ANGEL OF DEATH: Why I Sent a Creature to Kill My Ants

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I'm left with no choice. I have to kill them, all the survivors within this terrarium, called the Hacienda Del Dorado, need to be extinguished. If you watched our video last week, we performed a very critical biological experiment, the results of which could possibly reveal answers on how to save the Golden Empire, the name of our once powerful and massive supercolony of yellow crazy ants, who have out of nowhere this year, have been nightmarishly reduced to crippled numbers by an outbreak of vile, ant blood-sucking mites, which continue to annihilate their population. So much relied on the results of this experiment to save the colony, where we tested to see if predatory Hypoaspis mites collected from one of our rhino beetles, would eat these bad mites on our ants. If they did, this could be the answer to save our beloved Golden Empire, whom we've cared for and watched grow for years. Well, guys, this week, the results of the experiment have come in, and you won't believe what I found out, which ultimately lead me to pursue one last and grim option, in order to save every single ant colony and creature in the entire Ant Room. I even needed more help from Rhino Beetles, who were now arriving more and more, preparing to partake in the up coming 2019 Rhino Beetle Games. If you're new here, and are confused by all this, don't worry. Hang tight because I'll explain everything. You're about to witness and partake in the unfolding of a very intense and epic story. I did everything I could, studied all options, and so today to save the Antiverse from peril, I had to make the toughest decision in the history of the Ant Room: to release an Angel of Death in order to kill them all. Please SUBSCRIBE to my channel, and hit the BELL icon. Welcome to the AC Family! Enjoy! Big and bright neon orange eyes, will help this fruit fly get all it needs from this, the Bowl of Life, which has become the talk of the town among the fruit fly community, as the newest hotspot for delicious food, and today at the Bowl of Life, they're serving the ultimate fruit fly favourite, giant banana, prepared soft, rotting, and brown just the way they like it. But not only does this giant banana offer nourishment for the gregarious fruit flies, but it also functions as a place for romantic hookups! A male fruit fly is hot in pursuit of this female, and he's determined to woo her, and hopefully make her the mother of his maggots. She fluffs her wings in his face, driving him mad with fruit fly love and passion, and then she stops. His moment has come! He's moving in... Ok, maybe not. Like a kid trying to hop in to double dutch, he calculates the right time to make his advance, as she wing wafts pheromones in his face. He's got to get the timing just right or he'll lose her. It's his time now, his moment to fulfill his ultimate destiny, and pass on his genetic legacy and... Oh! Wait! She's gone, thanks to a boisterous gang that came barging in on their moment. So is the life of a fruit fly in the Bowl of Life. But beyond just being the coolest new millennial fruit fly hang out, it's also an important source of nourishment for some other hungry individuals in the Antiverse, who are each waiting for their share from the Bowl of Life, and no, it's not just any of these rhino beetle Gladiators. Excuse me, fruit flies, I just need to borrow some of these to feed a couple of new arrivals. So as you may or may not know, these chambers contain rhino beetles who are about to compete in the 2019 Rhino Beetle Games, an Olympic competition of sorts we're having here in the Antiverse, but we aren't able to start until all the beetles, particularly the males have arrived. We're all still waiting for the full fleet of able-bodied Gladiators to emerge. So, so far we've been warming up Apollo, Dionysus, and Poseidon while waiting for the others, and so many of you have chosen one of these as your bets to win the Rhino Beetle Games. But for those of you've been patiently waiting for your particular Gladiator to make their debut, I think you may be very pleased to see who finally emerged above ground this week. And little did these unsuspecting Rhino Beetles know, that aside from the Games, they were also about to fulfill a very monumental purpose at preserving life in the entire Antiverse into which they were born. It's night in the Antiverse, and our male Gladiators are waiting to be fed. Poseidon, always the last to wake up, Dionysus, waiting patiently in the corner, and Apollo. But upon watching these three boys over the next few moments, I noticed something quite peculiar. Have a look! They seemed less interested in feeding on this night. Something was distracting them. Dionysus, proud with his enormous horn, stood still, half emerged from the soil, as one of his Hypoaspis mites patrolled his face, making sure it was clean of all bad parasitic creatures. Not interested in eating tonight, Dionysus? What could you be waiting for? Even more peculiar was Apollo. Check him out! He was moving his abdomen, as if he was breathing funny, or perhaps maybe trying to stridulate? Or OMG, wafting some