Today is quite a special video because for
the first time, I’m going to be showing all of you guys my biggest project to date,
that is currently in the construction phase now, happening behind the scenes. It’s been an epic idea that began 3 yrs
ago, and finally today, I’m super excited to show you guys, what is set to become the
future location, for our new, bigger, better, and higher tech home for our beloved pet ants. Welcome to the AntsCanada Ant Channel! Please SUBSCRIBE to my channel and hit the
BELL icon. Welcome to the AC Family! Enjoy! Some of you may be surprised that the Antiverse
will be moving, and I’m sure you guys might have a tonne of questions, like how am I actually
going to move the massive ant tanks, what will the new Antiverse look like, and how
will it be high tech? Well, I’ll be answering all of those questions
and more, as well as show you updated footage of the construction so stay tuned for all
of that coming up! I also will be needing all of your opinions
regarding this new ant sanctuary, a house for ants, that I’m building, so stay tuned
for the group VOTE at the end of the video! So AC Family, let me start from the beginning. For the past several years, I’ve been filming
our ant videos within a small room in my condo, which we’ve come to call the ‘Antiverse’
or Ant Room. It’s been amazing documenting all the awesome
ant colonies and capturing their stories on camera within these four walls, and we’ve
certainly created some unforgettable memories together good, bad, painful, shocking, gross,
hilarious, and well, just weird. But shooting in the current Ant Room has had
its set of challenges. For one thing, space was always one of my
biggest issues in the Ant Room. I would often find myself stacking enclosures
on top of eachother, having to buy little tables or stools to accommodate various enclosures. I also found getting certain shots from some
angles were hard to do, due to all the furniture and cramped quarters. I eventually resorted to filming a lot of
videos on my kitchen table, because filming in the Ant Room proved to be so difficult. Another challenge has been managing all the
various cables from light fixtures, aquarium filters, and irrigation systems, which behind
the scenes, created a sort of spaghetti-like chaos around my electrical outlets, also making
for a confusing powerbar situation. And speaking of electrical outlets, you guys
would be shocked, no pun intended, if you saw my monthly electricity bill! It was also quite hard to store the various
products, equipment, and hardscape in the Ant Room as there were only a limited number
of drawers and shelves I could use. The rest was stuffed under things and into
things. Finally, one of my biggest challenges was
temperature control! The Ant Room is basically always at outdoor
temperatures, and where I live, on average, temperatures are approximately between 25-35
degrees Celsius, which is 77-95 degrees Fahrenheit. The ants prefer things warm, and the fire
ants, our Phoenix Empire would die if they were exposed to air conditioning temperatures. So, as a result, whenever I’m filming these
videos, I‘m always sweating my butt off, in near sauna-like conditions, and need to
take breaks in between shots, due to the heat and being absolutely drenched in sweat. I try to shoot at night when it’s coolest,
but it still gets pretty hot in the Ant Room no matter what time. And so three years ago, I decided it was time
to start making a big change. I, your Creator of Worlds was to embark on
an epic journey, looking for a new place to set up the foundation for the new Antiverse,
and my plans for it, were to make it bigger, better, and higher tech! So to start, the first step was to find the
land, on to which we could build the new Ant Room. Three years ago, I started looking for properties,
and checked out various homes, which could accommodate a bigger, better, higher tech
ant room, but that search lasted about a year, until we found the perfect spot! A farm property, just an hour from where I
currently live, which had a lot of space, was out in the countryside, and had a tonne
of ant species that couldn’t be found in the city. It was the perfect spot to build a new Ant
Room, and, while we were at it, to build a home around it, where myself, and any team
members of an AntsCanada production team, for when these ant videos were ready for that
upgrade, could live, hang out, raise, and film the star ant colonies for this channel! So, it became official! The almost 3,000 square meters of land became
the future Antiverse territory! The next step was to design the Ant Room. I knew the future Antiverse had to be epic! One of a kind, that nobody had created before! So I sought out one of the top architects
in the country, who had built extravagant homes for Royal Princes in the Middle East,
and who also happened to be a member of the American Institute of Architects. We were to collaborate together and design
the future Ant Room, and I had a list of ideas I shared with him. At first, I’m sure he was perplexed and
unsure what I had meant by a bigger, better, higher tech Ant Room, but after visiting our
current Ant Room, and checking out the channel, he had a better idea of what we needed. And so after weeks of brainstorming and finalizing
our blueprints, this is what we came up with. Behold, the future Ant Room 2.0. It looks a bit confusing in its blue print
format but don’t worry, I’ll show you a render of what the general finalized Ant
Room will look like. The Ant Room is a spacious cuboid room made
of concrete. Its dimensions are 12.20 meters by 7.85 meters
by 5.2 meters high, or 40 feet by 26 feet by 17 feet high. That sure beats our current 3 meter by 3.2
