Oh, man! You guys will freak out when you see what
is happening here. It might not seem like it at first glance
but if you look closely, an epic and tense ant battle is unfolding here over a giant
cup of sweet jelly. Most of the ants you see here are fire ants
who are defending this jelly cup through various incredible tactics, but trying valiantly to
penetrate the droves of fire ants, to steal some of the sweet goods, are black crazy ants. Look up there! There’s one moving in to have a drink, and
another, and a third. But their taste is only momentary as nearby
fire ants discover their presence and chase them off. The fire ants are aggressive but the black
crazy ants have speed on their side. Guys, the way this all ends is pretty great,
so, just sit back and enjoy watching how this intense ant battle over food unfolds, and
just a hint, the ending of this video will surprise you, and may get you shouting at
your screen! Who will end up winning over this sudden battle
between black crazy ants and fire ants? It’s time to find out, here on the AntsCanada
ant channel. Please SUBSCRIBE to the channel and hit the
BELL icon. Welcome to the AC Family! Enjoy! AC Family, another ant war! This ant battle however, is a little different,
and you’ll see what I mean later in the video, but do stay tuned until the end as
I will be needing your help and asking you a very important question regarding the team
of ants that end up losing in this black crazy ant vs. fire ant battle, and again, you will
want to see a certain surprise reveal that I have to show you, so do stay tuned to the
very end for all of that coming up! Meanwhile, let’s go back to how this intense
ant altercation started! It all began here: Fire Alley, the terrarium
home of my pet fire ant colony named the Crimson Knights. At one of their ant hills, workers were busy
going about their routine house chores, cleaning and building. It’s their feeding time, and they’re about
to get a nice fat roach. You’ll love the fire ant swarm that emerges
at every feeding, just watch. The first few ants in the area discover the
roach and begin either trying to sting it or spreading pheromones throughout the area
to sound the alarm, and inform the rest of the colony that a huge roach carcass had just
dropped in from the skies. Slowly at first, ants begin to take notice,
but as soon as news begins to reach the colony watch how they emerge from their nest hole. Here they come now. In no time, the scene is just covered with
excited and hungry fire ants. I’ve always loved feeding fire ants because
for me they create some of the most impressive swarms in the ant world at feeding time. Our fire ant colony here, the Crimson Knights,
have increased greatly in size. Insane to imagine that just a few months ago,
we just had a newly captured queen ant from nuptial flight in a test tube, the humble
beginnings of our Crimson Knights. Oh, speaking of which, real quick before I
forget, it’s the start of ant nuptial flight season again in North America and the Northern
Hemisphere, yay! So be sure to visit antscanada.com, so you’re
completely ready with your ant farm starter kit and equipment in case you find a queen
ant in your yard. I’d love you guys to join me in keeping
ants! We ship worldwide and also have a useful ant
keeping handbook to give you helpful tips to grow your ant colony into a booming ant
army! Speaking of which, guys, check this out! You’ll love this! Let me show you what the colony looks like
below ground, in their nest. Removing the black cover of their test tube
home. The fire ants run energetically through the
various tunnels and chambers they’ve created within the digging medium from top to bottom. I love watching the ants constantly rearranging
their brood piles, but in this case, I believe they are startled by the sudden removal of
the cover and presence of light, so they’re trying to quickly hide the brood from our
view. Here’s another brood room of pupae and mature
larvae. The fire ants have done an excellent job at
constructing effective tunnels and chambers for the colony to reside in. The chambers run pretty deep into the test
tube, at various places, and their ever changing nest architecture was astounding. There was still plenty of space for the colony
to expand, as the colony continues to get bigger and bigger. I currently don’t see the queen fire ant,
our Crimson Queen, but I know she’s in here because she’s the one laying all the eggs,
and this brood pile continues to grow and grow every time I peek inside to look. But as successful as this colony appears to
be so far, little do these fire ants know, they’re about to undergo one of the biggest
survival tests of their lives, going head to head with competition. For creeping in from the outskirts of their
feeding site, lay some uninvited guests. Black Crazy Ants, perhaps one of fire ants’
most formidable enemies in the wild have broken into Fire Alley, scrambling about like thieves
seeking to loot any resource they can. Where did these black crazy ants come from? Well, as you may have seen in a previous video,
these black crazy ants have been a complete nuisance over the past two weeks now in my
ant room. Believe it or not, they are a wild colony
that broke into my home from the outside. I’m not too alarmed because here in the
tropics, it’s a simple accepted fact that insects will inevitably break into your home,
through unforeseen spaces in windows, drains, cracks in the walls, etc. Though I do everything in my power to keep
wild outside ants from invading my Ant Room, they still sometimes decide to stick around
and black crazy ants, being a nomadic species, often move in when they feel like there’s
enough food, and move out when they can’t find any, or if they feel the space is unfavourable. Lately, these black crazy ants have been obsessed
