands before introducing the new troop. And that, AC Family, is where the most epic journey began!

The man who gave these painted toads to me said they could survive in these containers for a few days without problems, provided I changed the bedding and water daily. I knew these guys wouldn’t be staying in here too long, however. What I was about to do seemed like a pretty easy project to pull off in my mind, but little did I know that up ahead was going to be one of the most painstaking undertakings I’d ever worked on as your Creator of Worlds, with surprising results that would go down in history as the coolest thing I’d ever created in the Antiverse.

Behold the new pond I’d installed into Hacienda Del Dorado to provide our toads with the moisture they needed. It offered a satisfactory watering hole for our three painted toads, but now that we were going to add 15 more toads into the mix, this watering hole would be like 18 people sharing a bathroom. It was not enough. It wasn’t just a crowding issue, though; it was also a serious health hazard. This small body of water could become a poisonous cesspool once ammonia builds up from the frogs’ waste. Frogs, having such permeable skin—so permeable that they even absorb dissolved oxygen from the air through their skin—would quickly absorb the poisonous ammonia and die.

And so, AC Family, as Creator of Worlds, I decided the Hacienda Del Dorado was going to have a brand-new pond. But not just any pond—this was going to be the most epic body of water that these lands had ever seen. The Hacienda Del Dorado actually once had a body of water—if you recall, the Golden Springs—back in its open-concept days, before it was removed at the onset of the mite outbreak. It was a glass receptacle that housed a waterfall over an impressive rockscape with plants and moss growing epiphytically on its surface. But the problem with this setup—though beautiful—was that it still featured a body of water contained in glass that sort of floated in the air in a weird state. An aquarium within an aquarium, so to speak. It was more of a concept design, and not so much a naturalistic one.

But this time, AC Family, I wanted to attempt what I wasn’t able to achieve with the Golden Springs. This time, I was going to set out to create a completely aquatic region within the Hacienda Del Dorado—no floating water receptacle, but a functioning, bioactive, in-ground water world. Turning the lands into a true marshland haven for our Death Sprites to thrive in and do their great work at eliminating the remaining ants. But this was where all the problems started!

I removed the driftwood and began clearing the area I imagined would be ideal for submerging under water. I laid down barriers to keep the water contained using cut-up plastic Tupperware pieces bound together with aquarium-safe, non-toxic silicone. I envisioned this pond would have a general shape resembling a natural wetland. After hours of work, I filled it with water. But, AC Family, to my horror, I discovered leaks! No matter how much silicone I applied, water was escaping. I had to abort the project, drain the water, and reassess. I was devastated. But I wasn’t giving up yet.

This time, I decided to reinforce the walls with more durable materials. I purchased a new type of silicone designed specifically to bind plastic and glass, ensuring it was completely waterproof. I added multiple layers of sealant, reinforced the edges, and let everything cure overnight. The next day, I filled the pond again, holding my breath. And… it worked! The pond held water perfectly. Success!

AC Family, behold the new Hacienda Del Dorado! A fully functioning marshland complete with a pond, natural springs, lush foliage, and plenty of hiding spots for our Death Sprites. I released all 18 toads into their new home, and it was magical to watch them explore. The Death Sprites immediately began their work, ambushing the mite-infected ants and helping restore balance to the Hacienda Del Dorado. The ants’ numbers began to dwindle, and it was clear the toads were performing their role beautifully.

This project taught me a lot about perseverance. Creating a perfect balance of nature takes patience, dedication, and a willingness to adapt. In the end, the Hacienda Del Dorado was not just a home for Death Sprites but a testament to the beauty of nature and the power of teamwork.

Thank you for watching, AC Family. Remember to LIKE, COMMENT, SHARE, and SUBSCRIBE if you enjoyed this video to help us keep making more. It’s ant love forever!