This is it! Time to witness predation in its purest form. What you’re looking at here is the Phoenix
Empire, my 9 week old fire ant colony that has grown so big now and has become so voraciously
hungry, that I felt it was time for the biggest step of their development, the most crucial
event of their entire lives as fire ants: it was time for them to experience what it
is like to kill live, moving prey for the very first time! Ladies and gentlemen, today the Phoenix Empire
will finally learn what it truly means to be fire ants, here on the AntsCanada ant channel! Please SUBSCRIBE to my channel, and hit the
BELL icon. Welcome to the AC Family! Enjoy! These fire ants of ours don’t know it yet,
but they’re in for something pretty crazy! You’ll get to see how eager and happy these
fire ants are to kill their first living, moving prey! What happens at the end, though, will surprise
you, as it did me, so do stay tuned for that! But before some of you long time watchers
start freaking out saying “Hey, I thought live feedings are against your ethics!” I must make a correction: I personally choose
not to feed live prey, if I don’t need to, but there are certain circumstances where
live feedings are necessary, for instance, when feeding arachnids, which require live
moving prey in order to trigger their feeding response. Also, when the prey can breed and live freely
on their own in a setup shared by the predators that simply hunt them as they would in the
wild, as is seen in my weaver ants’ enclosure, I also allow live feeding. Or in this case, when we feed our fire ants
here today, I’ve found a neat way to allow my fire ants to satisfy their natural hunting
instincts and put their innate predatory faculties to work, while also being as ethical and responsible
as I can possibly be. You’ll see what I mean soon, guys. But before we proceed to witness our fire
ant colony’s first killing, let’s quickly check in on the Phoenix Empire and see how
they’ve been doing since we last saw them two weeks ago. This will surprise you, guys! Looking into their birth test tube, I was
shocked to see that they’d finally completely evacuated the premises. The water portion had run dry and as expected,
they moved next door into the larger, much more full water test tube. I love that they did this, as this test tube
offers much more space for the colony to grow, and we can now replace their old test tube
with something else. So AC Family, I need your help again. I was wondering: what should we connect to
this new port to replace this empty test tube? Another water test tube? A new sugar test tube with honey perhaps? Their very first true formicarium? Or perhaps a larger outworld? Please take a moment to VOTE here for their
next extension to the City of Ashes. Thank you AC Council for your input! You guys are like the architects of their
ever-expanding city! The Phoenix Empire’s brood pile is so huge
now! The queen, our Ember Empress is nowhere to
be found, as she took a nose dive as soon as the cameras were rolling, into the mountain
of brood to hide from us. Sorry about that, AC Family, but with the
colony growing bigger now, we can expect to see her less frequently. Let’s hope to catch her again soon. The workers have been diligent at feeding
and caring for all the brood and each other. They are now a well-oiled fire ant producing
factory. All of these workers you see here are of the
strong, hardy generation, and all workers coming up will only be stronger and more powerfully
built due to more enriched nourishment, especially from the fresh living meat we’re going to
give them today! As per the old, first gens, known as the nanitics,
the colony’s first worker ants ever, they’ve all but died off now. But check out where they’ve placed all the
dead bodies! Peeking into their AC Test Tube portal this
week, I was surprised to see no ant cadavres in their graveyard. Hmmm… where have they been stashing the
bodies? Well, the colony has decided to relocate their
official graveyard here, into their outworld, at the furthest corner of the Fire Forest. This for sure was a strategic move for the
health and cleanliness of the colony. The AC Test Tube portal is now just a bathroom
site, note the ant poop that looks like flecks of paint. We can expect to see more of such logistic
changes as the colony continues to grow in size and complexity. Alright and now, the moment we’ve all been
waiting for. In nature, fire ants grow into absolutely
massive colonies very fast, which means they are designed to eat a lot! They are top scavengers in the ecosystems
they are part of, and up until now they’ve been fulfilling that natural role by opportunistically
eating the dead insects I’ve placed into their outworld, as well as sucking up the
sugars of their sugar test tube, but nature has also designed fire ants to be top predators. This role is so important, that nature has
equipped them with a powerful stinger which can inject a potent neurotoxin called Solenopsin. It elicits a painful burning sting in humans,
earning these ants the name “fire ants”, but Solenopsin’s alternate purpose other
than defense, is to immobilize prey. We’ll be seeing this at work shortly. Now before, when the colony was composed of
mostly nanitics, the ants were exclusively scavengers not predators, and as we saw in
past videos, they would run in fear from any living, moving prey I tried offering. It’s a survival technique, because back
then, losing workers could have spelled certain death to the colony at their critical beginning
stage. But now that the colony is this big, with
this many workers, all stronger and more capable than the nanitics, I knew the colony was much
more different now, and more like the fire ants we all know in our minds. Now I hate feeding live animals especially
to fire ants because the prey will always lose and I hate watching the prolonged struggle
to the moment of death. But on the other hand, I also knew these ants
might benefit from actually learning to kill something, and might be an important experience
for them. So after further contemplation an idea came
to me. Earthworms! Growing up, I remember it being said that
if you cut an earthworm in half, the two pieces would survive. Well, after researching this up, apparently