with Fire Alley for some reason, carrying tonnes of grains of sand from the terrarium
and bringing it to the other end of my counter where another ant colony of mine, a colony
of dracula ants inside an AC Ant Tower were living. At the time, I couldn’t figure out why on
earth the ants were doing this, but as you will see later, the black crazy ants had plans
up their sleeves. Anyway, I was able to shoo away the black
crazy ant invaders from Fire Alley by adding digging medium from one of my bigger ant colonies
and spreading it all over the terrarium, fooling the black crazy ants into thinking they were
invading a larger ant colony’s space, so they scrammed in fear of being outnumbered,
but now, as you can see it was a temporary solution, because after the big ant colony’s
pheromones dissipated, the black crazy ants were back, still mining their gravel bits,
and now, as our Crimson Knights were feasting on their roach, I knew, the black crazy ant
trespassers could potentially soon turn their eye on a new prize. This could all turn into a fierce competition
for resources. So far, it seemed the black crazy ants weren’t
posing too much of a problem for the fire ants, and judging from the size of the fire
ant swarm, I wasn’t too worried yet, so I decided not to take any action and intervene
despite the close proximity of both colonies, and instead just chose to keep a close eye
on them, incase a full out ant war were to break out. In fact, I also wanted to see if the two ant
colonies would stay out of each other’s way. This would be a cool discovery to know if
the two species could share a space amicably for a short period of time. I also wanted to figure out why the black
crazy ants were even here, and what they were doing with the gravel they were mining from
the terrarium. I didn’t know it at the time, but all the
answers to my questions were about to be answered. The next day, the Crimson Knights, oops my
bad, the Crimson Knights were scheduled to have their sugar source. A cup of sweet jelly, all ants’ favourite
carb. I placed it carefully on their rock platform. It didn’t take long for the ants to discover
it. This was actually the first time these ants
have ever tried this flavour of sweet jelly, honeydew, and I can confirm, because yes,
I’ve tasted it, that it’s delicious! A mini crowd began to gather, and soon word
made its way back to the colony which summoned the hoard. Man, I swear I just love watching fire ants
swarm! Truly one of the best events in ant keeping
to witness! And, my did the ants sure love this jelly! They began slurping the goods, filling up
their social stomachs, kinda like their internal lunchboxes, and once completely full headed
back to the colony to dispose of the sweet collection. But little did the Crimson Knights know, the
uninvited tenants who weren’t paying rent, had also taken notice of the sweet delectable
jelly cup the fire ants were working on. One of the fire ants discovered one of the
black crazy ants drawing too close for comfort and ran back to the colony to inform them
that the trespassers were starting to push closer. More and more black crazy ants began to circle
the area around the jelly cup trying to gauge how they were going to have a taste of the
jelly, which the fire ants were now claiming as their property. But the black crazy ants were flimsy and weak
compared to the fire ants, but as mentioned, the thing they did have the upper hand on
over their fire ant opponents was speed. Zoom! My heart raced as I watched wide-eyed, as
the black crazy ants strategically tested for weak areas of the fire ant pheromones
and trails, where they could quickly pass through safely. This was not going to be easy for the black
crazy ants, but they were driven by hunger now, and sweets are definitely a favourite
for black crazies! I couldn’t believe how determined the black
crazy ants looked. Suddenly, my heart jumped into my throat as
a brave black crazy ant dared to step up to the jelly cup despite fire ants being all
around. Oh! And with the blink of an eye it was out of
there! Too dangerous! Man, these black crazy ants are little speedsters! The Crimson Knights were determined to defend
this delectable prized possession, and weren’t willing to share, as this jelly cup could
feed their colony for days, and help them grow bigger and more powerful. But the black crazy ants were brave and weren’t
afraid of the close proximity with their fiery counterparts. They could easily run circles around the fire
ants, it seemed. I wondered how this competition over the jelly
cup would play out. The Crimson Knights, determined to work as
quickly and effectively as possible, raced back to their nest with full social stomachs,
trying to get the job done before the black crazy ants came up with a plan to steal the
jelly. For now the fire ants chased any approaching
black crazies away on sight. But this jelly cup was huge, and there were
only so much fire ants to process the jelly, so I was curious to know how the fire ants
would deal with more and more black crazy ants approaching. In fact, I had no idea how big the black crazy
ant colony was, as it only seemed like under a hundred black crazies were around at the
moment, but in my mind, if enough black crazy ants arrived to steal the jelly, they just
might be able to overwhelm the fire ants. I didn’t know but I decided to simply watch
the scene unfold, since so far our pet fire ants seemed to have the situation under control. The black crazies couldn’t do much but race
around in envious hunger. I decided to come back in a few hours to check
up on the scene, but what I saw when I came back was quite surprising. A barrier! The Crimson Knights had decided it was time
