I need your help! My massive pet fire ant colony (the ‘Phoenix Empire’) is growing at such a rapid rate now and I have to decide what our next step will be. Today I show you how big the ant colony is now, what they’re current housing is, and what our options are for the fate of our beloved fire ants. Hope you enjoy this week’s episode!

PLEASE HELP: What Should I Do With All These FIRE ANTS?

Guys, I need your help!

You see, earlier this year, I acquired a new small and delicate family of ants living in a test tube.

This cute family of fire ants was composed of a pregnant queen ant with some brood and workers that had hatched from that brood, caring for everyone.

The ants weren’t aggressive, they didn’t sting, and they were pretty easy to keep as they didn’t really do much and simply rested silently within their peaceful test tube—until their numbers grew to this.

I super need your help, guys! I’ve got a very important decision to make, and I’m making it today.

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Guys, today I’ll need your help to make a very important decision for this massive 6-month-old colony of fire ants, as they’re growing out of control now!

This is them living normally in their relaxed state. But if you find this to be a lot of ants—ha!—wait until you see them in just a moment when I lure out the fire ant swarm for feeding time.

But guys, if you’re wondering what all this “need for help” is about, keep on watching until the end because I’ll be explaining everything in detail. After that, I’ll be needing your opinions to help make a decision on something very important about the future of these ants we’ve raised together all these months.

OK, so let’s get to it.

I first wanted you guys to see for yourselves the sheer size of the Phoenix Empire today.

Brace yourselves, guys.

Let’s feed them.

Behold today’s fattened sacrificial cow—an adult Madagascar hissing cockroach.

It’s alive now, but I’m about to put it out of its misery by cutting it up with scissors.

So, I realize a lot of you are all for the bloodbath and carnage of a live feeding, and indeed, if you look carefully enough on this channel, you will find a few videos with live feedings. But I generally don’t like to do it because the killing can be long, slow, and excruciating to watch.

So, I simply pre-kill the prey and drop the bodies in.

Check out this pit the ants made around their last meal.

In a day, they’ve reduced what used to be a huge cockroach to just a few pieces of exoskeleton.

They’re about to do it again with this roach, which is now slaughtered and all chopped up, ready to be eaten.

Ok, guys! Our fire ants are hungry!

Get ready to see how big the colony is as they swarm up to the surface to feed on our freshly chopped-up roach!

Placing in the roach.

Now, let’s watch!

I’m not going to time-lapse this sequence so you guys can see the true speed at which the Phoenix Empire’s feeding response happens!

Workers in the immediate area discover the roach and pounce on it, stinging it and injecting a lethal cocktail of neurotoxins.

The roach is still capable of movement due to the design of its nervous system.

You see, their brain is actually ganglia—agglomerations of nervous tissue running down the center of their body—which allow certain appendages to still move.

But there is no way this roach is crawling anywhere now.

Ants from the surrounding areas have already been informed of the roach and were busy passing on the message to all surrounding ants by laying down pheromones from glands in their body.

This causes a domino effect-type, social media-esque viral message spreading to all areas of the nest—like millions of ants retweeting some trending post about food that has arrived.

See how the ants are all rushing in now?

The fire ant swarm has begun!

Man, look at all those ants!

Soon, the ants form a living blanket of red and orange on the surface of their feeding chamber—a fair warning to any predators or thieves like birds or other insects wanting to steal their catch.

After all, in the wilderness, it’s survival of the fittest, and this meal is crucial to the ants, as it means a day’s worth of nourishment for their constantly growing colony.

I know I wouldn’t want to mess with these warriors—and one roach is not worth the pain!

I love getting in really close and watching the feeding in action.

The ants are ruthless and fast at tearing into this roach.

Look at the ants swarming the roach’s feet, known as tarsi.

Check out the roach’s head right now!

Look at that massive supermajor!

If you’re new to fire ants, fire ants are known as being polymorphic, meaning the workers vary in size and specialization.

These supermajors, with their huge heads, house powerful jaw muscles, which will be useful for cutting into the roach’s thick exoskeleton.

But make no mistake—even the small ants, the minors, are just as fierce and actually use their size to their advantage, squeezing into the tight, softer spots of the roach to tear inside.

In just a few short minutes, the swarm has surfaced, and it takes my breath away every time!

Now, sometimes when I feed, I don’t chop up the roach enough, and it struggles a bit more, which brings even more of a furious swarm to the surface.

Today’s swarm, though not the craziest it can get, is still quite impressive—wouldn’t you think?

Thank goodness the upside-down barrier of baby powder keeps the crazy swarm inside their setup, despite the open top.

This ant feeding chamber, by the way, is an ac Outworld™ from AntsCanada.com, which my team and I designed specifically for ant keeping.

There are tubes that lead out into other areas of their setup, which I’d also like to show you quickly now.

Welcome to the new City of Ashes—the interconnected ant farm setup of our beloved Phoenix Empire.

First, there’s the ac Hybrid Nest Mini, also from AntsCanada.com, which we’ve called the Magma Chambers, and it is just full of brood and ants on the move.

I often check this area of their setup to see if I can spot the queen, whom we’ve named the Ember Empress.

