I’ve got Asian Bullet Ants… again! The “Black Panthers”, my former colony of Asian Bullet Ants, known scientifically as Diacamma rugosum had sadly died out earlier this year of natural causes. So when I decided to get some bullet ants again, I decided to use an AC Ant Tower, a Hybrid Nest 2.0, and AC Outworlds to start a neat, new biological experiment and project that would hopefully ensure the colony wouldn’t die out, and that the line of gamergates (i.e. the mated, egg-laying worker of the colony) could continue on forever, indefinitely. Ant love forever! This video was shot in 4K Ultra HD resolution.
My New BULLET ANT Colony
On this channel, sometimes we lose ant colonies.
Death is a sad reality of life and the hobby.
But sometimes, we get lucky, and one of our lost ant kingdoms comes back to life.
I have some great news, AC Family.
One of our ant colonies is back, having returned from the dead, and this time, I have a plan to make sure they stay with us forever.
An Asian Bullet Ant worker emerges from the nest to smell the morning air, like she does every morning.
But this morning was a little bit different.
They had woken up to their new home with us.
A few of her sisters also seem pretty curious about the new world beyond their nest, and what a world it is!
AC Family, you guys will get to see what we created for this new colony of Asian Bullet Ants in a bit, but first—
There’s a commotion at the foot of the anthill.
One of the colony’s early risers had found a huge piece of superworm.
Alright!
She moves down to help her out.
Together, they lug the massive superworm up their great anthill cliff, but being intelligent ants, one of them decided to scope out the best route up the hill in advance.
Oops!
Looks like this hill isn’t as sturdy as they’d thought.
After all, they had just built this anthill fortress overnight, and the grains of dirt still needed time to set.
I can’t even begin to describe just how happy I am that we have these incredible ants back again, and I’m sure all of you long-time AC Family members are feeling the nostalgia too!
But if you’re new to the channel, these are Asian Bullet Ants, Diacamma rugosum, and you’ll get to see just how awesome they are in this episode, as well as some pretty amazing things I managed to catch on camera!
But to fill you newcomers in, earlier this year, our star colony of Asian Bullet Ants—whom we called the Black Panthers—had sadly died out due to natural causes, which I will get into in a sec.
But I’m pleased to say I managed to obtain another colony of these incredible beasts, and this time, I’ve come up with an interesting way that theoretically should ensure history doesn’t repeat itself—
A plan to ensure this Asian Bullet Ant colony lives forever!
Okay, so in order to better understand things, you guys gotta take a look at how unique Asian Bullet Ants are.
These ants live a curious life.
They belong to a very small percentage of ants—about 1%—that run on what’s called a gamergate system.
And this is how it works:
In typical ant colonies, a single queen—who was born a queen with wings—mates with males, who also have wings, during what’s called a nuptial flight, which happens about once a year during their breeding season.
After mating, she then lays a ton of eggs, which turn out to become worker ants that care for her and the colony, as she continues to lay more and more eggs for up to 30 years.
But the moment the queen dies, the colony inevitably dies out too, because each worker only lives for a few months.
And once the queen—the main egg-layer—is gone, there’s no other ant that can lay eggs to continue the next generation of workers.
They can’t invent a new egg-laying queen.
But these Asian Bullet Ants, however, don’t follow this life cycle system!
Get this!
They run on a gamergate system, which is 100% queenless!
Yes, every single member of the Asian Bullet Ant colony is a worker ant, and one of these worker ants—the most dominant one—takes on the role of egg-layer in the colony.
This special worker is called a gamergate.
She looks totally identical to the other workers, but the only thing is—only she is allowed to mate with males and lay all the eggs.
I’ve tried to locate gamergates in the past, but it’s really hard.
I try to look for a swollen gaster—or ant butt—but I’ve never found her.
But anyways, the advantage of this gamergate, or queenless system, is that once this gamergate dies, a new gamergate—the most dominant one—will take on this much-coveted position.
