Welcome to Part 13 of my ecosystem vivarium series, where the War of Pandora escalates with a spider apocalypse, and I stand by as a swarm of huntsmen spiders and a brewing ant war transform my dream tank into a spectacle of survival and drama!

The War of Pantdora continues after unleashing a spider apocalypse. My giant cloud rainforest vivarium has evolved into an utter dream tank, full of interdependent flora and fauna. However, the time had come to finally add a swarm of huntsmen spiders, to would become important predators controlling populations of prey creatures within the ecosystem. But after adding in the arachnids, a war of ant powers was once again brewing, and I could do nothing also but watch the biological drama play out. Hope you enjoy this week’s episode, Part 13 of my ecosystem vivarium series

I Unleashed a Swarm of Huntsman Spiders Into My Giant Rainforest Vivarium

This is Pantdora, my 1000-gallon cloud rainforest vivarium, complete with lush tropical plants, fungi, and an established menagerie of creatures living in a harmonious food web—a thriving tropical ecosystem within glass. However, a major event is about to shake things up and change everything in Pantdora.

Goddess Lady Death Strike, the hour has arrived. Your spawn is ready to emerge into a brave new world. The Age of Arachnida has finally come. Welcome, my four hundred huntsmen of the apocalypse, to your new kingdom of Pantdora! Be free!

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Onto the fertile soils of Pantdora, I placed the holding container of our giant huntsman spider, Lady Death Strike, and her hundreds of newborn spider babies, also removing the plastic that kept the horde of babies contained. And just like that, the historic introduction event of huntsman spiders into our rainforest was complete, something I’ve waited weeks for. You see, spiders are some of the world’s most important predators, and I knew they would surely have a great impact on this rainforest. I was so happy to see the spiders all inside. Pantdora had entered the Age of Arachnida. But, before opening up this container to set our Lady Death Strike free, there was something important I needed to do first. Look at that abdomen. It was so skinny and practically imploded. She hadn’t eaten for weeks during the entire incubation period, and all this time, was 100% dedicated to protecting her egg sac until the arrival of her babies.

Her last meal before this great fast was her ex-husband Kiro, whose crumpled remains still lay on the floor of her container. So, needless to say, Lady Death Strike could eat a cow right now! Now, huntsman spiders normally eat insects, and there were plenty of insect prey here in Pantdora for her to eat, but when desperate, huntsmen are known to eat larger prey. So my fear was that if I were to let her go now, she might choose to go for the larger animals, namely the geckos and tree frogs of Pantdora, which is OK since this tank is supposed to be an ecosystem with creatures eating other creatures for sustenance, but I would prefer the vertebrates to start breeding first, before they start becoming prey to other animals. So, my solution was to feed our Lady Death Strike some crickets now, so she could fatten up, and then release her, so she would from then on, hopefully continue eating mostly insects once free, and leave the frogs and lizards alone for now. I placed in a couple of crickets and with lightning speed she instantly took a cricket. It struggled in horror and pain as Lady Death Strike injected her venomous mix of paralyzing neurotoxin and digesting cytotoxins. This cricket was dying a very painful death as it flailed its legs in a hopeless attempt to escape. Lady Death Strike could feel the vibrations of the second cricket nearby so she approached it, with the first cricket still in her mouth. The dying cricket could do nothing else but watch as its friend was next on the huntsman’s menu. The cricket began to move and Lady Death Strike grabbed it with her legs and thrust it into her jaws for a lethal injection. Two crickets were soon going to be in our Lady Death Strike’s belly.

