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I gave my massive pet fire ant colony, named the Crimson Knights, a pair of uncooked beef eyeballs for Halloween, all in the name of science. Ants are some of the planet’s most important scavengers, and breaking down decaying meat of dead animals is their functional niche in the ecosystem, among other things. Watch what happened as the fire ants masterfully break down the beef eyeballs I gave them, despite never before having eaten beef. The process was nothing less than intriguing and the results surprising.

I Fed COW EYES to My FIRE ANTS

You guys will not believe your eyes when you see what my fire ants ate this week.

It all began when I opened my fridge, and within it lay my pitcher of termite fungus spores, drinks, and this container. You’ll love what you’ll see inside. I’ve been saving this container for a special occasion, and with it being Halloween month, I figured now was the perfect time to bust these out.

Peekaboo! These are eyeballs. Beef eyeballs, so they belonged to a cow. They would have been passed on to a scrap meat factory, but I figured, hey, why don’t we put them to even better use and feed them to ants? So I convinced my local butcher to give them to me for a cheap price.

Now, aside from them being atrociously gross-looking, I never really quite knew what eyeballs actually looked like in real life. I mean, we always see eyeballs in horror movies and such, but seeing them now in the flesh and holding them in my hand, I was quite surprised and intrigued, taking in their true feel and anatomy. Have any of you ever held an eyeball in your hand? It’s an odd organ, and I’m sure it’s even more odd on the inside, which I couldn’t wait to see and learn about when I fed them to my beloved ant colony we call the Crimson Knights.

Fire ants. If there was an ant species that I knew could devour these eyeballs, it would be fire ants. This here is the Crimson Knights, our massive fire ant colony that right now is busy burying a chicken foot, which I gave them to eat yesterday. These fire ants have quite the appetite for meat!

Here is a leftover pigeon skull from the pigeon I fed them in last week’s video. Here, the fire ants are carrying grains of sand up to bury this second chicken leg I also gave them. The ants have begun setting up excavation pits like a chain of mines, lugging up the sand grains, which to the ants are like huge rocks, up to cover the pieces of chicken feet. The ants naturally do this when they find food in order to bury it and conceal it from scavengers that might steal the meat from them, and also to suck up the juices from the meat to help dry it out a bit, making it easier to work around.

Tirelessly, the Crimson Knights worked around the clock, gathering these sand grains in order to bury their meat pieces, as this was a matter of their survival. While some ants work at the burial process, other ants have already begun to feed on the chicken feet little by little. But the Crimson Knights have grown so big now that these two chicken feet are not enough. Their appetite for meat seems insatiable now, but no worries. I’ve got something new for our fire ants. Oh, Crimson Knights, have I got a present for you!

Guys, the time has come. Let’s do this! I fixated the eyeballs onto the surface of their mountain home, and as I watched the eyes staring out in an expression of worry, as the beginning streams of fire ant trails began to inspect the new meat that had dropped in from the skies, and the first fire ant began to twerk as it released the first cloud of “I Found Food” pheromones, I knew we, and our beloved fire ants, were in for the perfect Halloween treat!

But little did I know, the unexpected result of this great eyeball fire ant feeding would turn out to be the biggest surprise of them all. Welcome to the AntsCanada Ant Channel. Please SUBSCRIBE to my channel and hit the BELL ICON. Welcome to the AC Family! And see you at my New Jersey Meet & Greet this Oct 22nd. Visit therchild.com for tickets! Enjoy!

The fire ant swarm came pouring down the mountain once news of the new eyeballs had reached the colony in the mountain. What was extra exciting for the fire ants was the unique flavor of this meat. It was their very first taste of beef, and clearly already a hit with the ants. But you guys will love what they ultimately did with these beef eyeballs, and if you’re like me, and didn’t know much about eyeball anatomy, you’ll surely be awestruck and intrigued by what you’ll see as the video progresses through this ant-feeding process. So keep on watching until the end!

I loved that the ants seemed to be thrilled about these new eyeballs, despite already having two chicken feet. It comes to show you how hungry the fire ant colony really is! It’s no wonder these colonies get so big and dangerous in the wild.

Now in case you’re new and just joining us, these fire ants of ours were raised from just a single pregnant queen ant that I caught during a nuptial flight earlier this year. It’s amazing to think that this colony is only about 8 months old. This fire ant colony is still a baby colony. Imagine how big they can get one year from now! Yes, I’m insane to be housing them in an open-concept setup like this, which has a talcum barrier to keep the ants from escaping, which hasn’t been escape-proof 100% of the time, but I now use a lethal chalk to keep escapees from reporting back to the colony on weaknesses in the barrier.