I made an episode about the unique and amazing life of Asian Bullet Ants and their gamergate system when I first introduced them to the channel, which you might want to check out after watching this video.
But now, as for how I believe our former Black Panthers died out suddenly earlier this year, going from super well to disappearing into extinction—
My suspicion is that the gamergate had died, and a new gamergate had assumed her throne, but the only thing she needed was an unrelated male ant to mate with.
There were male ants present in the colony, but they were all her brothers.
So I suppose they weren’t into Game of Thrones-style inbreeding.
I feel like in Asian Bullet Ant society, much like a pride of lions, males leave their birth colony and wander off to seek out an unrelated colony with a gamergate in need of mating.
And that’s how new gamergates become official egg-layers.
And again, once this gamergate dies, the cycle continues over and over again.
Oh, and by the way, I forgot to mention that these unfertilized gamergates awaiting males to mate with them can still lay eggs—
But these unfertilized eggs grow up to be males only.
Weird, I know.
Ant genetics!
Gamergates absolutely need to mate with a male ant in order to produce female workers.
Alright, so now that you understand the life cycle of Asian Bullet Ants, AC Family, I have to share with you my epic plan to make sure that these ants continually keep perpetuating.
We are lucky to have a second chance at keeping Asian Bullet Ants, and this time, I’m determined to keep them alive and going on forever.
AC Family, presenting to you—The Black Panthers 2.0!
New Ant Worlds
To begin, I will need these materials.
AC Family, it’s time to take us back to classic ant-keeping, and after all the complex vivariums we made this year, it’s very refreshing for us to go back to the fun basics! Don’t you think?
•An AC Hybrid Nest 2.0. This, in particular, is the Formica version, but any version could have worked.
•This AC Ant Tower Large.
•These two AC Outworlds.
•These tubes to connect them.
•Coco fiber, plants, and the nucleus.
Now, if you’re new to these Hybrid Nests, they come with a cover to allow the ants to remain in the dark when you’re not watching them.
It also has pre-made chambers and tunnels for the ants to inhabit and use as desired.
The bottom has micro-holes in one section to allow for hydration of the nest.
You can put cotton in this hydration tub here or use any type of hydration medium you want.
Lately, I find coco fiber works really well because it doesn’t mold and it’s water-absorbent.
This amount is sufficient.
And on goes the nest like so.
My hope is that they’ll discover the darkness and moisture of the Hybrid Nest and decide to move the colony in here to be their new nest.
By the way—shameless plug—these Hybrid Nests are available at 20% off on my website AntsCanada.com just for the holidays, so go get yours today!
It also comes with a free ant-keeping handbook so you can become an ant-keeping pro!
Next is the Ant Tower Large.
These two ports will allow the ants to be connected to other setups, but for now, I’ve got them blocked up with plugs so the ants remain in here to nest.
Like the Hybrid Nest, this too has a hydration tub at the bottom.
This centerpiece here forces the ants to dig their tunnels and chambers near the glass.
But since our Asian Bullet Ants are large ants, I can remove this outer layer here to give them more space to dig tunnels.
Alright, so now, let’s prepare this Ant Tower.
Some coco fiber in the hydration ring.
Again, you can use sand, sponge, cotton, or your preference.
Then, I reattached it to the Ant Tower.
Let’s proceed with these AC Outworlds.
They will act as the outer world of the ants.
So, I want to decorate them to look more natural.
I used silicone caulking to glue this bottom plate on because it can actually come off in case you wish to stack multiple outworlds.
The cover has a double inner lip, where you can put a barrier to keep the ants inside.
And if you need access to the nest, you can easily remove this cover.
Also, there’s a feeding chute here.
For now, I will apply baby powder as my barrier.
The same goes for the other one.
Now, before we start decorating, let’s bring in the Nucleus, the creational furnace which houses epic populations of soil biota and microorganisms, as well as our manufacturing facility of awesome fertilizer.
I got some of the earth and mixed it with coco fiber.
Now we’ve seeded a good soil creature population and blended in our fertilizer for the plants.