meter by 2.5 meter Ant Room. For all you math buffs, that means the New
Ant Room will be 10 times bigger floor area wise, and space will no longer be a problem,
especially because, ready for this AC Family? The new Ant Room will have a 2nd floor! Yup! A set of stairs here will lead upstairs to
a second floor, an elongated balcony of sorts, with a floor area of another 90 sq meters,
where we could also set up ant enclosures. So this means then that floor area wise, the
New Ant Room will actually be over 19 times bigger than the old Ant Room, and over 20
times bigger if you’re talking total space! And if you think that’s cool, check this
out! Remember how I mentioned that one of the problems
in our current Ant Room was getting certain camera angles due to overcrowding? Well, this new Ant Room being more spacious
could allow us to get those camera angles we need due to more space, but it could also
allow us to get some neat camera angles from above! See the floor? Those are glass windows built into the floor,
and I’ll be able to get some nice top shots of the Ant Kingdoms on the first floor from
above if needed. I could also peer over the edge here down
to the first floor. Imagine a huge floor to ceiling 5 meter high
ant setup. I could film it at all levels easily! This second floor business also brings me
to our next feature! Temperature! This entire room would be climate controlled
and this time, I’d be able to more closely monitor the temperature of the entire Ant
Room digitally. The problem with the current Ant Room is,
it has a split-type air conditioner so it can’t turn off once it reaches a particular
temperature. In the new Ant Room, I could keep the entire
space at a steady 20 degrees Celsius through a digital thermostat, which is room temperature
enough to not die while filming, but warm enough that the ants that need heat won’t
die. I could also choose to put the more heat-loving
ants on the second floor where it’s warmer and cooler loving ants, like our Black Panthers
and the Titans if we ever bring them back, on the first floor. The great part about designing the Ant Room
to our specifications is that we can also design our outlet system, so it’s easy to
plug our various equipment into their own sockets, and have their chords be neatly placed
out of sight somewhere. We could also make the outlets smart so we
can set them on automatic timers individually from an app on my mobile. No more bulky digital timers like I’m currently
using! Perhaps one of the best features of the Ant
Room is that on the roof, we’ve made space to place solar panels, so that we could be
more eco-friendly and save on electricity! No more insane electricity bills! These solar panels will truly be a huge help,
and leave less of an ecological footprint to boot! One last thing, is that from the second floor
of the Ant Room we could also access the roof deck where I could store extra equipment and
hardscape, or move any ant setups outside, in case nuptial flights were to happen. So now that you’ve seen the blueprints,
here is a sample render of what the Ant Room could look like. Here is the first floor. As you can see there’s a lot of space to
place tanks, wall units and shelving to hold enclosures and store things, and I also forgot
to mention there would be a sink so I could wash my hands before and after working around
the ants! This is only a sample render, so the actual
layout of where tanks will be as well as the placement of furniture is totally up to us,
AC Family! We don’t even have to have a table here,
for instance, and we could build wall units for tanks if we need to. The possibilities are just endless. The second floor could be a lounging type
place with an epic, long zoo-type exhibit or just another floor full of Ant Setups! Again, totally up to us, how we choose to
design this space! I would love to create a long setup for a
nomadic ant species. Wouldn’t that be something?! So now that you’ve seen the plans on paper
and digitally, it’s now time to show you guys what the construction of our new Ant
Room looks like as of right now! Visiting the property a couple days ago was
quite the trip! There was construction happening everywhere,
and because there were no stairs built yet, getting up to the second floor where our Ant
Room would be was quite the adventure in itself! We had to ascend up some pretty scary planks. The second floor had not even been fully completed
yet, so I had to balance on rows of metal beams to get around. I felt like one of the Phoenix Empire ants
trailing along their roots! Seeing the Ant Room on paper was one thing,
but seeing it in real life was mind-blowing! Though you can’t really tell here, the Ant
Room was absolutely massive and had so much space, let alone it being double floored! The Ant Room would start at that corner, extend
over to there, continue all the way down to the end, and across. There would be a set of stairs here, which
would take you to the second floor of the Ant Room and roof deck somewhere up there. Now here’s something interesting that had
to be changed from our original blueprints. The entire Ant Room was supposed to be what’s
called a floating mass, basically one huge room that juts out of the home and floats
high above the ground. But after the engineers analyzed the blueprints,
they realized that mathematically, the structure was dangerous, and we all know that ant setups
are not light, especially if they contain rocks or bodies of water! So we decided it would be best to add some
V-shaped foundational columns just to support the extra weight, plus some, just in case
we decided to stuff an elephant into one of our tanks! And now speaking of tanks, for those of you
