In times of despair Hope often comes knocking on your door in the most unexpected ways It's been a little tough for us these past few days here in the AC ant diverse With an ant colony that had died our Jawbreakers A young Trap-jaw, ant Colony which was massacred by some wild black crazy ant savages And as we saw in last week's video Our cherished Titans seemed to not be doing so well in their new terrarium they to seem to be dying do to mysterious force or condition But it isn't all bad news here on this channel for today I. Your ant man come bearing good news Ac family Trust me keep on watching until the end Welcome to the Ants Canada Ant channel Please subscibe to my channel And hit the bell icon Welcome to AC family Enjoy ! What's up, AC family welcome to the Ants Canada Ant channel now, I wanted to take a break from our ordinary ant videos to create a video That's more in line with the tutorial videos that I used to upload on this channel I wanted to create a video on catching a new queen ant to start your ant colony. Now I've always said on this channel that the most fulfilling part about ant keeping is starting your colony from just a single caught queen ant So I'm here actually in Toronto Canada Where this channel started actually it's the reason why it's called Ants Canada a lot of you have been asking why the channels called Ants Canada when I'm living in the Philippines Well I moved to the Philippines In 2011 But the Ants Canada channel started here in Toronto Canada when I was living here now. I'm here in My favorite place to look for queen ants if I can't find queen ants in my neighborhood I'll usually find one here in this nature trail a Lot of people have been asking me You know where should I go to find queen ants and I always tell them look for a place that has a lot of Greenery Perhaps a body of water nearby Here there is actually a river just not too far from here, please excuse the airplanes guys This is more of a blog style Ants Canada video now what I'm looking for are Queen ants that have Just engaged in their nuptial flight So for those of you who are new to the world of ants every year and have a nuptial flight where the Reproductive young Virgin Queens and males who have been waiting around the nest all year Take to the air and that's when they mate and the male's die, but the females now impregnated with The male sperm drop to the ground and break their wings off and They go and seek other places to start their and Their nests And so we as the ant keeper we go out during the seasons of nuptial flights and we look for these queen ants that are kind of walking around having just mated and Looking for areas to start their new nests So what you have to do is you got to keep your eyes peeled essentially and keep them to the ground to look for Queens? We have tutorials on how to Distinguish Queens from other workers and Major workers because it can be tricky if you're not used to seeing what Queens look like So check out those tutorials on this channel another tip is ants are more likely to fly after a rainstorm So yesterday here in Toronto. There was a big thunderstorm So today, we should be able to find some queen late Walking around Now it's the beginning of august so species that I'm looking for right now are Those that belong to Formica Glacia S-- and Kempen audits they should be around so those are what I'm looking for at the moment? For those of you who are in North America, and in Europe as well as Northern Asia We are well into our nuptial flight season, so this video is for you guys. I'm going to Scour the ground here Looking for any kind of movement When looking for ants you have to really be patient You can't be frustrated if you don't find Queens right away Because sometimes they're quite elusive Mmm, not finding any yet here a lot of people write to us saying oh We can't find queens anywhere where I live well to that. I say unless you're living in Iceland or the antarctic where? There are no ants Then sure you won't find any any queens, but if you live in any other part of the world There should be an surround you just have to know where to look and when to look and believe me It's a rewarding experience when you finally catch one and Place her in a test Tube setup and Realize she's laying eggs for you and the eggs eventually develop into her first scientific workers and then watching young colony feed for the first time and you know transfer that food mouth-to-mouth to the queen who had Fasted for over a month raising her nana tics. It's really such an awesome and really moving Experience that Ant Keepers really love and I hope you guys get to also experience that kind of Joy and fulfillment of watching your ant colony start and for those of you who don't want to keep ants And you're just subscribed here to simply watch and videos that's fine too. Thank you for watching this and bearing with us We will definitely keep you updated on the colonies back home in Manila okay, so I'm going to turn around and Go back on my tracks to see if I am missing or queen ant scurrying by oh What is this? We just found a queen ant guys see that? Patience pays off this here is a Camponotus queen she still has her wings But if you've been following the channel for a while, it doesn't mean she hasn't made it Sometimes we keep their wings And sometimes not mated queens break off their wings, so wing retention is not the best and most reliable indicator of Fertilization Alright, so I'm going to put this queen into my container. This is great We caught one Another thing you have to be aware of it people will often pass by so you kind of have to have no shame sometimes Catching a queen for me is worth it If you've seen my speedos video you know that I don't have shamed Oh the queen drop and she's now trying to break off her wings now this species here. I believe is Camponotus Pensylvanicus It's completely jet wat but sometimes we can have red markings All right So now we're off to look for More Queens Now Camponotus ants like that queen that we just call it is a great starter speakings They're great because they're large so you can really see them in a for material you can see they're young They're also very active and avid feeders. They love their sweets. They love their insects They don't sting which is great, but the only thing about Camponotus is that they do take a long time to grow you usually see them get to an impressive size by Year, two or three Aaaand Sometimes that can be quite a long wait for ant keepers be sure to check out our Camponotus Tutorial on this channel if you are planning on Keeping Camponotus or if you caught a camponotus queen this year But otherwise Camponotus is a great genius to get started on now one of the tips that I give people is You really need to be able to see properly Like if you oh, wait, I found another queen you see this here this here Is a Formica Alright this here's a formica Queen okay, so this is I believe Formica Fusca very common Formica Species now, I'm going to catch her, but we found this great Also, love them, they're so fast in Act events All right, easy family. We caught her sorry I don't have any snap cap piles with me, so I'm just kind of improvising with stuff I have right now But I will be transferring them to test tubes later on