I put in a thin layer of the mix into the Outworlds and Ant Tower.
Oh hey, look at me touching these worms!
It only proves that you can overcome any phobia with time and patience.
There—perfect.
Now, these plants are ready to be planted.
And after two hours of work, this is what the Black Panthers’ new epic setup looked like.
New Colonies
AC Family, behold!
The new double kingdom of our Black Panthers 2.0!
Let me show you around.
The lands were an entanglement of vines, ground plants, and stones.
Both Outworlds needed to be simply decorated with a low soil level, so that the ants wouldn’t end up moving into these soils.
We want them to move into the Formicaria.
The Ant Tower was ready and set for the Bullet Ants to inhabit it.
I used a stick to start a burrow in the Ant Tower.
Let’s cross our fingers and hope the ants find it.
Right now, these two setups—which will become the homes for Colonies A and B—are not attached, but I’ll get into how I will attach them later.
You see, I can’t allow the two colonies to mix, as they’d go to war, but I had a super cool way to make sure only males could move to the other colony’s nest.
That’s coming up in just a moment, but for now, it’s time to move the ants into these new homes we created for them.
You guys will truly love this!
It was just soooo cool!
Here we go!
Putting on my gloves.
These ants aren’t called Bullet Ants for nothing!
They have a painful sting, and I’m not about to get bit tonight!
Let’s begin with Colony A.
Ready?
And into the Ant Tower they go!
And there you go!
The ants immediately surveyed the land and began seeking a space for shelter.
Some ants were tasked with carrying the brood.
And great news:
They immediately found the starting burrow I created for them and began digging into the Ant Tower.
Meanwhile, the Outworld attached to the Hybrid Nest was ready to welcome Colony B.
There!
A swarm of ants immediately roamed around their new territory.
They climbed the vines and plants of their new home.
And in no time, some courageous ants traveled the tube and discovered the Hybrid Nest.
Yay!
It wasn’t long before the ants decided that yup—the Hybrid Nest would be their new home.
And check out how cool the ants looked up close!
Whoa!
The Asian Bullet Ants looked magnificent this close—and huge!
Checking on Colony A in the Ant Tower, the colony had decided to start moving the brood into the tunnel.
It was officially their new nesting chamber, which they would start expanding outward.
It was just so satisfying to see that the ants were loving these new homes we made for them.
One thing I noticed though, while analyzing the close-up footage of Colony B, was that I saw no brood—except for a couple of eggs.
There were no larvae or pupae.
Could this mean Colony B had newly appointed a gamergate, and she was just starting to lay?
Could she have mated already, or was she still awaiting fertilization?
No worries though because I will now show you the final addition to these setups, which will allow males from Colony A to mate with any existing unfertilized gamergate from Colony B, and vice versa.
Final Touches
The next day, I had given both colonies some chopped-up superworm in the morning, which they took home to their colonies.
(Music only)
The next day, I had given both colonies some chopped-up superworm in the morning, which they took home to their colonies.
(Music only)
Colony A had completely transformed the lands and, overnight, had created a vertical anthill.
They piled it all up, grain by grain.
Let’s peel off this red film and see how the ants are doing inside.
Whoa!
Check out the extensive tunnels!
Wow!
They’re eating!
The colony and their larvae are having a feast today.
Let’s have a look at them using red light.
Just amazing, right guys?!
So cool how with the red light, we can see them, but the ants still feel like they’re in the dark—since they can’t see red light.
Now, peeking into the Hybrid Nest of Colony B—
Awesome!
They were loving the nest.
They certainly have a lot of space to expand and grow into.
They were huddled in groups, munching on superworm pieces.
So, as for the final touch to my ultimate plan—
The whole reason I chose to house these Asian Bullet Ants in formicaria, as opposed to huge vivariums, is because I needed to be able to monitor them.
I needed to see when each colony was producing male ants, and once the male ants did arrive, I could then go ahead and do this—
Check it out!
