Greetings Ant Lovers,

My fire ants got some new hunting grounds! My 13 week old fire ant colony (the Phoenix Empire) is growing at such an astonishing rate! This means that they eat a lot, as well as produce an excess amount of garbage that collects and festers in their current outworld. So today, I gave the fire ants a new massive plot of land, complete with soil creatures, plants, moss, rocks, and driftwood, where the ants could seek out prey, as well, as live a healthier and more natural existence. Hope you enjoy this week’s episode!

FIRE ANTS REACT TO THEIR NEW HUNTING GROUNDS

These fire ants have no idea what’s up ahead for them!

This is the City of Ashes, the fortified territories of the Phoenix Empire, our 13-week-old burgeoning army of fire ants.

The colony quietly amasses more and more workers with every passing day, from eggs produced by their Queen, the Ember Empress.

But as the colony grows, so too does their appetite, and today these unsuspecting, hungry fire ants will be receiving the biggest, baddest plot of free real estate they’ve ever received: some new lush, critter-filled hunting grounds, where we’ll be able to watch our fearsome fire ants seek out and destroy prey in a way we’ve never seen before.

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Fire Forest

Welcome to the AC Family.

Enjoy!

Guys, right off the bat, I gotta say these new hunting grounds we’re adding to Phoenix Empire’s territories today are hands down my favorite thing we’ve ever introduced to the fire ants, whom we’ll be seeing in a totally new light after today!

Do keep on watching until the very end for the epic feeding scenes and discover why these new sacred hunting grounds were exactly what our fire ants needed!

Now before we watch our fire ants react to their new hunting grounds and hunt for prey, let’s take a look at their current hunting grounds slash grocery store!

Behold, the Fire Forest!

This arena, made from a kitchenware container, is where I’ve been placing the colony’s food, and where the ants have come to expect and collect my food offerings.

The ants don’t nest here. They just come here to eat.

The ants are actually nesting cozily in their new Ant Tower, which we gave them last week, and by the way, guys, this Ant Tower needs a name, so please take a moment to VOTE here from the name suggestions you guys gave in last week’s episode.

Thank you, AC Council, for your input!

Now when the ants are hungry, they send workers out through this tube, which takes them to the AC Test Tube Portal, then into the Fire Forest, where I drop their food.

But here’s the thing—there are a few problems with the Fire Forest.

First, it doesn’t have good ventilation: no breathing holes, which is okay because I open it every day to feed the colony, but what is not okay is how much it smells!

The ammonia produced from their leftover garbage needs to be fanned away every day. It’s actually poisonous for the ants.

Plus, I need to constantly go in and clean up the leftovers to reduce ammonia levels.

Also, the colony is starting to grow large enough that soon, opening the Fire Forest every day like this would lead to escapes.

So guys, as much as I love the Fire Forest and how well it has served us so far, it was definitely time to give the Phoenix Empire some new, bigger, and better stomping grounds.

So check out the awesome new lands I’ve created for them!

Hunting Grounds

I’m pleased to present to you the Phoenix Empire’s new sacred hunting grounds.

Isn’t it cool?

I think the fire ants will love these territories!

We’ll see, but before we officially connect it to the fire ants’ setup, take a close look, guys—there’s actually more to these hunting grounds than meets the eye!

Let me show you around.

This rich and multi-faceted world was created within an AC Outworld from AntsCanada.com.

Its platinum sands and boulders border living herbaceous seedlings, bushes of moss, towering bark, and driftwood.

But guys, the real magic of these lands is not what’s above ground, but what’s below!

This is what the hunting grounds look like from beneath!

Now check this out.

To make these lands, the first thing I needed were these guys: Soil creatures!

In this soil sample, you’ll see beneficial mites, worms, and my ultimate favorite: these pink gummy bear-like springtails belonging to the family Podumorpha.

Aren’t they cute?

These soil creatures were taken from our soil creature breeding facility, known as the Nucleus, from a past video.

Also, in another container, I had more friends: a colony of the white springtail variety, as well as some cute isopods!

This soil was taken from another ant kingdom of our Golden Empire, our supercolony of yellow crazy ants.

Now, both these teams of soil creatures will be vital to the hunting grounds and the entire City of Ashes because they will form the new housekeeping staff of our Phoenix Empire!

That’s right!

With these Phoenix Empire allies around, I won’t need to go in every day and clean up the ants’ garbage and bathroom areas anymore.

They’ll literally be eating up all the garbage and poop the Phoenix Empire produces, and even make their way into the Ant Tower to keep the nest clean!

Water Test Tube

The Phoenix Empire will be able to enter the hunting grounds through these two ports, which I’ll be connecting with tubing—here to here, and here to here.

As for their water test tube, I’ll be moving it to here, where the Fire Forest is currently connected.

Here we go!

Removing the plugs and carefully connecting the tube… Done!

Now to remove the water test tube, place the tube in its place and connect it to the hunting grounds, disconnecting the Fire Forest.

Goodbye, Fire Forest!

Replacing it with the water test tube.

And now, all was set!

Let’s watch the Phoenix Empire explore their new real estate!

Mealworm

Over the next few hours, I watched the Phoenix Empire work on the mealworm.

Even larger supermajors came, which surprised me.

As the ants were busy dissecting the mealworm, some ants began to dig below it to try to make it easier to work around the carcass.

When the ants were finished with the mealworm, this was what was left: Exoskeleton parts in a pit.

Again, I loved that I no longer needed to go in and clean up this ant garbage, as it could now be dealt with by the soil creatures, whose poop would then go on to feed our basil, and hey, maybe when the basil is much larger, I can cut them and feed them to my prey insects to complete the cycle!

I also loved that with garbage no longer an issue, I could now feed extra-large prey items that typically generate a lot of ant garbage, like this gigantic superworm!

AC Question of the Week

And now, it’s time for the AC Question of the Week!

Last week, we asked:

Name one sign that indicates the emigration to the Phoenix Empire’s new nest was official.

Congratulations to Dakarai Jacobs, who answered:

“When the lighter-colored ants start to move.”

Congratulations, Dakarai! You just won a free Ultimate Ant Keeping handbook from our shop!

This week’s AC Question of the Week is:

Which of the soil creatures do you love the most?

Leave your answer in the comments section, and you could also win a free e-book handbook from our shop!

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It’s ant love forever! 🐜❤️