Welcome to this fascinating journey into the world of ants! In this transcription, we explore the epic showdown between red tropical fire ants (Solenopsis geminata) and black crazy ants (Paratrechina longicornis). You’ll discover their behaviors, strengths, differences, and what makes them such captivating and unique pets. Whether you’re an ant enthusiast or just curious, this detailed guide offers an exciting look into the lives of these incredible ant species. Enjoy the adventure!

Who would win in an ant war between red ants and black ants? This video reviews 2 colonies: a red tropical fire ant colony (Solenopsis geminata) and a black crazy ant colony (Paratrechina longicornis) and what happens if we were to mix the two together. I also review what in my experience are the easiest ant species to keep as pets in North America and Europe.

WHO WINS: RED ANTS VS BLACK ANTS

Every place has its own proverbial red ants and black ants.

In North America and Europe, for instance, red ants usually refer to Myrmica, Tetramorium, or Solenopsis ants, while black ants usually mean Formica or Lasius ants.

In this episode of the AntsCanada Ant Channel, I wanted to introduce you to what many people in the tropics refer to as red ants and black ants.

One happens to be the hardest ant species I have ever kept as pets, while the other, the easiest.

I’m talking about red tropical fire ants and black crazy ants. Both of these species have successfully invaded nearly all tropical parts of the world. They also happen to be arch-enemies.

It’s expected because they share, command, and conquer the same habitat, occupy the same niches, and compete for the same resources and food.

I will show you how both species hunt, kill, feed, and attack, and we will watch them fight. I’ll explain their very contrasting personalities and what they’re like as pets. I’ll also go over what I feel qualifies as “easy pet ant species to keep” and list some of my recommendations for common easy-to-keep ants in other parts of the world.

So keep watching until the end.

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome everyone to another episode of the AntsCanada Ant Channel.

Now, if you read the title of the video and were hoping for me to mix my grown black and red ant colonies together and film their epic and blood-curdling battle, let me clarify something.

As an ant lover, it would kill me to see two colonies I’ve owned and loved kill each other in minutes.

But with that being said, ant wars between these two species do happen in the wild. So, what I will do for all of you curious to see ants fight, is insert some worker ants from a wild ant colony and place them in with my own colonies to see how they manage to seize and attack ants of the other species. That’s coming up later.

I personally don’t know who would win in an ant war between these two species, but perhaps by the end of the video, I’ll leave it up to you guys to decide who would win in a fight.

So, let’s take a closer look first at red tropical fire ants, also known as Solenopsis geminata. If you saw one of our previous videos on fire ants as pets, you may already know what they’re like. They’re ferocious, stinging, hungry, and explosive ants.

Red tropical fire ants originated in South America but have managed to migrate and invade other parts of the world, nearly all tropical and subtropical countries. They managed to do this through human activities like shipping of crates, possibly fruits, and plant life.

Their colony contains just one queen who lays many, many eggs throughout the day and night. You can see her here. She’s larger than the rest of them, and her only job is basically to lay eggs. From these eggs hatch larvae, which you see here. They kind of look like grains of rice.

These larvae pupate, and from them emerge adult worker ants. It only takes a few weeks to go from egg to worker. This here was the colony last month, and in just over four weeks, they grew so much and produced so much brood that they’ve expanded into a second nest, and I’ve even had to attach more nest units to their setup.

I love doing this.

You see, red tropical fire ants are semi-nomadic, which means they set up nests in ideal locations but will gladly pick up and move the entire colony – queen and brood included – to new places. So, these ants get really excited when they have new territory to command and conquer.

Watch as I connect these two AC Outworlds to their network with tubes. I’ve modified these AC Outworlds with an AC Field and Forest Biome Kit so that the ants can have places to nest when they feel they need to expand.

This here is Fire Ant Mountain, and this is Solenopsis Hill, and I’ve got this connector prepared for the test tube that attaches to this hole where I’m about to stick this, which leads to the two AC Outworlds.

