I am leaving my giant rainforest vivarium Pantdora on autopilot, as I travel to Canada and the US to attend Animal Con USA. However, a crisis has hit the rainforest and there couldn’t be a worse time. Will our rainforest be able to survive without me? Ant love forever!

A Major Crisis Hit My Giant Rainforest Vivarium and I Have to Go Away

Oh no! A major crisis, and I have to leave!

This is Pantdora, my 1000-gallon cloud rainforest vivarium, which is attached by a glass bridge to Orchadia, a treetop canopy vivarium on the floor above. It’s a biological project of mine aimed at studying how ecosystems work in the wild, with a plethora of plants, fungi, and a menagerie of exotic animals—a complete ecosystem within glass. But the ecosystem is about to undergo the ultimate test.

I’ll be going away and won’t be able to monitor and oversee our rainforest for two weeks, which should theoretically be ok, seeing as the ecosystem pretty much takes care of itself. But as Murphy’s Law has it: If something can go wrong, it will, and the insane events that occurred this week prior to my exodus couldn’t have happened at a worse time—it was a crisis of ghostly proportions!

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It seemed like it would be just another ordinary week in our rainforest, but this would turn out to be no ordinary week—full of surprises, both good and bad. So, here’s the situation: I’ll be leaving home for the next two weeks to fly back to Canada and then to Orlando, Florida, where I’ll be part of AnimalCon USA, the biggest convention of animal creators in the US. I’ll be taking part in panels, have a meet & greet, and will be talking on the main stage about Vivariums, so if you’re in the Florida area, Oct 5 and 6th, do come on down. I’d love to meet you. You can get your passes at animalconusa.com.

Now, I’ve left our rainforest to carry on, on its own before, but never for more than four days. Two weeks will be the longest period ever for our rainforest to be left alone unmonitored. But what could possibly go wrong, you ask? Well, let’s just say nature seemed to conspire against me, and it all began here.

A ghost ant was busy drinking nectar from a vine air root. The vines have adapted to attract ants to their roots and stems for protection from herbivores, by luring the ants in via extrafloral nectaries—basically spots where it gives up nectar for ants to drink. It’s a valuable food source for the ants, particularly these weaver ants, who actually live in the vines, protecting them from herbivores. But I wasn’t too happy that the vines were also feeding these tiny invasive ghost ants. I did not put these ghost ants into the rainforest—they broke in uninvited through the mesh, and I have been seeing them foraging for food in our rainforest for the past few months. They are a very invasive species and were capable of endangering our ecosystem, should a population ever establish, as they could attack or outcompete other ant species. Thankfully, I’ve only been seeing workers and no queens, and I attributed that to the queens being too large to fit through the mesh screens—or so I thought. Little did I know, the ghost ants had been planning a surprise chess move all this time, and Pantdora was about to be checkmated.

Pantdora’s king was nestled on the bank of our blackwater pond. Godzilla, our resident spectacled caiman, was basking in the morning light after an entire night of eating nocturnal prey insects. He had greatly grown in size, and the more I see him, the more I notice. I’ve been trying my best to train him to not be afraid of me, but he’s still quite nervous around me and will disappear into his secret bedroom in the rocks as soon as I get close with my camera to film him. Poor guy! He’s ok with me watching him from a distance when he’s on the bank, though, which is good. I’ll continue working on desensitizing him to my presence, and I’ve already begun planning for his next grand home very soon.

I wanted to get working on his next home because of another reptile predator who was also growing in size and would soon be a competitor. Snip, our baby sun skink, was basking as usual on top of the stump. “Hi there, buddy! I’ll miss seeing you. Please survive and don’t get eaten by Godzilla, will ya?” Fully heated up, he left to retreat into the foliage to begin hunting for prey insects.

Speaking of which, I scanned the lands to make sure there wasn’t a shortage of prey insects, and I was happy to see that the population of crickets was still pretty good. I spotted a female laying eggs into the soil to ensure the next generation of crickets to come. Other prey insects like roaches were seen up in Orchadia, safely growing in population in the treetops.

I spotted a slant-faced grasshopper down in the Pantdoran leaf litter, cosplaying as an unsuspecting green leaf. If I were just passing by, I probably would have fallen for his disguise. He moved strategically and slowly so as not to alarm any predators of his whereabouts. Eventually, he jumped up to an asparagus fern. What a face this fellow has! He got shy and did his best to blend into the greenery.

It was then that I spotted movement in the soil. A giant trap-jaw ant was creeping through the leaf litter, stalking prey. It could smell little creatures all around, and it was crazy to watch this giant trap-jaw moving in slow motion so as not to startle the little creatures it was hunting. It searched carefully beneath the leaves for springtails, isopods, worms—anything its lightning-fast jaws could catch.

I was actually very happy to see this giant trap-jaw ant worker out actively hunting, because in a previous episode, I noticed that Asian Bullet Ants had been raiding their nest of larvae and young workers. I guess the giant trap-jaws managed to fight the Asian Bullet Ants off in the end.