pheromones into the air perhaps? The beetles knew something, and you know what? AC Family, they most certainly did. The arrival of the maidens had finally come, beautiful and smoothly-curved female rhino beetles, who'd spent their entire lives underground were finally coming up to the surface on their own, to taste what life is like in the Overworld. But turns out, the ladies hated our lights and dove right back into the soil. No worries, because like the other three beetles, they'll begin to learn that we mean no harm, and they'll soon become accustomed to the foreign brightness called light. As for their names, Aphrodite and Hera are our two newest Rhino Beetle arrivals. The presence of the females clearly were driving our Gladiators crazy, and funny enough, guys, check this out! It seems the feeling of attraction was mutual! The females had their fill of bananas and were now totally OK with being in the light. I suspected, they could smell the males just nearby and were wanting to check them out. Could it be that our dashing Dionysus, was the apple of Aphrodite's eye, or rather antennae? Team Dionysus, cheer on your boy! Aphrodite, seemed totally uninterested in sleeping underground even at this morning hour. Hera, as well, was busy trying to find her way to the males. This strong drive for the females to seek males, who in the wild, would be sparring for the right to mate with them, helps these females survive, because its the males who seek out and defend the best feeding grounds, and its these champion males who will breed with them and ensure the best genes get passed on to the next generation. That is essentially the premise of our upcoming Rhino Beetle Games. The winner, wins unlimited food, protection in our Antiverse, and gorgeous females to mate with. Now I know what you may be thinking: AntsCanada, can we get to the results of our critical experiment already? We've waited all week, and what's this crazy talk of an Angel of Death? Alright AC Family, promise, that's coming up in just a bit, but first, there's something else I need to show you. Aphrodite and Hera were not the only rhino beetle arrivals this week. So many of you have waited for this one to arrive, Team Ares, sound off in the comments for your Gladiator, who's finally come to join us. The lights as normal were bothering him, since he was fresh-out-the-mulch, but check out that solid build and beautiful elytra, and long solid horn. Ares was ready to take all! And a whole lot of you had also chosen this Gladiator as your champion for the games, Team Zeus, sound off in the comments to cheer the arrival of your Gladiator! He was extra quick at diving below ground as soon as I entered the Ant Room. Exceptional digging skills! We'll be seeing more of him later. As for the others, Team Hephaestus, it seems your Gladiator still needs more time to solidify and charge. I expect he'll be arriving very shortly, so hang tight just a little bit more. Team Hades, all of you rooting for the underdog, and youngest of the batch, I have some exciting news for you! Look who's finally emerged from his pupa! Hades is out, a full adult male rhino beetle, but like the other rhino beetles, he'll need a couple weeks still to harden, get his blood flowing properly, and appetite building. One last female, Athena is still on her way, as well. But once Hephaestus and Hades finally arrive, we'll be able to begin the Rhino Beetle Games, which we've all anxiously been waiting for. Alright now that that update is out of the way, the moment we've all been waiting for. The results of our experiment where we tested to see if a pair of predatory Hypoaspis mites, collected from Apollo last week, could eradicate the lethal, blood-sucking parasitic mites from our Golden Empire. Here we go, AC Family. So I made sure to check up on the ants every day. At first, there was no change. All the ants with mites still had mites. But on the third day, something crazy had happened within our test tubes. Here are both our test tubes, into which we placed two mite-infected ants and one healthy ant into each. One of the test tubes contained a pair of Hypoaspis mites. We hoped this Hypoaspis test tube would reveal a disappearance of the parasitic mites, because if so, it meant we could use the Hypoaspis mite as an effective biological weapon to save our Golden Empire from dying out at the claws of the parasitic mites. So, are you guys ready to find out what happened? OK, I picked up and checked the control test tube, first. This test tube contained just the two mite-infected ants and one healthy ant. No Hypoaspis mites. Now check out what I saw, guys! To my surprise it contained one mite-infected ant, OK, one mite-free ant, alright, and a dead ant. Hmmm... Upon closer inspection, this dead ant still had a mite attached to it. Alright, it likely died from the mite. And now for the moment of truth. It was time to check our test test tube, and see if the Hypoaspis mites had done what we'd hoped. My heart was racing checking up on the results. A dead ant, mite-free. I suppose the healthy, mite-free ant must have died naturally? I checked the others. OMG, are you guys seeing what I'm seeing? Two mite-free ants! WOW! AC