Here we go!

Unplugging the sugar test tube, placing that tube there, and placing the sugar test tube into that portal, and there they go!

Let’s watch them move in.

Gotta clean up some escapees here.

Look how excited they are!

Gotta do some arranging of tubes here.

Watch them explore Solenopsis Hill and Fire Ant Mountain!

The move happens so smoothly and exactly as planned. I loved watching them explore their new territory. Hopefully, they’ll like the new homes that I gave them, and they’ll eventually move their brood into those living spaces when their colony gets big enough.

I’ve even added a tower, just to give them a little topography.

Meanwhile, on the same tabletop nearby, another energetic ant colony moves silently into their formicarium. A colony with not one queen but two queens!

These are black crazy ants – Paratrechina longicornis.

Also globally invasive ants that have established themselves in nearly all subtropical and tropical regions of the world. Nobody knows where they originated from for sure, but it’s suspected by myrmecologist Dr. James Trager that they came from India.

Unlike the red tropical fire ants, these black crazy ants have multiple queens in their colonies, so their colonies grow many times faster than fire ant colonies.

Though this black crazy ant colony is younger than my red tropical fire ant colony, I suspect that these black crazy ants will soon catch up in size.

Another thing that sets these ants apart from fire ants is that they don’t have stingers.

These ants spray formic acid, which they use for both defense and attacking prey.

Another great feature is the amazing speed that these crazy ants have. They are explosively fast-moving ants, which gives them their name, “crazy ants,” because their speedy and sporadic movements make these ants look pretty crazy.

While red tropical fire ants subdue and kill their prey by swarming, biting, and stinging, black crazy ants subdue their prey by pulling their prey from all sides, stretching them out so they’re helpless.

Black crazy ants have long and strong legs, so their combined pulling action can immobilize their prey while other ants go in and spray formic acid.

What I love most about black crazy ants is how they gorge themselves with food, especially sweets, and carry the goodies back to their colony in their social stomachs for sharing with their family back at the nest.

Watch as these black crazy ants fill up on honey to maximum capacity.

Fire ants are also very entertaining ants to watch during feeding time. What I love the most about fire ants during feeding time is how ferocious and aggressive they are.

And I love that their workers are polymorphic, which means they have different sizes. We’ve got small workers, medium-sized workers, and majors with huge heads, which specialize in tearing into prey.

Alright, guys, so the moment you all have been waiting for: it’s time to perform a micro-experiment. And as I said, Solenopsis geminata and Paratrechina longicornis are natural enemies in the wild.

And also, as I said before, I couldn’t swallow taking a worker from one of my own ant colonies and mixing it with another of my ant colonies, but – due to popular demand, for observation’s sake – I resolved to capture some wild workers and place them in with my captive colonies to see what happens when one species enters the territory of another species.

So, let’s start with the black crazy ants. I found two fire ants from outside and placed them in with my Paratrechina longicornis colony.

Here’s what happened: The crazy ants instantly became aware of the fire ants. Word spread fast by way of pheromones, and the crazy ants instantly seized the fire ants and stretched them by all limbs.

The fire ants tried to fight back by attempting to sting the crazy ants, but the crazy ants’ long, powerful legs stretching the fire ants from all sides simply made any direct contact with the crazy ants impossible. Meanwhile, other workers went in to spray formic acid.

In the end, the workers carried the fire ants back to the nest, perhaps to consume them and feed them to the young.

Ruthless…

And now for the fire ants. I managed to find two crazy ant workers foraging in one of my bathrooms. I placed them into the Outworld, which was teeming with fire ant workers. And what happened next shocked me.

The crazy ants remained unnoticed! The black crazy ants quickly identified that they were amidst a colony of fire ants, and they zig-zagged and raced through the swarm of fire ants so quickly and nimbly that the fire ants never realized they had enemies wandering their territory.

In fact, the crazy ants were so fast it was hard for my camera to focus quickly enough to catch them zooming around.