Speaking of which, not too far away, an interesting scene was unfolding. An Asian Bullet Ant was lugging a freshly killed cricket back to its nest. It looked like the ant had stung it in its throat because hemolymph was gushing out from the wound. The strength of this ant was insane as it lugged the giant cricket over loose leaves, which made the entire home delivery process even harder. It eventually ripped a whole chunk off the cricket, but it didn’t want the chunk—it wanted the whole cricket!

It was a challenge to find the perfect place to grab, and unfortunate that she didn’t have any sisters around to assist. She continued to pull, but the leaf below her began to slide. Soon, other creatures began to come around, drawn to the smell of cricket blood. A gnome ant and an isopod entered the scene. Eventually, the ant had no choice but to feed on the spot. Another Asian Bullet Ant nearby began to drag one of the leaves that had cricket blood splattered all over it, home to the nest. The larvae could deal with this roughage, then regurgitate the goods for the workers to eat.

Soon, other scavengers were drawn to the cricket carcass: an isopod and a springtail. It was quite amazing watching the creatures feed together like this, kind of like a lion feasting on a wildebeest while scavenging vultures were also taking advantage of the kill. Amazing that scenes like this happen on a micro scale as well.

A bunch of isopods came around, drawn to the cricket carcass as the Asian Bullet Ant ripped a huge chunk off the cricket… and hey, check out that male spider! But he’s not interested in this cricket—he’s looking for a mate.

The ant decided to leave with the chunk of cricket meat and headed back to the nest. This was a definite win for the isopods.

But the Asian Bullet Ants were beginning to grow in numbers, as they were pretty much everywhere I looked now. They were also seen frequenting the leaves and asparagus ferns, joining the carpenter ants at licking up honeydew deposits from the mealybugs. I suspect these Asian Bullet Ants, being as resourceful as they are, will be even more numerous when we get back in two weeks.

But the Asian Bullet Ants weren’t the only ones multiplying in numbers. Against the glass of the leaf litter, a female spider was welcoming her handsome lover. A male spider had been following her scent to fulfill his ultimate destiny. “Hello, my dear,” said the female. “I’ve been waiting for you!”

The male spider moved in to breed with her, using his pedipalps to deposit sperm into her reproductive openings. This mating session lasted about five minutes, and just when I expected the female to make a meal out of her lover, something totally unexpected happened. She didn’t eat him, and he moved over to a piece of freshly killed cricket that was waiting for him to feast on. How cool!

In this species of spider, it seems the female prepares a food gift when she is fertile and ready to mate and leaves it lying around in her web to reward the lucky male that shows up to mate with her. He happily accepted the reward after fulfilling his end of the deal. Comes to show you that in the world of spiders, females aren’t always widowed cannibals, and in this case, females actively prepare dinner for the males after a long day’s travel and work… unless, of course, this is just her way of fattening him up prior to eating him, in which case, spiders are savage!

The rainforest was full of such peculiar but interesting surprises, and this next sight was no exception. I noticed a gecko emerging from the foliage to hunt insects during the day. These lizards usually hunt at night but will sometimes be seen emerging in broad daylight to catch diurnal prey insects like flies and such. But there was something very odd and somewhat disturbing that I soon discovered with this gecko. I noticed a bump on the other side of his face, which at first I thought was his other eyeball, but viewing from the other side, I was shocked when I saw this.

Oh man! It was a huge bulbous growth on his snout. This gecko had a tumor on his face. Oh no! He jumped into the foliage. I watched as he continued to hunt for insects on the vine leaves. It seemed the tumor didn’t affect his overall vigor, and he otherwise seemed normal and healthy. Perhaps this was a benign tumor? I hoped it was, but either way, it was a clear reminder that the creatures of our rainforest were not immune to cancers and tumors. I sometimes forget that animals can develop them as well. Good luck, little guy.

I continued to run into more surprises. Below the stump, the Gnomads, our resident Gnome Ants, were busy lugging a cricket leg into their underground nest. These ants continue to amaze me with their coordination and overall teamwork. It was no surprise to me that these ants were the current reigning alpha ants of the forest, pretty much dominating all the soils. They also were not afraid to chastise the crickets to shoo them away from their claimed territory. The crickets hardly noticed the ants and weren’t really threatened.

Now, are you guys ready for this next great surprise? Pieces of an eggshell on the forest floor were the site of the craziest discovery. Oh boy! So, I recently had some chicks hatch in my incubator, and as you may have seen in a previous episode, I like to take the shells and add them to the soil for extra soil nutrients, particularly calcium. But this time in doing so, it brought certain creatures out of deep hiding. Crawling among some Gnomad workers were their once-sworn enemies: Marauder ants! Yay! I had placed a new colony of marauder ants almost a month ago into Pantdora, and since their introduction, I hadn’t seen them anywhere, which was worrying. But as I suspected, they were just hiding somewhere underground, building in numbers, only emerging to collect food when hungry. This was great to see. There was only a missing colony of mini trap-jaw ants now that were part of my ‘Missing Ants’ list that needed to be accounted for. Let’s hope they show up at some point.

