What do you do when an ant colony you've been
keeping for months, and caring for diligently, stops appearing at the surface? Not a sign of their whereabouts above ground. Do you continue to wait and hope they're just
growing in numbers in some sealed off subterranean chamber, or do you dig them out, ignoring
all risks of injuring their queen if alive? As each week has come and gone, I've been
keeping a watchful eye on the Grove, this beautiful and lush ant terrarium, for any
signs of the young carpenter ant colony, we moved in here, over 6 months ago, and although
I've offered them food and water every day, and took good care of the kingdom's vegetation,
that very concerning question still burns within me: Are the ants even alive? I need even the slightest evidence: a garbage
pile, honey decreasing in amount, nest holes... anything. Week after week, for half a year now, I told
myself, not to worry. But keeping the ants in this terrarium full
of soil, has its drawbacks, as the dis-ease of not knowing how the ants were doing, ate
away at my conscience. I hoped I hadn't killed the ants somehow. This week, I couldn't bear it any longer. I had to take matters into my own hands, and
see for myself if the ant colony was still alive down there, and if they were, they had
to be moved to a new kingdom, which would allow us to see and care for them much more
effectively. But AC Family, what I ultimately discovered
in this episode, left me speechless... twice! Welcome to the AntsCanada Ant Channel. Please Subscribe to my channel and hit the
bell icon. Welcome to the AC Family. Enjoy. Alright, AC Family. It was time to get some answers. I don't know if you guys even remember, but
there was just one single episode on these elusive carpenter ants, and that was the last
we ever heard or seen them. On the day they settled in, I was over the
moon thrilled that these carpenter ants had joined our roster of ant kingdoms, because
well, carpenter ants are some of the most widespread genera of ants in the world, found
in most countries in most continents. It was a type of ant we, the AC Family, were
all familiar with and could relate to despite our respective geography in the world. But surprisingly, as much as I desired to
feature them in a week's video, they were nowhere to be seen. But digging into a ghost-terrarium, brings
back some horrible memories of searching for disappeared colonies in the past which didn't
end happy, so going into the Grove this week was extremely scary for me. I was afraid of what I would find out, but
we had to find out, because if they were still alive, I wanted to transfer them into something
more much visually friendly. These ants probably shouldn't have been introduced
into a terrarium at this premature stage because we can see nothing that happens with them
underground and we're forced to simply wait for them to grow big enough to see some action
above ground. In retrospect an ant style big-brother loft
would have been much better, so we could at least keep track of their progress. In this video, you will see the construction
of such a set up, from the various materials needed, to my personal process when creating
a basic but beautiful formicarium ant build. I had a hunch they were OK, and apparently
so did most of you! But man, guys, what actually happened this
week completely shocked me! Trust me when I say this, keep on watching
until the end. So I've been pretty diligent at keeping the
Grove's plants, trimmed and pretty. In fact, I found micro-gardening in the Grove,
snipping away at and shaping overgrown vegetation, very relaxing. This particular overgrown entanglement just
appeared one day. It's one of the plants I didn't plant into
the original terrascape of the Grove, and quite frankly, I wasn't a fan of its impenetrability
and profuse pod extensions, which offered any ant a possible bridge of escape out of
the terrarium, so I was happy cutting it away. This bushy shrub on the other hand, though
also a plant that appeared unexpectedly, is quite attractive. It just needed to be cut back a bit. I snipped away and cleared the space so the
energy felt good. Guys, take a look at how gorgeous the plant
is. With its diminutive leaves and tiny white
bulbous blossoms, it was a friendly and cheerful bush I loved to see flourish in the Grove. In fact, a lot of these plants just sprung
out of nowhere. These tiny and cute sprouts, and mosses. But that's about all there was new to the
Grove, a whole lot of lush plant life, but no ants. Peeking into this hollow bamboo which was
originally placed here to offer the carpenter ants a spacious and dark place to reside,
was as usual empty. The ants never actually used it as a nest. However, the last place the ants were seen
nesting was here, beneath this great rock at the center of the territories. I've made sure the area around this rock always