In fact, many times, it was even hard for me to follow the crazy ants with my own eyes, and I would often lose them.

I observed these crazy ants for half an hour as they zipped around the fire ant colony, literally running circles around the fire ants! They moved through them with ease, unseen and unscathed. It was an amazing thing to witness.

So, it seems the red tropical fire ants have ferocity, a powerful stinger with venom that could kill creatures many times their size. They have specialized workers, a more solid build, and use the swarming technique.

While black crazy ants have speed, agility, formic acid spray, are built lighter, and use the stretching technique.

So, what do you guys say? Who do you think would win in an epic ant war between red tropical fire ants and black crazy ants?

Let me know in the comments section.

Overall, both these species as pets are pretty rewarding.

Red tropical fire ants are the hardest species I have ever kept, simply due to their ability to escape homemade setups, their aggressiveness, their great demand for food and water, and their painful stings.

But if you can get over these challenges, they make awesome, awesome pets.

Alternatively, black crazy ants are pretty much the easiest species I’ve ever kept.

They eat nearly everything I give them, I can move them in and out of places by simply using the heat from a light bulb, they don’t sting, and are actually afraid of my tweezers, and they otherwise behave and act exactly as I hope for them to – no surprises.

That, to me, is a perfect ant colony.

It’s amazing to think that these two very different ant species, which are natural enemies, are housed so close together, and they have no idea!

Just a couple of thin layers of polyvinyl tubing separate them from an epic battle – and for those of you who are still hoping for it, and I know you’re going to leave comments.

No, I will never, ever mix these two colonies together.

So, if you’re from North America or Europe, what are some easy ant species to keep?

For me, Tetramorium species E if you’re in North America or Tetramorium caespitum are amazing ants to keep as pets.

They’re easy to keep, they tolerate a broad array of conditions, are super common, have fast-growing colonies, and are awesome to watch hunt for food. They’re super aggressive, and they have stingers, but here’s the best part: their stingers are not large enough to hurt humans.

Their nuptial flights are actually happening right now, so go outside and look for those Tetramorium queens.

In close second place, if not tied for the easiest ants to keep, are Lasius neoniger in North America and Lasius niger in Europe.

Camponotus ants as well, but their colonies can be slow-growing at the start.

Anyway, guys, that’s it for this week’s video! Thank you for watching, and please, let us know what the red and black ants are like in your area. We’d love to hear about them in the comments section.

Until next week, it’s ant love forever.

This is AntsCanada, signing out.

Hey guys, thanks so much for watching our brand new video: “Red Ants versus Black Ants.” Hope you liked it, and don’t forget to subscribe to our videos because we now, thanks to you guys, release a video every single week!

All of you guys commented on our last video when we asked if you prefer that we upload every Monday instead of every first and third Monday. So now, we listened, and I am going to upload every single week, so please do subscribe and look out for our uploaded videos every Monday.

Also, if you would like to get into ant keeping, don’t forget to watch our ant tutorial playlist, which has pretty much all the basics on ant keeping if you would like to get into the hobby as well.

If you like watching ants, don’t forget to check out our Solenopsis geminata playlist. And please do visit us at AntsCanada.com for ant-keeping info, for professional ant farms, for buying and selling of ant colonies with a queen, and we’ve got an awesome ant forum there for all of you guys who like to connect with other ant keepers around the world.

It’s really a great thing, so please come and join us! I’d also like to give a grand shout-out to a very good friend of mine whose name is Alex Wild, who happens to be a biologist and nature photographer.

He’s also a taxonomist and a very well-known blogger, so please visit his site at Alexanderwild.com. He is very kind and nice enough to give me permission to use his ant photos in our video, so all of these amazing quality photos that you’ll be seeing in our videos are photographed by Alex Wild.

And you’ll be shocked; his photos are fantastic, and he is my absolute favorite nature photographer. So you can order prints of his work and place them on your wall – it would make a great decoration for any ant room.