wondering how I plan to relocate the ants to the new Ant Room, an hour away, well, I
have several months more to think of a plan, because I currently don’t have one! The Ant Room should be completed some time
by mid next year so I have some time. In my mind, the smaller portable setups would
be easier to transport, but the biggest challenge would be the massive tanks, like our Ember
Islands. In my mind, it would involve fishing out and
bagging up all aquatic life from the waters, and either totally removing the huge window
of our current Ant Room and literally lowering the tanks down 15 floors on pulleys from the
outside of my building, which requires permits from my building so if I had a choice I’d
rather not go this route, or more desirably, just having 6 strong guys to help me carry
the setups carefully out of my place, and down 15 floors by stairs, because the setups
would not be able to fit into the elevators without turning them vertically on their end,
which definitely would not be possible with the fire ants inside! Once at ground level, the tanks would be stored
carefully with lots of insulation into a truck, and when I say carefully I mean super carefully,
as one mistake could lead to the glass cracking or breaking and a lot of angry and free fire
ants ready to sting me and the movers. It’s an operation I don’t look forward
to, and have several months still to plan out properly! If you guys have any ideas or tips, please
do let me know, but I’m certain the official moving of ant tanks, in itself, will make
one crazy episode! Anyway, what do you guys think of the future
Ant Room 2.0? Do you like it? I’d love to hear any suggestions you guys
might have to help make this Ant Room of ours as epic as it can possibly be! And now speaking of your input, at the start
of this video I mentioned I’d be needing your opinions and help on making an important
decision. It’s time to VOTE! AC Family, I’ve been trying to decide, but
felt this was a decision you guys should help me make. Should the new Ant Room have a new name or
should we keep it the “Antiverse”. Let me know by leaving your vote in the pinned
comment of this video. Just simply leave a THUMBS UP on the comment
ANTIVERSE if you believe we should continue to call the new Ant Room the Antiverse, or
hit the THUMBS UP on the comment NEW NAME if you believe the new Ant Room should have
a new name, and be sure to let me know what name you suggest. I’m super interested to see what you guys
think! I’ll continue to update you guys on the
progress of the construction. If we were ants, this Ant Room would be done
in a few short hours, but we need to be patient and wait for the official Ant Room completion
date some time by mid-next year. Earlier this year, I sadly had to downsize
my ant collection due to a strict lockdown in my city, making it hard to access feeders! Since then I’ve learned to better breed
a never ending supply of roaches, and even superworms which surprisingly are quite easy
to breed, and once we begin a new chapter in the new Ant Room, I look forward to expanding
our Antiverse again, or whatever you guys would like to name it. The new location of the Ant Room has so many
awesome ant species living in abundance in the area, including Asian Weaver Ants, Polyrhachis,
Trap-jaw Ants, and Marauder Ants. Anyone else want the Emerald Empire, Platinum
Dragons, Trapjaws and Titans to make an epic return? Perhaps now it could be possible. There are also some really crazy wild animals
living in the area, like flying lizards, tokay geckos, native tarantulas and huntsmen, and
even spitting cobras and reticulated pythons, so I’m certain this will be an adventure
and a half living there! Overall, I’m super excited for this new
Ant Room to be done, and for us to expand on our already awesome Antiverse. I’ll be sure to document everything and
take you guys all along for the wild ride! Thank you guys so much for the support. It’s because of you guys loving and watching
this channel, that has made all of this possible, and just know, that there isn’t a moment
in the day that goes by that I am not thinking of ways to improve these videos for you, upgrading
the homes and lives of the ants we care for, and just all around appreciating and loving
ants and nature in new and exciting ways! So until that epic day comes, when we say
goodbye to the old Antiverse that has served us so well over all these years, and say hello
to a brand new ant dimension, always remember, it’s ant love forever! AC Family, did you enjoy today’s episode? I can’t wait for this new Ant Room to be
done, and I promise you, you won’t be disappointed and there will be a lot of epic ant stories
to come, 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. 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! AC Inner Colony, I have left a hidden cookie
for you here, if you would like to see extended play tour footage of the rest of the home
including the new Ant Room. Feel free to go check it out! 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?! You can catch pregnant queen ants from the
safety of your own backyard, balcony, or open window starting this month! 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 makes ant crickets different
from regular crickets? Congratulations to Leeadam06 who answered: Ant crickets are found almost exclusively
in ant nests, and are dependent on the ants for their survival. Congratulations Leeadam06, 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 your favourite feature of the new
Ant Room? 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 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!