I truly miss our Ember Empress and haven’t seen her since the colony moved out of their founding test tube many months ago.

I hope to spot her wandering around one day, but I know she’s here somewhere, hidden in the depths of their nest.

Her brood just keeps getting bigger and bigger.

Check out the ac Ant Tower™, a 360-degree vertical ant farm we’ve called the Fire Fortress, which allows the ants to dig tunnels as they would in the wild.

I love watching the ants move through their tunnelwork and care for their brood lovingly.

And remember last week, when I connected the Phoenix Empire to their brand new massive ac Hybrid Nest Camponotus™?

They loved it and filled it up pretty fast.

Well, opening it up, and as you can see, they haven’t moved in yet and are, for now, treating this space as a highway for traveling.

But I anticipate they’ll be moving in the brood here soon, as the colony grows bigger by the day.

By the way, this Hybrid Nest still needs a name, so feel free to check out my Community Tab on my channel page for the official VOTE!

The ants continually customize their home by redecorating.

It seems the ants have taken a liking for the cotton from their water and sugar water test tubes, which they tear off bit by bit and line their home with.

As you can see in these connecting tubes and this ac test tube adapter, I’m guessing it helps the ants travel easier to and from places.

Perhaps they prefer the texture.

Who knows?

The ants truly have an interesting mind of their own, and I respect that.

They have a system going and operate by instinct in such a way as to maximize their growth as a colony.

They’re built to be eating, growing, digging, and defending machines…

Which brings me now, AC Family, to where I need your help.

So I’ve been contemplating when the right time would be to introduce the colony to their first terrarium.

If you’ve been following this channel for a while, you may recall my previous fire ant colony, the Fire Nation, which finally died after several years with me.

They were also raised from just a test tube, eventually moving into a setup like the Phoenix Empire’s, and then finally moving into a huge Amazon River paludarium known as the Selva de Fuego.

The Fire Nation absolutely thrived in this paludarium, and my hope is to eventually have the Phoenix Empire inherit these territories formerly occupied by their predecessors.

But here’s the thing:

Though the Phoenix Empire is big enough to move into the Selva de Fuego now, the Fire Nation was much larger than the Phoenix Empire’s current size when they first moved into the Selva de Fuego.

Also, one thing I’ve missed and know I’ll eventually miss is seeing the action inside the nest.

You see, once the Phoenix Empire moves into Selva de Fuego, we can pretty much forfeit any and all opportunity to see action inside the ant nest, including brood rooms and any chance of seeing the queen again.

Any action we get to see and film afterward will be limited to just hunting and feeding action, any action we see on the water surface, and the seasonal nuptial flights.

On the other hand, it would be a totally new and exciting experience for our Phoenix Empire to be able to live with massive plants, travel on a moving river of water, and have all the digging space they need.

The Selva de Fuego is even outfitted with its own automatic rain shower.

So my question to you guys is:

When should we officially move the Phoenix Empire into the Selva de Fuego?

Should we do it now or should we wait for a later date when the colony is larger?

Anyone out there still wanna see the queen again or are you itching to see the fire ants live in a naturalistic kingdom?

Sadly, YouTube has discontinued the use of voting polls in the info cards so to cast your VOTES in the comments section, I have posted and hearted three comments:

• “MOVE THEM NOW!”

• “MOVE THEM LATER!”

• “KEEP THEM IN ANT FARMS AND EXPAND AS NEEDED!”

To cast your vote, look for the comment corresponding with your choice and hit the LIKE button on that comment.

And feel free to also leave a reason for your vote of choice!

The cool part about this voting system is that you can vote for more than one option if you can’t decide on just one option.

I can’t wait to see what you guys think!

I personally am divided, but I’m leaning more toward moving them into the Selva de Fuego in a few months.

I, for one, would still like to see the queen again, our beautiful Ember Empress, at least just once more.

I also feel the Selva de Fuego will always be there whenever we’re ready to move the ants in.

Plus, the bigger the colony, the better we’ll be able to see them once they’ve moved in.

I dunno. That’s just what I think, but as I’ve always said, I love that it feels like we’re raising these ants together!

I wanted to take this opportunity to thank you guys for always watching, and discovering new things with me, as the ant colonies of the Ant Room grow bigger, more complex, and ultimately more magnificent.

I know one day, our Phoenix Empire will be just as great as their predecessors, the Fire Nation, who I still miss dearly.

Perhaps that rise to becoming the most powerful colony in the history of our Antiverse and this channel may come sooner than we think!

Together, the fate of these fire ants is in our collective hands.

Thank you for watching and supporting the ants.

It’s ant love forever!

AC Family, did you enjoy today’s episode?

Be sure to vote and leave your thoughts!

So much more is 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 because I think notifications are broken again.

Also, don’t forget to hit the LIKE button every single time, including now.

It would really mean a lot to me, guys.

Thank you!

I have left a hidden cookie for you here, if you would like to watch extended play scenes of the fire ants devouring their roach meal.

It’s so intriguing!

And guys, did you know that it’s anting season in the Northern Hemisphere, and you don’t even need to leave your home to start an ant colony?!

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!