to trump the black crazy ants and build a wall to keep the trespassers away from their
goods. I should have seen this coming. Look at how eager and fast the fire ants were
working, too! They knew this wall needed to be built asap,
as the black crazy ants were still working on pressing in. Look at how fast they’re moving! I bet they knew the black crazy ants were
managing to take quick slurps now from the jelly. And to add to the urgency, I had to feed the
colony their nightly roach, so now the ants were dealing with two food items that could
be potentially stolen by the black crazy ants. It actually amazed me to see how the Crimson
Knights were tackling this situation. They knew that if they could cover the majority
of the exposed jelly, they wouldn’t need as many ants to defend the jelly from the
black crazies. So far the idea seemed to be working, as I
caught the fire ants keeping the black crazy ants on their toes, as they tried to sneak
in little bites of the jelly but failed. Regardless, the black crazy ants and their
entire colony had now been informed of the jelly cup and were not about to give up just
yet. Now guys, let’s take a few moments to watch
how all of this unfolds, where the fire ants continue to fortify the barrier covering their
jelly and the black crazy ants relentlessly pushing in to have a taste of the jelly.The
scene was quite intense! As you can see, it seemed the black crazy
ants’ strategy was to simply speed onto the jelly gravel wall, and take rapid licks
of the sweet jelly stuck to the rocks and collect the sweet goods that way. It seemed to be working well. The black crazy ants, though often coming
in actual contact with the fire ants, made full use of their ultra speed to their advantage
to zip out of danger, as soon as contact was made with the fire ants. It was at this time, that I, as the ultimate
guardian and keeper of our Crimson Knights, decided to intervene, and knew I had to help
our Crimson Knights win this war. They were after all our pets. So I knew the black crazy ants had to be coming
from somewhere, specifically a nesting site. I decided to go back to the dracula Ant Tower,
which I placed high up to keep away from the black crazy ants, but AC Family, guess what
I finally noticed when I took a closer look at the Ant Tower. I was about to make a pretty crazy discovery. Have a look! Do you see it? There! In the hydration tub of the AC Ant Tower. The makeshift nest of the black crazy ants
was the hydration tub of the dracula ants' formicarium! Look at the brood and all the ants! I couldn’t believe it, and they were entering
and exiting through this opening where I usually inject water to hydrate the nest. Suddenly, it all made sense! The black crazies were probably mining grains
of sand because they wanted to further build a nest wall around this opening. I hadn’t noticed the black crazy ants were
actually nesting inside the ant tower’s hydration tub. That’s why the ants were so preoccupied
with gathering gravel from Fire Alley, as they felt it was a good home building material. Oh, ok. Wow! Alright, the answer was simple. Block! And just like that, the colony was trapped,
and we now have a small black crazy ant colony in our possession! Isn’t that awesome? Now at the start of the video I mentioned
I’d be needing your help regarding the losing team which will now be the black crazy ants,
because I’ve just cut them off from doing any further harm or trespassing into Fire
Alley, and I’d be asking you a very important question, and it’s this: What should we
do with this black crazy ant colony? Should we keep them? Should we euthanize them humanely by putting
them in the freezer? Let me know what you feel the fate of these
black crazy ants should be, by leaving your opinions in the comments. In the end, I was happy to know that our fire
ants didn’t have to deal with our black crazy ant intruders any longer, and that they
could continue to grow within Fire Alley in peace. But Fire Alley is not the Crimson Knight’s
permanent home, as I am working on some pretty amazing plans for their next home kingdom
that I am certain will blow your minds, so if you haven’t yet do hit that SUBSCRIBE
button, so you can keep up with our Crimson Knights, as well as our black crazy ants if
you guys decide we should keep them, and I also hope you could kindly remember to hit
the LIKE button as it really helps a lot to let youtube know you enjoy these ant videos,
and that they’re worth sharing to new audiences. Thank you so much, guys for watching today
and supporting the ants, it’s ant love for- oh wait! Hang on! I almost forgot, at the start of the video,
I also mentioned there would be a surprise reveal! So we’re beginning to hit the rainy season
now, where I live, and thus a multitude of ant species are starting to have their nuptial
flights in droves! Now if you’ve been following the channel
for awhile, you may recall a very special ant species that we found in my backyard a
few years back, a cute red and black ant species, with little spines, light-coloured fuzz, and
adorable heart-shaped gasters. These ants were of particular scientific significance,
because we actually were the very first in the world to discover that they existed in
my country. We were mindblown that we had made a novel
scientific discovery in the world of myrmecology, and initially called the ant, species 555,
since it was the five hundred and fifty fifth ant species to be geographically documented
in my country. We also dreamed that one day, we would find
a queen of species 555 and attempt to keep it. Well AC Family, you won’t believe this but
as I was walking through my yard this afternoon, I happened to find this beauty. AC Family, I’m proud to present our newest
queen ant, species 555! 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!