Despite my constant struggle to keep them contained, I always loved keeping fire ants as pets. They’re just incredible to watch, and every time I do, it’s like I’m peeking into a city of humans, all just going about their business without them knowing I’m around watching them. Oh, how odd that tonight’s menu seems to be watching me back, though. Why did you feed me, why? Sorry, cow. So is nature, and the Crimson Knights fittingly love red meat, it seems!

My eyes wandered down at a camp of ants tugging at some meat flaps. Wow! Look at them stretching it out like a blanket! Once they manage to cut this loose, they’ll be bringing this whole blanket of flesh back to their nest. Speaking of which, guys, for those of you wondering where their nest is, I’ll show you that in a second. They’re nesting in a place they completely set up that I never planned for them to nest in!

It seemed none of the ants were interested in the cornea, that transparent outer part of the eye, yet. The ants were mostly interested in the surrounding meat, but I knew in time the ants would discover it.

Suddenly, I noticed the ants were beginning to gather pieces of debris, collected from their environment to place onto the eyeballs. As mentioned, this is something the fire ants do in nature to both bury their food, but also to absorb any slimy and sticky fluids, so the food becomes easier to work around. Because the way things are now, the ants risk getting stuck in the wet fluids of the meat.

And oh, looky here! The ants have discovered the cornea! I wonder what it will look like once they start biting into this area. Again, I was largely unfamiliar with eyeball anatomy. Were the eyeballs full of fluid? Would they pop like a water balloon the moment an ant pokes a hole into it? Grossened by the image in my mind yet super curious, I knew only time would tell.

Cow eyeballs in particular were very odd looking. Don’t you guys think?

Alright, now while our Crimson Knights work on this pair of eyeballs, I wanted to show you guys where they are nesting. This entire fire ant setup is designed like a volcanic island, and at the back is an area full of digging medium where the fire ants used to nest. But as some of you may have seen in our last episode, the fire ants have chosen another place to nest that apparently better suits their preferences.

If you follow their trail, they will lead you directly to their home base! Have a look! Here! It’s a discreet hole in the mountain, and they even tried to drag a pigeon feather into it. Now the nest tunnels and chambers, which are now truly inside the rock part of the mountain, out of sight, must be huge and extensive, but sadly, we’ll never know since we can’t see them now. Smart ants!

Judging from how much the fire ants eat now, I was certain the colony would eventually have no choice but to move at least part of their constantly growing colony back into the digging area of the mountain, so it was all good. For now, I was just happy our fire ants were having a feast on their beef eyes.

I decided to come back again in a few hours, as the volcano’s hydrating mist exploded from its crater. But, AC Family, I wasn’t prepared to see what the ants had already planned for their eyeballs!

I came back to the colony, and this is what I saw. Oh man! The ants were now carving into the cornea. Aww, I couldn’t help but blink at the sight. Imagine how irritating that must be if the cow were alive? Man!

And have a look at the other eyeball! So the cornea seems gelatinous looking. I also noticed the ants now piling more debris on the white part of the eye, known as the sclera.

Now, guys, check this out! This totally shocked me! See her! It’s a queen! Not the queen of the colony, but a daughter of the main queen. A virgin queen alate. I don’t know why she was out here checking out the eyeball, but perhaps she heard rumors of some foreign but delicious meaty object the ants had never had before, falling from the skies, and she just had to come check out the gossip claims herself. It’s actually kinda crazy and a bit messed up that the main queen is now producing reproductives, and I have no idea what I’m going to do once nuptial flight season comes around and the ants decide to have a mass mating flight in my home! I have some time to think.

The Crimson Knights continued to feed from the meat around the eyeballs. I almost think that since this beef meat was such a hit, I should probably feed them more of it, seeing as these eyes were less bony than chicken feet.

And check this out, guys! Wow! Check out that major just chomping down on that flesh. So these red tropical fire ants are a species that have varying sizes of workers with special functions. This large major has greater jaw muscles, which help at chomping things down to size, as well as defense. But don’t get it twisted! The smaller worker ants are still quite effective at shearing meat from the carcass, too.

