Birth of the CARPENTER ANTS: After the beautiful rise to glory of my fire ant colony, the Phoenix Empire, I sought out a brand new starting carpenter ant colony to begin a new story of ant wonder. In this episode we meet our young carpenter ant queen and her brood, and have a look at all the unique jobs already taking place within the colony’s test tube setup. The footage captured in this video is truly cute, eye-opening, and magical all at once. Hope you enjoy the humble beginnings of an ant colony, as we welcome them to our growing Antiverse.

Starting a New Ant Colony | Birth of the Carpenter Ants

Over the past few weeks, us exploring the multitudinous armies of wild ants, and making scientific ant discoveries in our new forest, as well as making epic large-scale conservation plans for our other huge 82-acre plot of land, have all truly been fun to say the least.

But AC Family, today I wanted to take us back to the original place it all started, the dimension we all call home — our Antiverse, aka the Ant Room — because I have been waiting for this particular day to share some very special news!

We actually have a newcomer to join our gallery of ant nations, and I’m certain you’ll all truly love Her Royal Highness, our new Carpenter Ant Queen and her first generation of carpenter ant workers.

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Behold, our new beautiful colony of carpenter ants.

I’ve actually been waiting for this specific week to create this video because I know that where a lot of you are from, it’s officially the start of nuptial flight season, and queen ants are now starting to fly outside and mate, giving new ant keepers the chance to catch mated queen ants and start new pet ant colonies of their own like this one.

So I figured now was the perfect time to start a new journey with you guys with this precious new ant empire in the making — especially since you guys loved following the life story of our now massive colony of fire ants, the Phoenix Empire, last year from its genesis.

But guys, I’ll be needing your help for our new carpenter ant colony here, and I’ll also be updating you on what my myrmecologist friend Dr. General discovered about the Crematogaster ants we sampled from our forest last week, so keep on watching until the end.

Now let’s have a look at our new ant colony here.

These ants belong to the genus Camponotus, which is a huge genus with over a thousand different species scattered around the world.

They’re more commonly known as carpenter ants and get their name from the fact that they are often found nesting in wood, though this particular species of carpenter ant is unique in that it nests in soil.

But if you’re new to ants, you may be wondering why they’re bottled up in a small test tube like this, and why they seem so jam-packed in there.

Isn’t keeping them in such a tight space cruel?

Well, no actually.

What you see here is what ant keepers call a test tube setup.

It perfectly simulates the founding chamber a queen ant creates in the wild, deep in the ground or within wood, when she first begins her colony.

Speaking of which, this gorgeous beauty here is Her Royal Highness, the queen ant.

She’s easy to spot because she’s the largest ant in the colony and is in charge of laying all the eggs.

Isn’t she pretty?

Now when this colony first started out a few months ago, she was the only one in this test tube.

She was captured during nuptial flight, when carpenter ant queens and males emerge from their nests to breed in the air, after which the males die and queens like her break off their wings to start colonies of their own.

I knew she was mated and pregnant because she had broken off her wings and was wandering the ground in search of a suitable location to create her founding chamber.

And this test tube setup has since become precisely that perfect place for our queen — her founding chamber — and over the past few months, as you can tell, she’s been quite busy.

She laid some eggs, which hatched into larvae, which she raised herself using a nutritious soup manufactured from her own body tissues, which were regurgitated up for them.

During this time, she did not eat and only lived off the energy stores in her own body.

The larvae then became cocoons, from which eclosed the first generation of adult worker ants you see here, known as nanitics, who all now care for our queen and the brood.

So, you see, these ants are in fact quite comfortable in this test tube setup, and they prefer it this way.

But AC Family, at first glance it may seem like the ants aren’t doing much, but looks can be deceiving.

This founding chamber of our carpenter ant colony is actually quite busy, and there is plenty of work to do!

Let me show you around.

First off, the colony has babysitting duties to take care of.

In this test tube you’ll find all stages of ant young: eggs, larvae, and cocoons.

The young need to constantly be cared for by the workers.

Eggs and larvae need to be licked clean by the worker ants on a daily basis in order to avoid any potential mold outbreaks or other pathogens which can endanger the colony.

Ant saliva contains an antibiotic, so the ants must continually cover the young in it.