had some honey for the ants if ever they emerged to forage, as well as pre-crushed roaches. There have been no evidence of the ants actually
coming to eat these offerings, however. All I see are drowned snails who came too
close. So, before resorting to overturning this rock
to hopefully find the ants, I decided to do what had worked the first time, at causing
the ants to surface and make themselves seen. I wanted to try flooding them out! I poured some water all around the great rock. Pouring water like this usually is enough
to surface a captive ant colony. I looked around. I see a few worms. Gross. Hmmm... Nothing. Not an ant in sight. Alright, AC Family, let's do this. I had no choice but to go in. I removed the Tillandsia sitting atop the
great rock and lifted the rock out of its soil bed. I searched the exposed earth for signs of
the ant colony and this is what I saw... Have a look! No ants. No colony. Not even so much as a tunnel. Nothing. I'm sorry to say this, AC Family, but I think
our carpenter ants have died. Man, I was sure the ants were ok. So sad. I guess this is all part of ant keeping, right? They're still wild animals, and sometimes
the ants make it in a captive environment, but sadly, as in this case, sometimes they
don't. It was time to declare the Grove shut down. But then, as is common in the Antiverse, when
one colony leaves us, another enters. In pure serendipity, an ant friend of mine
contacted me to offer a carpenter ant colony. I wasn't sure if it was the same species as
our deceased colony, but apparently, it was a large one with multiple queens. Oh man! Of course, I took up the offer, but this time,
I had new plans to house this multi-queen carpenter ant colony. It was time to take a step away from these
intricate terrariums, and return to the basics. AC Family, behold: my new arsenal of ant housing
materials. I can't wait to show you what I have here. So first, for the main nest, I plan on using
an AC Hybrid Nest, Camponotus version, specially designed with carpenter ants in mind. I'll show you more about this formicarium
in a bit. Moving on, for their outworld space, an AC
Outworld. If you're new to ant keeping, this space will
act as the ant colony's outer world where the ants forage for food, establish garbage
sites, and other stuff, and I've got some super cool plans for designing this space,
too coming up! Next, to decorate, I'll be needing the help
of an AC Biome Kit - Desert. It's complete with artificial plants, some
mosses and lichens, sticks, and a bag of sand to create an interesting arid landscape within
the ants' outworld. I'll be showing you how I design my outworlds
in a few moments. Other materials I'll be needing are some regular
cotton, some baby powder and a small dish. I like to order the regular version for my
ants, not the perfumed kind, as I am super chemical phobic with my ants. I also will be using these items: a decorative
rock, some soil, and some dried leaves. These are Talisay leaves which I have on hand
for use in my aquariums, and they're great because they come in a bag from an aquarium
store, and I don't have to worry too much about stow-away parasites. Alright so to start, let's open this AC Hybrid
Nest, shall we? Opening the box. So here we have the Hybrid Nest, which is
8 inches by 8 inches in living area. Now if you look at the chambers, you'll see
the design of this Hybrid Nest is composed of semi-cylindrical linear chambers, a design
inspired by wild carpenter ant nests, if you've ever seen one. The floor of the Hybrid Nest is granular,
except for this lower area here which actually have micro-holes in the flooring. These micro-holes are how humidity enters
the nest. Let me show you real quick how it works. By the way guys, please excuse my scratched
up hands. I'm currently caring for a parrot with some
razor-sharp nails. I'm only noticing how bad it is now in 4K
Ultra HD. Alright so the idea is we place water into
this area, and it travels into this lower reservoir, and makes its way up into the formicarium,
but we first need to add some kind of hydration medium. Me, I prefer to use cotton, but you can choose
to use whatever hydration medium you want. You can use soil, perlite, sand, Ytong, a
sponge. Alright, now that the hydration medium is
wet and activated, the next step is to remove the glass for a bit. I just flip it over like so, and at the back
you can see the micro-holes through which moisture enters. So to further propagate this moisture coming
through the holes, one thing I like to add, but it's completely optional, is soil. This will help better distribute the moisture
throughout the nest, and give the ants a bit of digging medium to better customize their
living space. Just a note that even if you don't have Camponotus