family, can you believe it? Our experiment worked. It seems the Hypoaspis mites had eaten the parasitic mites on our ants! This was just incredible! I believe I shouted out for joy the moment I saw this. There was actually hope for the Golden Empire. It was now time to move on to the next phase. It was time for Project Quarantine. Initially, given the results of the experiment were favourable and the Hypoaspis mites ended up eating the bad parasitic mites, my plans were to introduce as many Hypoaspis mites I could safely harvest from our beetles and place them into the Hacienda Del Dorado. But after careful thought, I realized this wasn't the best course of action because the Hacienda Del Dorado was so big, and even if I could collect say 10-20 Hypoaspis mites, how could I be sure they would eventually make their way to the infected ant populations, who were away in hiding in who knows where in these vast lands. For the experiment, the Hypoaspis mites were forced to feed on the parasitic mites because they were in an enclosed space and simply had no choice, but to eat the parasitic mites. But what was to stop the Hypoaspis mites from feeding on the plethora of soil creatures that we saw, existed in excess within the Hacienda Del Dorado? It would be a literal buffet for the Hypoaspis mites, and meanwhile, time was not on our side, as our Golden Empire was dying at an alarming rate. So, I came up with an even better idea. First, I filled up a dish with baby powder. You're about to see how ant keepers make an ant barrier. Next, I added some rubbing alcohol, and mixed it all up using some cotton balls. Once the mixture reached a runny glue-like substance, I then proceeded to cover this plastic lip with the barrier. The lip belongs to this AC Outworld, which by the way, for those curious about our specially designed ant keeping products at AntsCanada.com also comes with a full cover once ants are in, which we'll be needing soon. Next, now back when I was tearing apart and rearranging the Hacienda Del Dorado last week, I did notice that a lot of ants were entering and exiting this area around one of the bromeliads. Well, upon further inspection, turns out there were actually a tonne of ants inside. It was definitely one of their hideouts! You'll be shocked at just how many were inside in a second. Next, I needed some virgin soils, soils that didn't contain springtails, nor worms, nor isoppods. It needed to be as critter-free as possible, so that any Hypoaspis mites would not be able to deviate from their parasitic mite diet we're hoping they'll take on once introduced. This here is a bed of orchid compost, free of little critters. Placing in a funnel, and check out all the ants I managed to shake out of the bromeliad bag. Woahhh! Isn't that insane?! Tonnes of brood and lots and lots of ants. It seems that bromeliad was where most of them were living. A few ants escaped as they crawled up my hand and all over the paper funnel, but I managed to get most of them in, and did my best to brush them all inside, all while keeping as much dirt as possibly I could, from falling into the setup, lest I introduce any micro soil creatures into this setup. I replaced the bromeliad. And now we had an AC Outworld full of our surviving Golden Empire, some infected with mites, but from the looks of things, it seemed many of them were still healthy. Now I wasn't sure if I had managed to capture a queen in this Golden Empire collection, but last week, a lot of you guys brought up the idea of capturing the queen that appeared in last week's video. She was mite-free, and could possibly help found a new mite-free colony of her own. I was so happy with you who posted this suggestion, because it seems great minds think alike! I did collect this Golden Empire queen, to place in isolation, just for insurance. I captured her, along with a few workers. The only problem was some of these workers were infected with mites! Look at this one. The poor girl had three mites feasting on her blood! So I had to change her entourage, to make sure she would be tended to by non-infected workers, and coincidentally, it just so happened that I already had the perfect test tube and VIP entourage ready and waiting for her. When I placed the queen into our test test tube from our experiment, she was greeted by our clean workers who were thrilled to see their queen again, after being separated from the colony for three whole days while under our experimentation, and look, one of the Hypoaspis mites even came to check out our queen's leg, just to make sure she was clean! I bet it could pick up ambient parasitic mite scent from her body. Very cool! So I plan for this queen to remain in confinement with her fully capable entourage, in the safety of this test tube, for the time being, just in case, something goes wrong with her main colony which we're trying to cleanse. Next, it was time for the Rhino Beetles to contribute to the Golden Empire's salvation. I created a test tube setup full of honey-water. I then went in to every chamber and took the time to collect one Hypoaspis mite from each of our rhino beetle arrivals, except for Apollo who donated two of his last week. It was nice to be able to