Additionally, the larvae must be fed, and they are always hungry.

The ants regurgitate food from their social stomachs, then feed the young via mouth-to-mouth transfer called trophallaxis, a process all eusocial insects, including bees and wasps, do to distribute food among colony members.

It’s pretty amazing because the ants have a system going, where every larva gets fed and none are forgotten or left hungry, even if you’re a larva from the bottom of a pile.

This system becomes even more impressive once the colony reaches millions of larvae that need feeding.

Talk about organization skills, right?

Now, I’ll be getting more into what food our colony has been keeping in their social stomachs to feed everyone in a second, as all of that is extremely cool, too!

Other children duties include assisting mature larvae as they start to spin silk to create their cocoons as you see here, organizing the young by general age so they’re easier to track and transport around according to their needs, moving cocoons to optimal places in the test tube for faster development, and stretching and pulling the appendages of newly emerged workers from pupal stage, so they can start getting down to business and help with the work.

Going back to their antibiotic saliva for a moment, the ants also must clean themselves.

Like cats, they frequently take self-baths by running their appendages through their mouthparts to comb themselves of any debris, mold spores, and germs.

They also assist one another by licking each other in harder-to-reach places.

“You lick my gaster and I’ll lick yours” is a golden colony rule.

They must also lick the walls of the test tube, again to avoid any mold growth or germs that might endanger the colony.

This house chore, though seemingly tedious work, is extremely important for their survival, because as you can imagine, in a moist, underground environment with many members living together in tight spaces, things can get foul really quickly if they aren’t careful.

In fact, check out just how clean the ants are.

What you’re looking at here is the colony’s bathroom area.

The ants designate a special spot in their founding chamber to defecate, and have a look at all those little black rock-like things.

Can you guess what those are?

This will blow your mind, guys.

These are meconia — fecal pellets expelled by the larvae right before pupating.

So get this: during an ant’s entire childhood — i.e. its larval stage — it eats and eats but never poops once!

The waste just kind of gathers inside the larva’s body, and when the moment comes that the larva is ready to become a cocoon, it expels this fecal pellet — all the compiled waste it accumulated throughout its life as a larva — and the workers simply carry it and dump it into the bathroom area.

Isn’t that amazing?

Can you imagine if humans were like that?

Where you never pee or poop once starting from the moment you are born but finally, at teenage-hood, expel your dried-up, rock-hard poop you’ve been saving up all that time?

I’m sure parents out there are wishing their kids were ant larvae right now!

The ants are so on top of their home cleaning duties that this bathroom area never really fouls up or molds.

It’s quite amazing how sterile and clean the ant lifestyle really is!

Another amazing way the ants manage to stay clean is through their unique mode of food storage.

Now, AC Family, check this out!

You may notice that some of these worker ants have huge gasters — big balloon-like abdomens swollen with food saved up in their social stomachs.

These swollen worker ants are known as repletes — essentially living food stores, like walking pantries.

Ants feed these repletes through trophallaxis until they become huge balloons on legs, and when the colony members get hungry, it’s their job to come along and barf some of the pre-digested food up to feed the others.

In this way, food doesn’t just sit around and rot.

It’s sterile and saved in their social stomachs.

Now, you may be wondering what this colony has been eating.

Well, this carpenter ant colony isn’t alone in this test tube.

Around the test tube, you’ll also notice these white guests.

These are young termite nymphs, which I began to place inside as food for the colony once the first adult workers arrived.

The ants have chosen to keep these termites slightly alive for consumption later, but have savagely crushed their necks to immobilize them.

The social stomachs of all the repletes happen to be filled to the max at the moment, which is why these termites haven’t been consumed yet.

So in the meantime, workers must carry their living, immobilized prey to drier areas of the nest to keep them from molding, and must also clean them with their antibiotic saliva.

Keeping the food alive, though, does have its drawbacks, as it seems this termite was able to chomp down on this worker’s leg!

Ouch!

One last thing you might notice about this bustling new carpenter ant colony of ours is that some of the workers have larger, darker heads.

These are the colony’s majors — specialized workers that are designed for defense and cutting things open with their powerful mandibles they were born with.

Some of the majors in this colony are double-tasking, acting as repletes as their side job.

So noble, wouldn’t you say?