This was the way of the Huntsman, skilled predators with voracious appetites, especially after giving birth to hundreds of babies, who were watching their mom now through the glass, and learning through her example, about this vital skill of catching prey. The baby spiders were all over the outside of the container taking in the world around them. Some had crawled onto the glass of the vivarium. Others had already begun to disperse and explore the lands, and soon, Lady Death Strike, too would be able to join them, in this vast and lush rainforest, but little did I know, things wouldn’t exactly go as planned. I have a surprise for you guys. Turns out, these spiders weren’t the only ones having a grand homecoming today. AC Family, this would not be the Age of Arachnida without another player I have been waiting to add to our rainforest. Fellow tarantula lovers, this is for you! Within a holding container, lay another spider I caught from the forest in my yard. This is a tarantula, native to my area and boy was she stunning. She was only about an inch long, but if she’s the species I suspect, she’ll only grow another inch. She is a dwarf tarantula species, perfect for Pantdora. I released her into Pantdora and she instantly dashed to the opposite end of the tank. She stood still for a bit, which allowed me to take a good look at her, which I tried to appreciate as much as I could in the moment, because as a long-time tarantula-keeper, I knew full well that there was a good chance, we might never get to see her again like this, as she would be proceeding now to create a burrow into the ground somewhere discreet, and only partially emerge at night to snatch prey coming close.

Then before I knew it, she headed straight for a clump of ferns on the eastern end of Pantdora, and climbed deep into the foliage. I hoped she would enjoy living here, eating all the insects she could catch. Though I had already accepted never to see her again, I had no idea that I was actually in for an interesting surprise later on. But meanwhile, as I saw our tarantula disappear into the ferns, I spotted another predator that was now well established in these lands, on the hunt. A land planaria slithered along the glass. These things are my worst nightmare. It reached around in search of prey. In case you’re new to these guys, these land planaria belong to a family of land flatworms called Geoplanidae, and they’re carnivorous. They feed on other invertebrates, by hunting, attacking, and capturing, using physical force and the adhesive and digestive properties of their mucus. I once saw one eating a newborn cricket freshly hatched from its egg. So nasty! What I do find cool about them, though, is how they move. They don’t squirm like earthworms do to get around, but rather move by way of microscopic hairs called cilia that push the worm along smoothly. Oh, I spotted a springtail. It better watch out. Oh, it managed to hop away. That was close. The worms actually have a pair of eyes, as you can kinda see there. That baby cricket had better watch out. Owners of planted aquariums know about their relatives, the aquatic planaria, because they infest tanks and can be a nuisance, exactly like these land planaria are for terrariums.

They just showed up one day, assumingly introduced via the plants, and were now a permanent fixture in the rainforest. But going back to the crickets, as a herbivore and prey creature, they dominated Pantdora. A massive female came stomping through the foraging territory of the marauder ants. She was fat, pregnant, and looking for a place to lay her eggs. At this size, she isn’t bothered by any of the ants in the lands, and is a true titan. It’s actually quite amazing to see her standing next to a baby. The size difference is staggering. A marauder is chasing her away here, as these are restricted foraging grounds for the marauders, only smaller critters allowed here, like baby crickets and soil creatures like that springtail. With her ovipositor, the cricket feels around the earth for the softest soils into which to lay her eggs. Newborn crickets, as seen with these white little guys, were still being born every day, at every hour. The cricket population was well on their way to being established, but then I saw a baby cricket running through a grouping of ants. Black crazy ants along with a queen were seen perusing the rocks. Look at them searching for their next temporary encampment site. These black crazy ants were the Dark Horde, an invasive and dangerous species for the ecosystem. They were also accidentally introduced to the vivarium by way of the plants, and I recently managed to rid of a great deal of them, but turns out they were well on their way to reclaiming their dominion, because what I spotted next, brought a sickening feeling in the pit of my stomach.

My eyes widened when I spotted their main encampment. The Dark Horde had stationed themselves right in one of the pitcher plants. These pitcher plants were actually planted in attempts to control the black crazy ant population, and though they did a fairly good job at doing so, I feared the ants had turned the tides. You see, these plants are killed by nutrients in their soils, as they have adapted to survive in nutrient-poor growing media in the wild. With the Dark Horde here, the ants were certainly pooping somewhere in the soils, and thereby killing the plant. I really hoped our pitcher plant would be able to survive them being around for a bit. And look! I even see queens in there. No brood yet, but nevertheless, the threat of the Dark Horde returning to power was imminent, as the ants looked like they had a plan in mind. Little did I know, they did, plans to reignite an Ant War but this time with some new opponents. The babies began to move, little by little at first, but more and more the spiders grew in angst, to begin exploring the world around them, and practice moving around with their new inexperienced legs. They were also beginning to discover just how fast their legs could actually move and take them. Lady Death Strike was still working on her two crickets, taking her sweet time. Now a lot of you were concerned that adding four hundred baby huntsman would kill the ecosystem and eat everything, however, have a look at this. See the size of the moving babies?