get a close look at all the rhino beetles this time. Have a look at Zeus' colour! Wow! I took each mite and placed them carefully into the honey-water test tube setup. I then attached this test tube, using an AC Test Tube adapter into the AC Outworld to introduce the Hypoaspis mites to our Golden Empire quarantine. As the ants came rushing in to visit the test tube to drink and feed from the honey-water, the Hypoaspis mites could now inspect every member passing by, and hopefully, feed on any parasitic mites on ants taking a drink. The Hypoaspis mites will be able to have free roam within the AC Outworld to inspect each member of the colony and hopefully multiply. The Hypoaspis mites were the Golden Empire's last hope for survival. This population of ants was already big enough to have a good restart, once they were clean. But now that Phase 2: Project Quarantine was complete, AC Family, it's now time to show you what I had planned for Phase 3, and I think you guys may not find it pretty. Behold, the new Hacienda Del Dorado, still beautiful as ever, changed but still beautiful. It's quiet. The majority of the Golden Empire has been removed and placed in quarantine, but there are still some survivors seen struggling to move about. This worker is completely weakened from its mite drinking all its blood. This ant, with a mite stuck firmly onto its leg, struggles to scale this vertical dirt surface. It was hard to watch. I wondered what I was going to do with these remaining ants. I considered adding these infected ants into the quarantine, because in my books, every ant counts, but upon further thought, I felt this might not be the best idea to save the Golden Empire. I still wasn't sure if the Hypoaspis mites would do their job effectively on time, and adding more parasitic mites into a colony that already seemed hopeful, could spell the Golden Empire's doom. I resolved at first to just let these surviving ants die out, until there would be no ants left for the parasitic mites to feed on. But then, I realized, oh no! This was not a good idea. What if these parasitic mites, once finished with their host ant, i.e. the ant dies, move on to find more ants. If there was already a parasitic mite population in the Hacienda Del Dorado, what stops the mites then from picking up, crawling out of the Hacienda Del Dorado and into the enclosures of my other ant colonies neighbouring these lands. I also don't actually know that these mites only infect ants. What if they are also able to parasitize our tarantula and feeder roaches? Suddenly, it was no longer just a matter of life and death for the Golden Empire, but now it was a widespread biological hazard, regarding every ant colony and creature in the Ant Room! When the implications came to me, I panicked. And that, AC Family, is how I came to a decision that was hard for me to make. I'm left with no choice. I have to kill them. All the survivors within this terrarium, called the Hacienda Del Dorado, need to be extinguished! AC Family, it was time for Phase 3: Project Cloverfield. The release of an Angel of Death, to completely kill all surviving ants within the Hacienda Del Dorado, before the mites decide to spread to our other ant kingdoms. Excuse me, fruit fly milennials. I'll be needing some of this, to prepare for the arrival of our new Angel of Death, which lays inside here. Man, I hate to do this to you guys, but this chain of events gets more and more intense as it unfolds! Are you guys as freaked out as I am? Things are getting crazier and crazier, but I'll be sure to let you know the progress of our recovering Golden Empire in quarantine, and reveal all details of Phase 3: Project Cloverfield in next week's episode. Can you guess what our Angel of Death creature is, that we're about to send in? Guys, be sure to smash that subscribe button and bell icon now, so you get notified at every single upload and find out in next week's episode, and hit the like button every single time, including now. 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 like clues as to what creature the Angel of Death we're unleashing into the Hacienda Del Dorado is. And now it's time for the AC Question of the Week! Last week we asked: Why did I choose Apollo to participate in our experiment? Congratulations to Matthew Brian Filisilda who correctly answered: Apollo was chosen since his name is from the Greek God of Medicine and Plagues. Congratulations, Matthew Brian, you just won a free e-book handbook from our shop! In this week's AC Question of the Week, we ask: Why couldn't we just let the remaining ants within the Hacienda Del Dorado die out? 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!
Info
Channel: AntsCanada
Views: 3,950,245
Rating: 3.9356492 out of 5
Keywords: ants, antscanada, mikey bustos, myrmecology, antfarm, ant colony, ant nest, queen ant, formicarium, ant habitat, antworks, insects, science, pets, exotic, nature, 4K, Ultra HD, anoplolepis, yellow crazy ants, mites, parasites, experiment, scientific method, rhino beetle, rhinoceros beetle, xylotrupes, scarab beetle, fruit flies
Id: iTlR1rWStbk
Channel Id: undefined
Length: 25min 19sec (1519 seconds)
Published: Sat Jan 26 2019
Reddit Comments