Later on, this colony will start to produce even larger workers with bigger heads known as supermajors, which I certainly can’t wait for!

So AC Family, what do you think of our new carpenter ant colony?

Aren’t they amazing?

I just love their colour, and how big they are!

If you are looking to keep a carpenter ant colony of your own, and you live in the Northern Hemisphere — like the US, Canada, or Europe — look out for wandering carpenter ant queens starting April, May, and June, but some can possibly fly before and after those months depending on weather.

Also, if you want ants that form repletes like these ants, there is an ant species flying right now in April known as false-honeypot ants or Prenolepis imparis, which have massive repletes.

Start looking for Prenolepis imparis queens wandering outside right now, as I hear they are starting to fly North America-wide.

And guys, if you’ve been wanting to get into the hobby and start an ant colony of your own, I highly recommend picking up any of our AC gear packs from AntsCanada.com, which include test tubes specially designed for ant keeping, as well as handy test tube racks for storing your newly test-tubed ant colonies.

Queen ants can literally be collected from your own backyard, balcony, or open window and raised within the safety of your own home.

I’d love for you guys to keep ants with me, especially since it’s an easy and relaxing hobby for nearly all ages.

Alright, guys, so at the start of the video, I mentioned I’d be needing your help.

I was wondering: What should we name our new carpenter ant colony?

They’re quite promising and are super cute!

I hope you guys could think of a worthy name for them, as well as for our royal queen here.

Leave your name suggestions in the comments, and your AC Senate and I will choose our top 5 favourites for all of us to vote on as a community in a future video.

It means a lot to me that you guys are embarking on this whole ant journey with me, and I love that we get to start a new ant colony all over again, together from scratch.

Watching how our Phoenix Empire rose to power as one of the mightiest ant colonies of our ant room was such a beautiful process to be part of, and I have similar hopes for this new, young colony of ours.

Let’s wish our new carpenter ants the best of luck, and hope they too, one day, rise to assume their place among the greats of our epic Antiverse.

Hey, look!

The workers are starting to pull at the cotton, which only means one thing: this colony is ready for the next stage of their evolution as an ant colony.

AC Family, the workers are trying to dig out of their founding chamber for their first experience of the outside world, and so guys, I can’t wait to show you what I have prepared for them.

AC Family, did you enjoy today’s episode?

Be sure to join us for this new, exciting journey as we follow this ant colony’s rise to glory, and remember to leave a name suggestion for our new ant colony and queen ant in the comments.

I also mentioned at the start of this video that I have an update on the Crematogaster ants from last week’s episode which we sent to the lab for identification.

It turns out we made our third scientific ant discovery and contribution to science, guys!

The Crematogaster ant isn’t among the known species within my country, so now they’re trying to compare it with known ant species in other countries!

AC Family, we may have just discovered a brand new ant species in our forest — or at the very least, we’ve made a new geographical record of a known ant species, just like we did our Meranoplus bicolor record from three weeks ago — but it will apparently take some time to tell.

I’ll let you know the moment we hear back from Dr. General on them!

So much is in store ahead, so if you haven’t yet, do SMASH that SUBSCRIBE button and BELL ICON now, and hit ALL so you get notified at every upload.

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It would really mean a lot to me, guys.

Thank you!

AC Inner Colony, I have left a hidden cookie for you here if you would like to watch extended play scenes of our new carpenter ant colony.

Go check them out!

And guys, be sure to visit AntsCanada.com for all your ant keeping and collecting gear shipped to you in a special package from our ant-loving facility in the USA, so you can get the most out of your ant keeping experience.

We ship worldwide and also offer full email support if you need our help!

We also have a helpful forum and ant colony trading marketplace on the site.

Visit AntsCanada.com today.

And now it’s time for the AC Question of the Week.

Last week, we asked:

What is your favourite part of the Antopia Park idea?

Congratulations to Zachary Sheldon who answered:

My favorite part of the park would be the guided tours.

Congratulations, Zachary, you just won a free Ultimate Ant Keeping Handbook from our shop!

In this week’s AC Question of the Week, we ask:

What is a replete?

Leave your answer in the comments section and you could also win a free Ultimate Ant Keeping Handbook from our shop!

Hope you could SUBSCRIBE to the channel as we upload every Saturday at 8 AM EST.

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