As we move further and further back, you can start to see the true scale of the vivarium. It’s a massive garden even for a spider the size of Lady Death Strike. As for the babies, they were actually quite stunning, with the most beautiful stripes inherited from their father. They each had 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 eyes, and as you can see, they’re easily excitable. It was hard to capture their movement bursts in focus, they were so fast, but more and more the spiders became comfortable with using their legs. For now, most of them preferred being close to mom, but eventually their instincts would kick in and each of these spiders would wander off into the rainforest, with hunger being their greatest motivation. I spotted some spiderlings sprinting through the moss, and lo and behold, a spider had already captured its first meal, a baby cricket. How amazing! Pantdora was literally a buffet for the spiders with a ton of these baby crickets everywhere. I watched as more and more spiderlings began to wander off into the wilderness. I couldn’t imagine what it must be like for these new spiderlings, so tiny, and everything around them so huge. I mean look at those water droplets on the moss. They looked like massive glass boulders next to the spiderlings! I spotted another spiderling that had captured a cricket. Great work, spider! Guess they call them huntsman for a reason. As it ran off with its prey, my eyes suddenly spotted a tiny ant. What is that? It was so small and a species I didn’t recognize. Don’t worry, guys, it’s too small to be a fire ant, I think. Anyone know the species? Don’t tell me the fire ants are back. Anyway, over the next few minutes, I sat to watch the action as baby crickets came closer and closer to the hungry huntsman spiderlings. There was actually a lot of different prey the spiderlings could choose from other than crickets, like this tiny mite, also an arachnid. A cricket approached a spider, and I watched as it passed it, not even knowing of the spider’s presence. It was searching for moss to eat. It was lucky to escape death. Another cricket came dangerously close to spiders at the container, but it too luckily slipped away unharmed. And then there was this cricket, also looking for a desirable clump of moss to munch on, but slowly made its way towards a spider waiting in ambush. Bam! In an instant the spider had lunged but the cricket was fast and got away. That was crazy! Catching these very athletic baby crickets would take some serious skill and practice. It was a balance between knowing when to keep still and knowing when to pounce. I knew the spiders had the instincts within them to eventually become skilled at hunting, and living up to their name. Some had already captured their first meal, having successfully passed their first test to surviving the Pantdoran wilderness. They would also need to learn how to avoid becoming prey themselves, as there were plenty of predators that could eat them, including the land planaria which could now smell them all around. To be completely truthful, the majority of these spiderlings would not make it to adulthood. How many of them would, was something only time would tell.

Meanwhile, they had plenty of food to fuel their growth into adulthood, and become one of Pantdora’s most fearsome predators in the food chain. As for Lady Death Strike, I expected to release her when she was completely done eating the next day, but little did I know, my ultimate plans for her release, would not quite go as expected. Speaking of fearsome predators, another top predator of Pantdora caught my eye. There in the plants. If you weren’t looking carefully, you’d miss her. It was our Green Reaper, Pantdora’s resident praying mantis, with her beautiful new wings. She was huge and for sure hungry now since she had just molted. I was awestruck as I watched her swaying back and forth, as she strutted forward in the most mantis-like way, and then to my surprise leaped. Wow! I had no idea mantises could leap like that! She landed onto a piece of driftwood, and when she was ready she began to proceed upwards. I then noticed she was climbing into a danger zone. This wooden cavern was the den of our resident sun skink, who is often seen lounging here. For sure he could see the Green Reaper from within the darkened shadows of the driftwood, and I held my breath hoping he wouldn’t emerge like the gold scaled dragon that he was, to attack or eat the Green Reaper. She moved cautiously up and came out atop the driftwood safely. Thank goodness!