Fix your dumb clickbait. Watch 23mins of genocide to find out all the content for this video is in next week's video.

👍︎︎ 3 👤︎︎ u/[deleted] 📅︎︎ Jan 27 2019 🗫︎ replies

This was by the worse video from the antscanada. As everyone has said its clickbait to a cliffhanger.

My guess is we wont see what happens next week. It will be a division from the negative comments. Probably more Beatles.

I am on thin ice, keeping this series in my subscription feed.

👍︎︎ 2 👤︎︎ u/BallForce1 📅︎︎ Jan 30 2019 🗫︎ replies

What is the fucking angel of death!!!

The clickbate titles are grinding my patience down.

Like dude your videos are great, you already have plenty of subscribers.. Why are you doing this and pissing everyone off.

I don't mind a little misleading or cliffhanging in an episode for a few minutes with in that video, but it's become excessive recently.

👍︎︎ 1 👤︎︎ u/Aijabear 📅︎︎ Feb 02 2019 🗫︎ replies

What i find equally frustrating is that with 2.7 mil subscribers, my comment on how much i disagree with the clickbait wont make any difference at all. So I unsub and I'm the only one who's worse off.

👍︎︎ 1 👤︎︎ u/spine_iv 📅︎︎ Feb 04 2019 🗫︎ replies

This message is for AntsCanada,

As a story-writing enthusiast, I'd like to present some constructive criticism.

First of all, I love that you are adding drama to your videos. The storytelling is engaging and it keeps viewers such as myself interested enough to watch the whole 25 minute video from beginning to end. HOWEVER, there are many (justified) complaints about your cliffhangers and "clickbait" titles. I want to dive down further and explain why this is frustrating as a viewer.

It’s not so much that cliffhangers are bad. I think the cliffhangers are great, but they have to be used properly. The title of this video is literally “ANGEL OF DEATH”. With that kind of eye-catching title, you lead your viewers to believe that this "ANGEL" is what the video is about. That advertising title is THE REASON why I and many others clicked the video. However, this video was NOT about the "Angel of Death". This video is about your plan to take dire measures to cure the colony of its parasites.

Imagine instead if the title was instead called “The Cure” or better yet...

"Dire Measures: My desperate attempt to save the Hacienda Del Dorado "

The story would be EXACLY the same: about your plan to cure the infestation with the good mites. You have great storytelling elements already!

(1) The experiment with your test tubes to see if the cure works,

(2) The use of your beetles to "farm" the curative mites,

(3) The abrupt transfer of your colony to a quarantine room,

(4) The release of the cure in hopes it will work!

etc. etc.

The tension, the drama would be outstanding! And your title "Dire Measures" would be 100% accurate to the story and still 100% engaging.

THIS is the story of your video. You are taking drastic measures... DIRE MEASURES... as a last ditch effort to save your precious colony, with an uncertainty of success, because there is no other option.

Then at the end of the video, you give your audience a haunting surprise...

Continuing with the theme of "Dire Measures", you ultimately decide (for the good of the colony) that... the rest must be purged.

GASP!

For the safety of the colony, sadly, the rest must DIE!

Then you solemnly, yet hauntingly, place a mysterious black cylinder in the center of the Hacienda Del Dorado and... “To Be Continued”.

If it was delivered LIKE THAT, I would have LOVED the cliffhanger. The black cylinder would’ve been unexpected; foreshadowing the next “episode” of your story. I would be at the edge of my seat impatiently waiting for you to reveal what mysterious, sinister monster lies waiting inside that eerie black cylinder. I would be checking your channel over and over, day by day, until I finally see the episode I've been waiting for... "The Angel of Death"... HOLY $HiTBALLS this is what I've been waiting for!!

But you didn’t deliver the story that way. Instead, your title led us on, baiting us into watching the WHOLE video, eyes brimming with eagerness awaiting the reveal of this so-called "Angel of Death" only to lead to a disappointing "to be continued" without ever revealing the this “Angel of Death” advertised in the title. You told us you had cookies, but you never gave it to us. So in the end, we were disappointed... I was disappointed.

The title, the supposed premise of this video, it was false advertising. No one likes being strung on like that.

Cliffhangers are supposed to be a surprise. They're supposed to introduce an unforeseen TWIST in the story arch that adds a new element to the story. They aren't to be used to bait your audience like a fish nor should they be used to force them to watch your videos.

Again, I love your videos. I think the informative content and storytelling are strong enough to stand on it's own. Please don't feel like you have to use these psychological baits to get more views. Your reputation proves that you are capable of making AMAZING honest work. Good honest work will get good honest views and a happy audience! If you read through this, thank you for taking the time to read my criticism. Keep making videos!

👍︎︎ 1 👤︎︎ u/Sereaph 📅︎︎ Feb 05 2019 🗫︎ replies
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