ants, the Camponotus version or any of the versions for that matter, can work for any
kind of ant you may have. The only thing to keep in mind is, every Hybrid
Nest version offers a different percentage of nest hydration, to reflect the general
nest preferences of the genus version of Hybrid Nest. For instance, the Camponotus Hybrid Nests
creates a nest of about 20-40% humidity, because carpenter ants tend to like this amount of
moisture, but by adding soil and increasing waterings, we can make the nest more humid
than 20-40%. If a drier nest is needed, just decrease waterings
and keep digging medium to a low. Alright, and now to replace the glass and
voila. Now I can choose to glue the glass onto the
Hybrid Nest along the edges, but in this case, the ants are large so I'll leave it un-glued
so I can clean it much more easily in the future. Alright next, with the Hybrid Nest kit comes
several parts including this AC test tube and this AC Test Tube Adapter. This test tube will become the ants' clean
water supply. So, I'm going to create a test tube setup
and create a water reservoir using a cotton ball. Then with this test tube adapter fastened
onto the end of the test tube, the entire clean water supply can now be attached to
the ant nest for the ants to drink anytime they need a fresh drink of water. The kit also comes with this piece, an AC
plug which will plug up this hole after the ants have moved in. But before that, now it's time for the outworld! Oh this is going to be fun! I love unboxing these. Alright so here is a bag of AC plugs which
we won't need because the exits of this outworld will be used as entrance points. And here is our AC Outworld, a 1 foot long,
6 inch deep, and 6.5 inch tall ventilated space, which is a good amount of ant real
estate for our carpenter ant colony. It's got 360 degree clarity for optimal viewing,
no sharp corners for the ants to cling on, and at the back are two entrance ports. Now here is my favourite part! Time to landscape this outworld! First, I dump in some soil. Not a lot of soil because we don't want the
ants to dig in this outworld area. Otherwise they will move out of the nest and
into the outworld where we can't see them. Then with the help of this AC Biome Kit - Desert,
I can go ahead and create an arid desert-style habitat for our carpenter ants. So many of you have been requesting I create
an arid desert-style ant habitat, so I wanted to finally do it for you now. Even if the carpenter ants we will be housing
are a tropical species, we can design our outworld any way we want. It's just decorating and won't affect the
ants' health in anyway regardless of whether we choose desert-style, rainforest style,
or field and forest style. Designing outworlds is one of my favourite
parts of setting up an ant farm. It's at this stage that you can stretch those
creative juices - sky's the limit! And with this bag of sand sprinkled on top
of our soil, we give the entire outworld its signature desert look. Here is a decorative stone that I bought from
an aquarium store, and I will place it at the back and in the middle of the outworld. I like to keep decor highest at the back,
then lower on the sides, and lowest at the front. It's this basic arm-chair design that I find,
never fails to look good. Now, the outworld is almost complete. One final step is I need to add my ant barrier
to keep any ants from climbing out when I open the top to place in food or clean up. I like to use baby powder. You can also mix it with rubbing alcohol and
the dried mixture will be slippery for the ants. These days I just use dry baby powder. Some people like to use vaseline, and others
fluon. Securing the top back on like so, and voila! Our outworld is completed and ready for use! Now check out how this top works. You can either open this food chute here and
drop food in, or you can remove this top plate and work inside the outworld. I recommend you keep the plate on when you're
not working in the outworld just to keep creatures like pets, predators like house geckoes in
my nick of the woods, or other humans like kids perhaps, from getting into your outworld. And now for tubing. Special AC tubing comes with the Outworld
kit and you can simply cut it in half and use the pieces to connect the Hybrid Nest
securely, no glue needed, to the outworld's entrance ports on both sides. And oh yeah, before I forget, using a bit
of dried leaves for decor. Not too much. In terrascaping sometimes the saying "less
is more" definitely applies. And so AC Family, behold! Our brand new, simple yet beautiful ant setup! What do you think of that outworld, huh? Didn't I tell you the arm-chair formula works? What should we call this new territory? Let me know in the comments. And now finally, the time has come to meet