In Pantdora, you just don’t know who can come showing up out of the darkness, you know? She looked around to decide her next move then proceeded forth. I tried my best to really enjoy seeing our Green Reaper living her life out in our rainforest, because sadly she wasn’t scheduled to live very much longer. You see, she recently molted into her final form with wings, which means she didn’t have very much time left. In nature, her mission now was to find a mate within the next few weeks, so she could pass her genes on to a new generation of mantises. I’ve always been sad at how short the lives of mantises were, but so is the sad reality of praying mantis life. Let’s hope we find a male for her before she ultimately reaches the end of her life journey.

Night fell in Pantdora, and the misty air blanketed the lands covering everything with dew. The Marauder Ants were out and busy foraging for food, mostly sprouting seeds. I’m really proud of this ant colony for surviving all this time against two invasive ant colonies in their lifetime here, namely against fire ants and the black crazy ants. In our last episode, I asked you guys to suggest names for this marauder ant colony, and one of you suggested we call them “The Terra Raiders” and I like that. Happy to see the Terra Raiders doing so well in our rainforest. Our newest ant resident in Pantdora, an orange carpenter ant was spotted wandering the ferns in search of food. These carpenter ants are a largely nocturnal species and I couldn’t wait for their colony to be huge. And then there were the acrobat ants. These rather chaotic ants were quite funny. They were introduced to the vivarium by way of the vines and now were everywhere, in constant threat pose, with their gasters held high above their heads ready to spray formic acid at any moment. They were very small ants, but full of bravado and confidence, as they inspected every crevice and corner, even attacking random imagined threats in darkened corners. I’m not sure what their purpose is being so war happy, but I guess there’s always that one group of rowdy kids in the class shaking things up, right? I watched as acrobat ants slung formic acid gang signs to intimidate a gecko and a roach minding their own business and hanging out on the tree stump. The gecko was unphased, but the roach got annoyed and moved on. It was then that I noticed something totally amazing with the gecko. Do you guys see it, too? Look at her torso. She was pregnant! You can see those two light-colored bulges through her skin. Those are eggs, and she’ll be laying them very soon somewhere in the rainforest. I couldn’t wait to finally see baby geckos running around! I spotted a huge snail sliding along the driftwood, and I smiled because this was the same snail we spotted many episodes ago, but back then it was much smaller! Upon further research, this snail is a well-known invasive known as the horntail snail, that has conquered many tropical forests of the world. Another resident we haven’t seen since Part 6 was the huge Madagascar Hissing cockroach I found chilling behind the moss wall. Happy to see it’s still alive and well!

I spotted a millipede in the tillandsia, some tree frogs, and up high in the canopy, our Green Reaper feeding on a huge dubia roach. I was happy to see her enjoying her first meal, as a full adult, and also happy to know that there finally was a predator large enough to prey on the huge adult roaches. Soon, Lady Death Strike would also help control the large roach populations. She had finished her cricket meal and was now cleaning her fangs. It had rained just before nightfall, which caused the spiders to further disperse from their birth chamber. I spotted spiders on the glass, and could tell which spiders had passed their first test and managed to score their first meal. Those spiders that had eaten had darkened abdomens full of food. Look at how full this spider was, and you could actually even see its heart beating! Some were busy consuming meals they had just caught. A newborn cricket was wandering about, perhaps only a couple of minutes old, and luckily the spider it came in contact with had eaten and wasn’t interested in it. It was then that I noticed webbing. Under the ferns, an underground tunnel had been excavated at the place our new tarantula was last spotted. How awesome! She’s been busy! Happy to know that there was a chance we might see her after all! Her tunnel actually had a second entrance here, and her burrow was U-shaped.

Adding all the arachnids was so far going smoothly and that made me quite happy. I couldn’t wait to finally release Lady Death Strike to join her babies in the rainforest the next day, but before heading to bed, a commotion caught my eye over at the tree stump. The black crazy ants were on the move and up to something. I spotted a dwarf ant moving along the stump. But it was moving faster than usual. Something was going on here, and as I looked closer I discovered what was happening. The dwarf ants had decided to nest in the driftwood, and members of the Dark Horde were chastising them. I watched as a dwarf ant lunged at the black crazy ants who had no qualms with getting up in its face. “Back off!” the dwarf ant threatened. The black crazy ants didn’t budge.

