Great news, AC Family! Our newest ant video hit Top 3 in Trending in USA! Green ants have appeared in our Yellow Crazy Ant colony. Find out why in this video which follows the daily adventures of ant predation. You also will be shocked at what is revealed by the end of the video. Enjoy!
How hard do you work to acquire the food you eat?
What goes into ensuring you have a meal on your table every day?
In this week’s epic ant video, we observe how much our ants go through to acquire their food every day.
Today, we take a look at how the Hacienda Del Dorado is actually one big, lethal death trap for outside insects!
We will watch how insects trapped inside the Hacienda Del Dorado manage to survive or fail to survive, and we will watch what the Golden Empire, our yellow crazy ants, go through to hunt, subdue, and protect their daily food.
And, what is this? Green-colored ants?
Find out why green worker ants have begun to appear in our yellow crazy ant colony!
You won’t want to miss all of this mind-blowing ant action and discovery ahead, so keep on watching until the end, and just a hint… the ending may shock you!
AC Family, let’s join the Golden Empire on their daily journey from hungry to full as we witness the sheer power of predation in this week’s episode of the AntsCanada ant channel.
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Welcome to the AC Family! Bon appétit!
Welcome to the Hacienda Del Dorado, our huge estate belonging to the Golden Empire.
For those of you who are new to the channel, this home and ant colony has come a very long way and has evolved and changed so much from its beginnings.
The Hacienda Del Dorado is certainly a marvel, full of living plants that provide the ant colony nest structure, landscape, and humidity.
It is also home to various creatures like the Springcleaners, a colony of springtails that depend on the ants for their garbage, which they feed on.
Recently introduced were pitcher plants, which have since formed a symbiotic relationship with the ants, providing the ants with sweet fluids while the ants dump their leftover insect parts into the pitcher plants.
But one thing that some of you may not know is that this terrarium and world of interconnected organisms is very much like a creature of its own—an ominous beast, swallowing the unsuspecting that may fall prey to its jowls.
You see, if you look just above the Hacienda Del Dorado, you’ll see the windows I often keep open to the outside.
The lighting system which I have installed over the Hacienda Del Dorado inevitably ends up luring nocturnal insects into the ant room every single night.
In fact, so many insects end up entering from the outside that the house geckos, which discreetly frequent my condo, have learned to commune in my ant room every night to feed on the insects that are unlucky enough to land on the walls and ceiling.
Here is a baby, who is wondering why I’m around filming him when usually I am fast asleep in another room by this time.
He dashes for the darkness of my bathroom.
The outside nocturnal insects attracted by the Hacienda Del Dorado lights inevitably end up wandering into the Hacienda Del Dorado, where the glass ceiling ends up trapping them inside, where a hungry colony of yellow crazy ants awaits to catch them.
The Hacienda Del Dorado is very much alive and a complex predator.
By morning, the sun comes streaming into the Hacienda Del Dorado, providing the plants with abundant energy to grow and photosynthesize.
Small jars of honey lay available to the ants to drink from and acquire their needed sugars.
Ants have begun foraging and hunting well before sunrise.
Watch how they wave their antennae in the air to smell for any traces of insects nearby.
An ant’s best sense is their sense of smell, and they can detect if prey lies nearby using their super-sensitive antennae.
The insects that were trapped overnight and have managed to evade being captured are at this time tiring and are most vulnerable to falling prey.
The Golden Empire is on the prowl every morning to find these weakened insects hiding among them.
One of such unfortunate insects hides, sitting perfectly still lest a nearby ant would feel its vibrations or see its movement.
Can you spot it here? Look carefully.
Its coloration helps it camouflage perfectly in the foliage.
Keeping still for its life, a moth hangs from a leaf, hoping to go unnoticed.
It releases no pheromones as it rests to regain energy in hopes of finding a way out of the Hacienda Del Dorado.
Members of the Golden Empire march eerily around it but can’t seem to find it.
This moth likely spent the whole night trying to fly towards the lights, expending the energy it needed to hopefully find a mate and breed before it died in a few days.
Its life now is numbered, and hopefully, it managed to pass on its genes before being trapped here.
It does look like this moth, however, is doing a good job at not being found. So is this one.
Sadly, some moths were not able to evade the hungry Golden Empire.
This moth landed in the wrong spot and was found immediately.
It tries its best to struggle and free itself from the clutches of the Golden Empire, but it’s no use.
It’s too weak to successfully fly away, and the ants carry it back to the nest to consume and feed the young.
Despite the number of insects that end up getting trapped within the Hacienda Del Dorado, the ants still require feeding.
In the wild, an ant colony is collecting food 24 hours, so in a captive setting, they require one-time big-time feedings on a daily basis to meet the nutritional needs of the colony.