As you know, our AC Outworlds are stackable, and if I stacked both outworlds but kept the barrier on the lid of the bottom outworlds, it would be enough to keep worker ants in the bottom outworlds—while allowing male ants, who can fly, to pass the barriers into the upper worlds, and use this tube here, which I’ll attach now, to form a bridge between the two upper outworlds—
And voila!
Our Bullet Ant colonies could live forever!
So check out the system:
•Colony A would produce males who would have the natural urge to find another colony.
• The males would leave the nest, smell the pheromones released by Colony B’s gamergate, travel up and through the bridge tube, enter Colony B’s outworld, enter the Hybrid Nest, and mate with the gamergate.
•Conversely, males from Colony B could do the same—only in the opposite direction.
And that, AC Family, should theoretically work to keep both colonies alive forever!
Once gamergates die and new gamergates rise to power, unrelated males could come to the rescue and mate with them.
In my mind, this should work, but only time will tell if it does.
For now, I’ll keep the colonies disconnected, just in case the pheromones stress out the opposing colonies.
Again, we can’t forget that the colonies are technically enemies, even if they need each other to perpetuate.
Hey, would Yin and Yang be cool names for our two Black Panthers?
Should we keep the names Black Panthers, or should we just completely rename them?
Also, do you guys think this setup will work?
Let me know in the comments!
If this does work, we can apply this setup to all ants operating with a gamergate system from here on in—perhaps even revive our Dracula Ants, the Blood Legion!
As always, I’m on a constant quest to provide my ants with the best lives possible.
In my heart, I want nothing more than for all the ants under my care to be the happiest pet ants, providing them with everything they need to live their best lives.
I’ve learned that this requires close observation and study, and at times, a bit of experimentation, some trial and error.
Over the next few days, I marveled at and was reminded of how amazing Asian Bullet Ants are.
I sat and watched them for hours, and it was actually cool to be able to see them like this, due to the visibility of the formicaria.
You see, the old Black Panthers were housed in vivariums, and though I could peek into a Y-tong cement nest they had, every time I peeked in, the ants would move the colony to darker areas of the nest—away from the glass.
But here, the ants were okay with letting me watch them in plain sight.
I also love seeing what the ants do underground.
It was great having the Black Panthers back.
I learned today that though death is part of the ant-keeping hobby, sometimes death makes it possible for life.
I’m happy that these incredible Asian Bullet Ants have returned to our Antiverse, leaving a legacy that never dies—and lives on forever.
AC Family, aren’t you happy the Black Panthers are back?
Should we rename them, though? Let me know!
There is still so much ahead in the Antiverse, and we’ve started uploading two videos a week for the month of December anyway.
You don’t want to miss out on all these great and inspiring stories of nature in our Ant Room, so hit the SUBSCRIBE and bell icon for notifications now—so you don’t miss out!
And please remember to hit the LIKE button every single time—including now!
If you’re new to the channel and want to catch up on all your AntsCanada Lore, click here for our complete storyline playlist, so you can follow all the stories and colonies, as well as the various creatures we have in the Antiverse, so you can better appreciate why we love them all so much!
AC Inner Colony, I’ve left a hidden video for you here, if you’d like to watch the full construction and landscape designing of these Bullet Ant setups.
It was a fun process, and I think those of you AC Family members who actually have any of our AC Ant Farms, or need ideas on how to landscape your ant farms at home, would truly find it helpful.
And now, it’s time for the AC Question of the Week!
Last week we asked:
“What is your favorite thing about the new Hacienda Del Dorado design?”
Congratulations to Jack Hay, who answered:
“I love the water/marsh part and how the crabs can get in and out of the water as they please, living symbiotically with the ants!”
Congratulations, Jack Hay!
You just won a free e-book handbook from our shop!
In this week’s AC Question of the Week, we ask:
“Why would it be a bad idea to mix our two Bullet Ant colonies together?”
Leave your answer in the comments section, and you could also win a free e-book handbook from our shop!
Hope you can subscribe to the channel as we upload every Saturday and Wednesday at 8 AM EST.
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It’s ant love forever! 🐜❤️