so anyways as I was saying It's good to wear proper eyewear You need glasses if you need glasses wear your contacts because that can make all the difference in the world Before I ever got lasik surgery I used to sometimes go Looking for clean hands, and I would forget to wear my glasses and Lo and behold those were the days. I couldn't find any queens Another thing you should keep in mind Is that a lot of places require a permit to collect insects so it's best to really check the Out of your area, and of course if you're on public property you must get permission first all right and so now While I'm going to continue looking for Queens here we have a special announcement Ac family that I think you guys will be very pleased to hear And here it is all right while I continue looking for Queen Ants in Toronto We've got some great news for those of you who have been lucky enough to catch Queen ants this year real quick We totally improved our Ac test Tube's check out some of the awesome changes We've made to them to help you better care for your queen ants while they are raising their nana ticks their first set of workers First our Ac test tubes are now longer so you can fill them up with more water than most ordinary test tubes Which help make your water reservoir of your queens test Tube last longer our ac test tubes now also come with a little notch to Help guide you with filling the water and pushing your cotton in but what's also cool is The Ac test Tube even comes with a small blue sponge that can be pushed all the way to that knotch One of the coolest new features are these little teeth ever hate how test Tubes roll around in a drawer These teeth hold your test tube still so your queen doesn't get jostled around all the time which is important during this key period When? The queen should be as at ease and stress-free as possible Finally the coolest part about our improved Ac test tubes is this you can now get them with these three Transparent adapter pieces which fit onto the test Tube openings Check out this piece here we found that leaving the test Tube open in a set up sometimes causes queen ants and young colonies to feel too exposed Usually the ants end up dragging their garbage or Debris to clog up the end of their test Tube in Attempts to constrict the opening to minimize micro drafts which can endanger and dry out an ant colony and the Brood But now with this piece here you can constrict the opening of the test tube so the inside of the test Tube isn't so exposed To the air if you've raised young and colonies before you know that this feature is super helpful The hole is approximately four millimeters in size which allows for most species magnetic workers to fit through with this adapter piece you can then attach the entire test Tube to any of our hybrid nests or Ac test Tube portals and as for the other adapter pieces this one allows you to connect the test-Tube to our hybrid nest or Ac test to portal with a Larger opening and this adapter piece to our large ac vinyl tubing for links to all these items Described plus more info I placed them in the description box So an keepers do check them out and so the very first ant in the entire world to enjoy this setup is The big Surprise I've been itching to tell you about a couple of weeks ago shortly after the titans moved into the terrarium Something caught my eye in my condo building Ac family. I am happy to introduce to you our newest Queen Ant Behold our new Trap-Jaw, Queen ant and addons of Maca species She is a beauty although I won't be able to bring the queen s that I catch in Toronto back with me to manila This new queen ant which is currently in the dark in my drawer of my ant room is Ours to care for and nurtured let's hope she's fertilized and gives us a column I also hope you don't mind me making this executive Decision to call her future colony should they arise? the Jawbreakers and now back to Toronto Canada All right, easy family surprise I am super excited to raise that queen so guys be sure to leave in the comment section What do you think we should call this queen? I hope you guys are okay with us calling them the Jawbreakers once they turn into a colony and hopefully they do oh And I found another queen right here. Awesome. They are just popping out of everywhere Got it, and what's cool is while I was telling you the news I was able to catch More queen ants look at how many look at that Normally, it's best. Oh no. Oh, no They're fighting see this is why it's best to not mix them, but I have no choice I don't have oh, no let it go okay. I don't have another container So they'll just have to be together for now This is dangerous because they can formic acid spray each other even though they don't sting they could just formic acid each other and then Really hurt each other, but I'm going to separate them as soon as I get home. Oh, no leave her alone And I absolutely will not keep different general of ants together in one container So I have the formica Queen here and the Camponotus Queens here So all right I would consider today on and collecting success Now what I'm going to do is I'm going to put each of these in their own test tube setup And then hopefully one of them will successfully gain a colony, and that does it Ac family Thank you so much for watching another episode of the ants Canada and channel by next weekend I should be back in Manila Philippines And we'll be updating you on the status of our ant colonies remember guys. It's ant love forever Thank you for watching Ac family Did you manage to catch a queen ant yet for this nuptial flight season tell me about it in the comments section guys If you haven't yet? Don't worry There is still plenty of time to catch queen ants if you are in the Northern hemisphere Be sure to watch our various tutorials on this channel If you need help catching a queen ant by the way as Mentioned I will not be bringing the beautiful queen ants home with me back to the philippines But I will be keeping them here in Toronto and put them up for sale through the gam project for prospective and keepers in Toronto Once they have their first set of workers So just a reminder to check out the gap project if you are looking to buy queen ants from your area Wherever in the world you may be linked in the description box Asean our colony. I've left a hidden cookie for you here If you would just like to see a step by step tutorial video of these queen ants being placed in test-Tube And now it's time for the Ac question of the week in last week's Ac question of the week we asked What is the name of Mark Moffitt's best-selling book? Congratulations to Jesse Morgan who correctly answered Adventures among eggs Congratulations, jesse you just won a free ap test to portal from our shop in this week's Ac question of the week we asked what? Is one reason why carpenter ants would make a great species for beginner and keepers? Leave your answer in the comment section and you could win our Deluxe Ac test Tube pack I've seen in this video from awesome Hope you can subscribe to the channel as we upload a new ant video every Saturday at 8 a.m. Eastern Standard time Please remember to like comment share and subscribe if you enjoyed this video so we can keep thinking you ethic and videos like this It's ant love forever