this is partially true. If you cut off the tail end, then the earthworm
can survive and grow a new tail. The tail can’t grow a new body, but the
great thing is, the tail is technically still alive and moving, which would be great at
allowing the Phoenix Empire to engage in their first predatory response, as the worm will
definitely be fighting back and react to the ants’ every move. This would be unlike anything the Phoenix
Empire will have ever experienced or eaten before. The fire ants will be able to use their natural
weapons, i.e. stingers and mandibles, to subdue the prey, and we’ll be able to see them
actually swarming, and guys, I loved what the fire ants did at the very end, when the
worm was finally dead! I know you’ll love it, too. AC Family, are you ready? Let’s do this! Here’s the fresh worm tail! And placing it in. Now let’s watch! It wasn’t long before a worker smelled the
earthworm and came to check it out. It then ran back to the nest to inform the
colony of what it found. Soon a couple more ants came to check out
the worm, and the worm coiled back when it felt the ants around it. A third ant came along and immediately delivered
the worm’s first sting. Instantly, the worm coiled and rolled in pain. This act of coiling and rolling only caused
the surrounding ants to go into a greater frenzy, as workers latched on and began to
sting the worm even more. Other workers began wafting the area with
“I found living food! Come help!” pheromone. Back at the nest, workers were being informed
now of the prey in the Fire Forest, and that they needed backup. As more ants began to surround the worm, the
worm continued to coil and roll. This is the biggest creature they’ve ever
come across, and it was moving which is nothing they’ve ever seen before in their previous
food collections, but it was amazing to watch sheer instinct kick in. The ants seemed to proceed cautiously but
eager to get in and kill this thing. I watched wide-eyed the whole time as they
moved in to kill the worm! Eventually, it became evident that that worm
was weakening now and beginning to die from all the fire ant stings. A few minutes later, the worm was completely
motionless and the fire ants had come swarming to begin the consumption process. The Phoenix Empire had made their first kill,
well sorta seeing as the tail was bound to die eventually, but it still allowed the fire
ants to initiate a kill response which is what I wanted them to experience. And guys, this completely surprised me when
I saw it. Check this out! The moment the worm was killed and stopped
struggling, the nest went completely berserk! Workers were running around everywhere like
crazy! Was this what ants celebrating looked like? I’d never seen anything like it. While the worm was still alive, the nest did
not look like this but the moment the worm was dead, the ants were running all around
and some out of the nest in excitement. To say that this dead worm made these fire
ants happy was an understatement. How interesting, right?! The fire ants began to dissect the worm and
bring the pieces back to the nest for further consumption, and look, it seems the news brought
our Ember Empress, the queen out of hiding. She’s going to feast tonight! What surprised me about all of this was that
the next day, the Fire Forest was completely devoid of worm pieces. I figured OK so they dragged the worm into
the nest, but no, there was no earthworm in sight, neither was it in the AC Test Tube
Portal. This to me amazingly meant that the Phoenix
Empire had consumed the entire worm piece in just 12 hours. Now I knew that earthworms left no garbage
behind, unlike insect prey with their inedible exoskeletons which are usually found the next
day, cast off in the colony’s garbage sites. I think I’ll be feeding earthworms more
often now. Overall, I was super happy that the Phoenix
Empire had undergone this natural process of predation. I felt it was an important thing for them
to experience and definitely something I’ll make sure they’ll experience on a regular
basis. What other things would you like to watch
the Phoenix Empire eat and react to? Let me know in the comments section, and though
I can’t promise I’ll feed it live, I’ll definitely try feeding it to them and film
the process as we’ve done in past videos with my previous fire ant colony, RIP FIRE
NATION. I appreciate that a lot of you seem to be
as invested in these fire ants as I am. Thank you so much for supporting them, guys. I do feel like we are caring for the Phoenix
Empire together, and isn’t it funny how satisfying it all is to watch them grow and
give them everything they need to thrive and flourish into the mighty fire ant colony we
know they’re destined to become? It’s an amazing journey of discovery for
sure, and the very essence of ant keeping. Thank you all for watching and loving the
ants! I’ll see you next week on another update
from the Antiverse. It’s ant love forever! OMG! AC Family, look! I can’t believe they’ve arrived! AC Family, wasn’t that cool? So much is in store ahead for the Phoenix
Empire, so if you haven’t yet, SMASH that SUBSCRIBE button and BELL ICON now and hit
ALL so you get notified at every upload, because I believe notifications seem to be broken
but the Youtube support team is on it. Also don’t forget to hit the LIKE button
every single time including now. It would really mean a lot to me. Thank you, guys! AC Inner Colony, I have left a hidden cookie
for you here, if you would like to watch extended play footage of the epic battle between fire
ants and the worm, as well as awesome scenes of the colony within the nest. Also, just a note: It’s anting season, and
nuptial flights start in the Northern Hemisphere 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 also offer full email support if you need
our help! Visit AntsCanada.com today. And now it’s time for the AC Question of
the Week. Last week, we asked: What do you love about scorpions? Congratulations to Taj Boss King who answered: I love their shape and powerful pincers! Congratulations Taj, 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 the name of the toxin
fire ants inject when stinging? Leave your answer in the comments section
and you could also win a free e-book 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!