our new carpenter ant colony, who were eager to move into their new home. Looking into the container, I could see big
piles of brood, lots of workers of various sizes, and there's one of the queens! Based on my estimate, it seemed the colony
was about 50-70 workers strong. They were already starting to explore the
exit port of the container. It's time! Let there be light! I pulled in a bright light to shine into the
container, which instantly caused the photophobic ants to perk up and start looking for a suitable
dark place to flee to. And it just so happens we're about to give
them that perfect dark place to which they could flee now. Removing the cotton and fixing the portal
tube into the Hybrid Nest opening. It only takes one ant's brilliant idea to
relocate, to start an entire chain reaction of ants emmigrating into our nest, exactly
as we wanted them to. In no time, workers began filing in, carrying
eggs, larvae, and pupae into the inviting darkness of the Hybrid Nest. There's something so funny, entertaining,
and endearing about watching ants carrying brood into their nest. I'm not sure what it is, but check them out,
AC Family. Some of them even partner up at lifting the
cargo. Now you'll notice that these ants have various
sizes of workers. Carpenter ants are polymorphic, which means
they have majors with massive heads specializing in colony jaw force, regular workers, and
small minors, and it seems these ants are very well-fed! Oh, and there's one of the queens entering
the nest. I intend on counting the queens of this colony. From the looks of things, they've been quite
busy laying eggs! Inside the container, the ants are busy scrambling
to transport all the brood to the new nest location, and there's a lot to take back. These ants here in the foreground who look
like they're lazy and not doing anything are actually napping. Ants can take hundreds of short minute to
two minute naps over a 24 hr cycle, and can therefore be available to work around the
clock when needed. The ants work effectively. They mustn't leave a single egg behind. Every young ant matters. The ants search every corner and surface thoroughly
for eggs, larvae, or pupae. There's still lots of young waiting to be
carried to their new home. I allowed the ants to move into their new
home overnight. By morning, having transported the entire
setup into the Ant Room, the ants had completely evacuated the container. It was now safe to disconnect their old home
from the entire setup. I took the AC plug, disconnected the portal
tube and plugged up the hole. The AC plug's perforated surface will still
ensure there is ventilation through this point of the nest. I couldn't wait to look inside! Let's lift the lid, guys. Woah! Here was one grouping of ants stationed next
to our water reservoir. Wow I loved watching them! There are three queens in this grouping of
ants. The soil over this hydrated portion of the
nest looked nice and moist, as expected. Moving upwards to the drier portions of the
nest, more ants. It was just amazing to see how the ants were
using the Hybrid Nest space. The soils towards the top parts of the nest
were driest, as expected. It was good that the nest had a moisture gradient,
with wet parts and dry parts, as it gives the ants a chance to hydroregulate, allowing
the ants to station themselves and the brood according to moisture preferences. For instance, I find this colony prefers to
keep most of its pupae in the driest portions of the nest, while most of the eggs, larvae
and young pupae, were arranged in the more moist spots. Check out that pale-coloured newly eclosed
worker towards the top. It had recently emerged from its cocoon and
was now hardening as a new adult worker ant. The best part about this entire setup was
that now we could actually see what the ants were up to inside the nest with 100% clarity. I was able to count a total of ten queens! Can you believe it?! That's a lot of egg-layers, and something
tells me this colony will grow pretty fast. The clarity and accessibility into the nest
is something I haven't been able to enjoy for awhile since using terrariums, so I watched
the ants for several hours just doing their thing, transporting brood around, and the
lights even caused some of the ants to bring brood out into the tubes. It was cute, but a little light shining over
the tube was enough to direct the ants back into the nest. When I had watched them long enough, I decided
to place the lid back onto the nest so they could enjoy their first day in their new home
in privacy and darkness. For maintenance, all I needed to do was make
sure the ants had a fresh supply of water and every other week, I just needed to fill
this hydration tub with water to keep the nest hydrated. Another thing I love about this system is