The black crazy ants slithered around and knew they were much faster than the dwarf ants to feel threatened. It seemed the black crazy ants wanted in on where the dwarf ants were nesting, probably to steal their young to eat them. The dwarf ant stood its ground bravely and lunged when they got near. Suddenly, I watched as a black crazy ant blasted the dwarf ant with a cloud of formic acid which sent the dwarf ant fleeing to a corner. In pain, it tried to clean the acid from its antennae. The injured dwarf ant decided to flee the scene as more dwarf ants emerged to fight the Dark Horde. This was where their nest was and they were willing to fight the Dark Horde with all they had. It was crazy to see this because the dwarf ants were usually left alone by the other ants, and were generally friendly in nature, but seeing them now in defense mode, I was rooting for them and hoping they would win. I watched as the black crazy ants ran all around the defensive dwarf ants, as the dwarf ants were defending their home base. The black crazy ants really wanted in, through their nest entrance, but the dwarf ants weren’t going to let it happen. They were armed with little stingers and if the black crazies got too close, they’d be sorry. The dwarf ants held their ground against the Dark Horde, and luckily were managing them well.

Had the Dark Horde been as big as they used to be before I culled back their numbers, these dwarf ants would have been dead meat. But after the incident, I watched as the dwarf ants began transporting their colony to another hole. Guess they felt their current location was much too dangerous. They even brought their young virgin queen alates to the new site. Crazy to watch once again how invasive creatures can displace native ones in an ecosystem. But this all showed me that the Great Ant War of Pantdora was not over, and that the Dark Horde was still a threat that we needed to keep our eye on and control, for the sake of the ecological balance and all life in Pantdora. By morning, the sun came streaming in to bathe the forest with a warm golden light. As I watched the lights dancing upon the plants, I pondered about how our rainforest project was going. Were we achieving the insight we were hoping for? Was I doing a satisfactory job at caring for this Pantdora’s Box of life? It’s truly been an eye-opener being the Creator of Worlds and steward of this rainforest within glass. The lives of all the living beings in this vivarium continue to blow my mind. I often wonder if our entire planet is also a huge sacred garden of a vivarium that a bunch of aliens, God, or some other immense entity out there is caring for, and observing, as they continually introduce new members to the system and schedule historic events to take place. Was that how life on Earth was formed? Some Creator of Worlds slowly and carefully adding to the planet and observing His creation from the other side of some containing proverbial glass. I wondered if it, they, or He was happy with how everything turned out, happy about how we humans have progressed, survived, and overcome great adversity as a species. If this was the case, and all of Earth was like one massive version of Pantdora, I’d like to imagine that Earth’s Creator was proud, just as much as I was of Pantdora, and how far it had come. I was excited to see how far our vivarium creation would continue to grow in complexity, beauty, and splendor over time, and it was then that I realized that Pantdora was not just a biological project, but in a lot of ways, was also a philosophical and spiritual one. But, enough talk: it was time to unleash the beast! Lady Death Strike was now ready to be set free into Pantdora, where she could feed on large crickets, large roaches, and other creatures. I moved in to open the container to our giant huntsman goddess. Lady Death Strike, welcome to Pantor… What? I received a message on my mobile… from Exoticslair? “Eh yo, AntsCanada! It’s Exoticslair. Remember me? Well, if you don’t then I’m the one that snuck into your Ant Room about a year ago, not something to be proud of to be remembered for. Sorry about that, but anyways, I hear you’re looking for a male praying mantis? Man, you won’t believe this, but I actually have a friend named JP, who actually lives around your area, and he just said he found a male praying mantis. What a coincidence! And he also said he doesn’t know what to do with it, so ding-ding-ding, I’ll get him to send the praying mantis to you right now. Peace man!” Woah. OK. Change of plan. We had some important order of business to tend to, AC Family. Hang tight, my Lady Death Strike. You’ll be set free here soon. My, my! Well, what have we here? Why hello, my Grey Reaper. So nice to see you. I’ve been awaiting your arrival for a very long time. Welcome to Pantdora! I have someone special I’d love to introduce you to. Meet your ultimate fate: the Green Reaper.