Speaking of shearing meat, have a look at this team of ants now chomping into the cornea. Look, guys! Ew! A worker managed to cut off a chunk of it, and yup, it looks like jello! I actually wondered how deep this cornea ran and what layers actually exist under it. I used to think eyeballs were full of fluid like a balloon, but now I don’t know anymore. It’s almost like there are layers of jelly-like substances with different colors. I mean, it almost looks like a sky blue under there! How interesting!

The ants were now fully underway with the burial process, as they continued to gather debris and grains of sand to stick onto the meat and eyeballs. The ants looked hyper-focused and busy now feeding from the eyeball meat. I think the first step was to drink the fluids and juices available on the meat first. In doing so, they would fill up their social stomachs for taking back to the nest to feed through regurgitation and distribute to all members of the colony. The meaty juices were the lowest-lying fruit, so to speak, and the easiest food to take back home.

I also noticed that the colony’s graveyard, full of dead ants, was actually right beside the feeding site. How Halloween-appropriate! In case you’re wondering, each worker ant only lives a couple of months. Only the queen lives for multiple years. This means that a few months from now, all these ants you see will have died and fulfilled their life purpose of ensuring the health and success of the future colony.

Anyway, it was late, so I decided I could come back again in the morning to check up on the colony’s progress, but AC Family, I think you will be shocked at the progress of our hardworking fire ants come the next morning.

I came back the next morning and was surprised to see this. Buried! No! Now I couldn’t really see what they were doing as they ate into the eyes. The ants rushed from their sand pits carrying grains of sand, as they built a huge ant hill burying the eyes. It was actually quite incredible to see all the hard work that went into the burial process. Have a look!

The areas of cornea that I could see looked dry now. I wonder if the ants managed to burrow a hole into the eye’s interior. Guess now I’ll never know. Boy, do these ants love their privacy! It did look like the ants had made progress at chomping into the meat around the eyes now. The ants worked with amazing synergy, as some ants continued to bury while others took on the task of eating.

It made me realize how selfless ants were and how they really were wired to work for the greater good of the colony because I’m sure some of these ants carrying rocks were hungry, but they knew the burial process was essential for the success of the entire colony, so they carried these rocks up the hills, mining them nonstop from the pits without complaint, knowing food would eventually come to them at some point. That, to me, is the beauty of ants and ant society. The creatures are selfless and willing to work. I don’t think they each have much of an agenda of self-care, other than maybe cleaning themselves and sleeping when they need it. Ants just naturally know that teamwork makes the dream work. Everything is shared, worked hard for, and enjoyed as a colony, and I loved that!

Now, as anticlimactic as this whole thing is, sadly, there was no hollowing out of eyeballs nor explosion of eyeball guts pouring out of cavities made by the fire ants. The anthills the ants created, covering the eyeballs, just slowly and steadily began to dissipate and level out over the next two days until, under it all, were some dried-up, jerky-looking pancakes that I assumed the ants could no longer eat. I decided to leave the eyeball pancakes there for the next couple of weeks for them to continue working on, but I decided that the official time was about 6 days for the ants to finish eating the eyeballs.

Also, it seems the ants preferred to deal with the eyeballs in privacy and away from our cameras. This was a bit of a disappointment at first, seeing as I wanted to see what the eyeballs looked like inside, but perhaps I may have to just buy another set of eyes and cut them open myself to see. Whatever the case, it was still an interesting process to observe and yet another food item to tick off the list of random things I’ve fed to our ants.

I know that these eyeballs were super nutrient-dense and beneficial to the colony, and clearly made our ants happy, and that’s what really matters. As their keeper, it means a lot to me that the ants get top nutrition and enrichment while under my care, and that each ant can say after living out their two-month lifespan that their time alive was a great one, with some amazing memories, and that they each lived a life of purpose and meaning. This feeding will go down in history as one of the great feedings of their time.

But you know what? I also learned something quite valuable from all of this. The ants, having buried the eyes while eating them, and having moved their entire nest into the darkened, rocky shadows of their setup, taught me that you don’t always need to see everything with your eyes to appreciate them. Sometimes, it’s enough to just see what’s going on at the surface and trust that all is OK and going as planned, beyond the point of what was visible.

Thank you all for watching and for supporting the ants. Happy Halloween, AC Family! It’s ant love forever!

AC Family, I’ll see you at my official Meet & Greet in New Jersey, USA, this Oct 22nd. Visit therchild.com for tickets. All attendees get a free AC ant-keeping ebook! See you there! Also, here’s a hidden video!