But guys, for those of you who have been following this series, I think you will love who I spotted later that day. I was staring into my yard when I noticed a movement in the bromeliads, where an old friend emerged. “Oh, well hi there, Drake.” Drake, a former Pantdoran resident sun skink and father to Snip, was out hunting for prey insects. Of course, there was no way to tell this was really him, but in my mind, it sure looked like him, and I was happy to see him so chunky and hungry as usual. We miss you, buddy! Be safe!

Later that day, it thunderstormed, which once again led to yet another very welcome surprise. The next day, I stumbled upon this at one of the massive termite mounds in my front yard. Mushrooms—termitomyces mushrooms—sprouting all over the outside of the termite mound. This was awesome!

Now, if you’re new to these series, these Termitomyces mushrooms are quite special! They’re edible, truly delicious, and nutrient-dense, and they sprout from fungus combs cultivated by the fungus-growing termites within the mound. I’ve been studying these mushrooms and the termites for years, as I’ve been attempting to grow the mushrooms indoors, with my latest attempt to grow them inside Pantdora, where I’ve introduced termite queens and kings inside and have already begun to see the termite workers foraging for the debris containing the spores from these mushrooms. I have already placed Termitomyces mushrooms inside Pantdora in attempts to spread the starting spores the termites needed to get their vital fungus combs started, but it didn’t hurt to add more! So, I gathered leaf litter and debris from around the mound, which for sure contained the necessary Termitomyces spores and plucked one large mushroom from the mound. I decided to leave the rest for sustainability. I brought everything inside, into my ant room, and placed the giant mushroom and leaf litter inside Pantdora. This mushroom would continue to release its spores here, and lo and behold, later that day, I noticed some termite tunnels leading to the leaf litter, which to me meant the termites had already begun to forage for the good stuff. I was so happy to see this and couldn’t wait to see if we could grow these mushrooms indoors, which still hasn’t been done yet.

Pantdora already had its own flourishing community of mushrooms, including these very familiar white mushrooms growing from the soil beneath the stump. But there was something odd and peculiar about these mushrooms. Get this: So I believe these mushrooms to be “fairy ink cap” mushrooms. They’re quite pretty and are always sprouting under the stump, but one thing I find quite strange is that sometimes the mushrooms are grey, and sometimes they’re white. Any mushroom experts care to explain why they switch between colors?

Also, an interesting thing about these fairy ink cap mushrooms is that while the possible sexes of most members of the animal kingdom are either male, female, or hermaphrodite, these mushrooms apparently have 143 different sexes. Isn’t that crazy? Now if that’s not “THEY/THEM,” I dunno what is! The world of fungi is truly mind-blowing and strange!

So Pantdora overall seemed to be doing well. Ant wars had settled, and creatures were thriving, in spite of some health concerns, and the ecosystem looked good to go on autopilot for two weeks—no areas of concern… or at least that was what I thought.

Night fell in Pantdora, and the rainforest was quiet and still. The mists were beautiful, as they were every night. Staring into Pantdora was like watching a beloved baby sleep—our creation on an eternal path of evolution. I felt proud that so far the rainforest had been able to withstand a number of crises in its 10-month lifetime, including invasions by parasites like mealybugs, an outbreak of which sparked a lot of worry among many gardeners in the comments, who warned the mealybugs would completely kill the plants. But strangely, the mealybugs ended up integrating well into the ecosystem, offering a sweet food source for ants. The rainforest has withstood stifling hot summers, which killed off a number of creatures, but sure enough, the ecosystem bounced back by the cooler rainy season. From ant wars to ant settlement, regardless of the drama, the rainforest always found a way to overcome adversity and thrive. And so, I realized I had nothing to fear being gone for two weeks. Pantdora had grown into a strong and resilient ecosystem, and could overcome any challenge. I mean, what could possibly go wrong anyway, right?

It was then that Mother Nature pulled out her wild card and answered me, like a ghost appearing in the night.

Up on the rock wall, I spotted an adult huntsman caressing her egg sac, but that was not what concerned me. I noticed a trail of ghost ants rushing somewhere in quite a hurry. I followed the trail and my heart sank when I saw where the trail was leading.

Oh no! A huge colony of ghost ants had moved into a moist section of moss behind the rock wall, and the worst part was the ghost ants were bringing in brood. I watched in horror as the ghost ants launched a surprise supercolony relocation. I scanned the masses of ants and brood for queens. And yes, there! A pair of queens. Queens were everywhere. How did they get in? I guess the mesh holes were large enough to accommodate the queens after all, but all this time, the ghost ants had not decided to move in and were just waiting for the perfect opportunity to do so. Well, the ghost ants finally did, and in just two hours, the entire ghost ant supercolony had moved their unwelcome horde into Pantdora.

I gasped, laying eyes on the enormous mass of brood the supercolony was caring for. There was nothing else I could do now. They were tucked safely away into a spot I couldn’t get my vacuum into, and I had no choice but to accept my worst fear had come to fruition: the ghost ants were now officially a presence in our rainforest.

By the time you guys are watching this, I will have already hopped on a plane on my way to North America, far away from the Ant Room, and Pantdora will have officially begun its two-week autopilot mode. May God help our rainforest survive this ghost ant invasion.

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