So let’s feed the Golden Empire some tasty, gut-loaded roaches!
Dropping our first roach here. Watch as the ants discover it and inform the rest of the colony that food has dropped out of the sky.
It isn’t long before a blanket of ants covers the area.
Ants around the cockroach release large amounts of their “food signal” pheromone, informing all nearby ants that food is present and to spread the news by releasing more “food signal” pheromone.
Let’s add another roach. Look at all those ants.
It’s feeding time for the Golden Empire!
And wait a sec, are those green worker ants we see?
Where did these green ants come from, you ask?
Well, I forgot to mention that for fun, I dyed this honey blue, and well, yellow crazy ants plus blue honey equals green ants.
Now check this out, AC Family!
Watch how workers rush to excavate a pit beneath the cockroaches so that they can better conceal their prey from other interlopers who might steal the roaches.
Their current plan is to build a soil dome over the sunken roaches while the colony can get on with breaking down the roaches to consume them.
But, let’s see what happens if we decide to cause some ruckus here and act like another animal coming along to steal their food, like a bird that came along and wanted to take advantage of the free meal.
Let’s use this barbecue skewer!
As I poke around the cockroaches, the Golden Empire is immediately alarmed and mobilizes to defend their prey.
Ants bravely race up the barbecue skewer, spraying formic acid.
If this were a bird, it would be causing some serious damage!
Check out what the Golden Empire did to my bird when it managed to break into the Hacienda Del Dorado in this video on my daily vlogging channel.
Oh, and don’t forget to kindly subscribe to that channel while you’re there!
As the Golden Empire has in the past, these ants have defeated this “bird” that has tried to steal their bounty!
It is important that the ants do all they can to process these cockroaches as quickly as possible and defend it at all costs, because if they lose this meal, it could mean death for the colony; for all they know, they may not find another meal in days.
For the Golden Empire, every prey caught means life, babies fed, and queens nourished enough for ample egg production.
Food means colony success, and losing food means colony death.
The Golden Empire has now changed their plans.
The alarmed ant colony has decided that these cockroaches are no longer safe in this location, so they act quickly by pulling the cockroaches to safer grounds.
They have decided that these roaches are better off in their nest for further processing than out here in the open.
Ants are still working at removing dirt and debris to help drag the cockroach easier.
Wow! Look at these worker ants lifting this huge wood chip, which is many times their weight.
Such an impressive feat of strength.
Over the next few minutes, the ants work hard at dragging these roaches into their nest, which would be about the weight of an elephant had the ants been human-sized.
And perhaps the most impressive thing about all of this, AC Family, is you don’t see a single ant stopping to feed from the cockroaches during this entire process.
The main focus of each ant was to get this food relocated to a place free of any disturbance.
I couldn’t see ants feeding from the roaches, which could weigh the food prey down and possibly delay the process.
Instead, every ant seems to be on the same page, orchestrating a massive food transport.
It seems the ants have an innate understanding of the big picture. It was truly inspiring to witness.
Just as I was about to sign out and leave the ants at peace to deal with their food, a tiny glimmer of sunlight caught my eye.
It was an ant carrying a wing, but not just any wing.
Upon closer inspection, I couldn’t believe my eyes.
It was the wing of a queen alate.
To my surprise, this was evidence that the Golden Empire was now officially producing alates—reproductives, and if my suspicions were correct, these new young queens have been breeding!
Oh boy! AC Family, something tells me things are about to get interesting in the Hacienda Del Dorado.
Alright, AC Family. What do you think?
Man, I don’t know what I would do if this colony started producing more egg-laying queens!
Speaking of growing colonies, if you haven’t caught last week’s episode, we’re taking your votes as to which colony should move into a new terrarium that recently became vacant in my ant room.
Watch that video and leave your vote, and if you already voted, and this video changed your mind, go ahead and feel free to change your vote!
AC Inner Colony, I have left a hidden cookie for you here if you would just like to watch some extended play footage of the Golden Empire handling their roaches to the sounds of some relaxing music.
And now it’s time for the AC Question of the Week. Last week we asked:
What amazing thing did the Golden Empire do to the pitcher plants in the Hacienda Del Dorado?
Congratulations to Puppy Gamer who correctly answered:
The Golden Empire started feeding the pitcher plants their leftovers.
Congratulations, Puppy Gamer! You just won some of our new 100% clear tube connectors from our shop.
In this week’s AC Question of the Week, we ask:
What creature other than the ants feeds on the insects that enter my ant room at night?
Leave your answer in the comments section, and you could win a free ant t-shirt from our shop.
Hope you can subscribe to the channel as we release a brand new ant video every single Saturday at 8 AM EST.
Remember to please Like, Comment, and Share if you enjoyed this video!
It’s ant love forever!