that, although it was well ventilated and could breathe, it was also a completely closed
system, which means interlopers wanting to get in like this tiny fly which probably wants
to lay eggs inside the nest to eat the colony's leftovers, cannot enter. The colony still seems full and well-fed so
I don't expect the ants to come foraging out into the outworld any time soon. You may have noticed some of the workers with
gasters completely blown up like a balloon. These workers are called repletes and are
living stores for the colony with social stomachs full of stored food, which would be dispensed
as needed over time. This means the ants can completely gorge on
food all in one sitting, and then not have to emerge to forage for food for a very long
time, because of these repletes. But, despite that, I still decided to follow
through with our AC tradition and place in a piece of freshly killed roach, and several
minutes later, some workers indeed came to feed from it. Offering accepted! When I do see them foraging this outworld,
it will tell me the colony is hungry and that's when I'll place more food in for them. So what do you guys say? What should we name our new carpenter ant
supercolony? Leave your name suggestions in the comments
section and I will choose my top 5 favourites for us to vote on in a future video. I look forward to watching this new carpenter
ant colony grow with you guys, and I love that this time we can see it all now, with
this new ant setup. In ant keeping, I find it's a never-ending
journey of learning and experimentation. Sometimes your ants start off promising and
bright, but sometimes, the colonies falter for no apparent reason, or at least reasons
undetermined. I don't think we'll ever know why our first
carpenter ant colony died. We can only speculate. Meanwhile, I think we'll give the Grove to
a future ant colony. No need for this hallow bamboo anymore, though. Wait.... what?! Oh, man! Haha! Guys, can you believe it?! When I saw them I couldn't help but laugh! It seems our original colony is still alive
and just relocated somewhere else in the terrarium. That's a relief! And look at how full some of the repletes
are! It's no wonder they haven't surfaced for food
for so long! Anyway, I placed the bamboo back so the colony
could continue growing in peace. It seems they like the bamboo and it looks
like they even have brood. Woops! I don't even know anymore, guys. Guess we now have two carpenter ant colonies. Should we finally name these ones, too? Anyway, I will continue to update you guys
on all these ant colonies so hit that Subscribe button and bell icon now, so you don't miss
out on their continuing ant story, and hit the Like button every single time, including
now. Just a reminder guys if you would like to
have an ant farm of your own like the one in this video, go check out our shop at AntsCanada.com
and choose from our various available easy to use pro ant setups. I totally recommend the all-you-need Camponotus
Hybrid Gear Pack, I'll leave a link in the description for that, and if you need ants
and didn't manage to catch a queen this year, do check out our Queen Ants For Sale section
for live ant sellers in your area. And hey, if you're new to the channel, and
want to catch up on all your AntsCanada Lore, feel free to binge watch this complete story
line playlist here, which traces the origins of all the ant colonies of the ant room, so
you can follow their stories and better appreciate how these ant kingdoms came to be, and why
we love them so much! AC Inner Colony, I have left a hidden cookie
for you here, if you would just like to watch some extended play footage of our new carpenter
ants living in their new nest. It's so satisfying watching the ants go about
their daily lives inside the nest for a change. And before we proceed to the AC Question of
the Week, I'd like to plug my daily vlogging channel, daily vlogs which have become a full
out bird dad channel, as I am now raising a baby African Grey parrot! If you love birds, I'd love for you to meet
my new cute little bird! She's recently learned to fly, and I think
you guys might enjoy her daily antics! And now it's time for the AC Question of the
Week! Last week we asked: What is the name given to
the highly protected nest chamber in which the Queen and King
termites are housed? Congratulations to Emmajin Tapsell who correctly
answered: The Queen's Cell Congratulations, Emmajin Tapsell, you just
won a free e-book handbook from our shop! In this week's AC Question of the Week, we
ask: Why is it important for an ant farm
to have a moisture gradient? 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 at 8AM EST. Please remember to LIKE, COMMENT, SHARE, and
SUBSCRIBE if you enjoyed this video to help us keep making more. It's ant love forever!
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