I got a mail order ant colony and gave them a new home...

I did it again I got another an Colony you've probably heard of crazy cat ladies before well I think I am becoming a crazy an guy but this time it's not my fault the set was provided to me by an Cube free of charge there is a link in the description if you want to buy this set that transition wo um in my defense this is heavier than it looks somewhere in here should be live fans at least I hope they are alive otherwise this will be a very boring video this set contains two nests and an arena and of course some ants there they are I'll unpack them in a minute this is some other stuff but I better hurry up because I got something very important to do yes this has to be done every time so these are the ants and the two Nest areas they will hopefully use as a home the left one will be used as a nesting area and the right one here will be used to store seeds because this is a seed collecting species and here they are they are becoming very active because they are exposed to light and that big one there that kind of looks dead is the queen but don't worry she's fine I'm covering them back up for now until their teram is set up the set also contains Cricut sham and it looks smells and taste disgusting yes taste because in a previous video I said I would taste it if that video got 50,000 likes so I did but I will not make that same mistake again I will taste these blanch crickets if this video gets 880,000 likes I think we can all agree that these also look disgusting but surprisingly these actually smell disgusting but I'm willing to taste them for science at least the ants like them so it can be that bad there is just one last thing I want to show you before I start setting up the terrarium because this thing is broken fixed it the left one is a thermometer and the right one a hyro hyro a moist meter you will see me struggle installing these other stuff later in the video so now it's time to start setting up the terrarium this tube is going to be used to connect three parts I don't know why I'm pointing at them you can all see them this is stupid the species of ants we have doesn't really like vibration that is why we have some cushions to put under the nests and under the arena the ants are ready to get into the terrarium even the queen is moving a bit now she might be a queen but she's not going to win any beauty contest this is another messor species these are seed collecting ants from the dry regions of Kenya and they are not very common in an keeping now the most important thing you need when you start ant keeping are ants the second is an escape proof terrarium don't worry this isn't hard to install I'm just clumsy this part is used to connect the arena with the nest of course we need a lid and yes there's a hole in it but we will solve that later first we need to install these meters and there's only one chance of this because once they're stuck they're never coming off so I'm nervous great success to make the lit and proof we have this Amy APR shoot oil I think it means stady have in the terrarium oil this is a barrier that the ends can't cross but there is an extra L to go on top of this to be extra sure this way you can open the terrarium poke some ants I guess and close the terum again all without the ends escaping closing off the ventilation holes and now we can start the real business the most efficient way to add the substrate is of course this tiny shovel at least uh if you can open the substrate I'm not proud to say but this took me 5 minutes ah yes efficiency don't tell anyone but I'm actually trying to get sponsored by the tiny shovel company now I just need a way to spread the sand a bit yes that's it I added too much sand here you will see why later in this video I'm spraying the sand here so the ends don't get dust lung I guess we're good no seriously it's actually important for the health of the ends that the substrate is a bit wet there is this fake desert background but I'm not using it because I like to keep things natural ah yes nature I'm adding this stick because I hope it helps the ants find the entrance to the nest faster since they live in an arid area Pro tip use gloves again use gloves this is the water container I'm covering it a bit so less of the plastic is visible there are also some food containers but I'm not using them for the seeds I'm using the stone as kind of a table and I'm adding these later when the ends are in you get an extra one of these for free by the way if you order a set in December who doesn't want cricet jam under a Christmas tree one last thing to do before we add the ends close off this hole and then connect everything with tubes all right and water The Nest area a bit the ants need a higher humidity I placed some books under the arena so the ends don't have to climb and yes I own books I'm sophisticated I'm cutting the tube to the right size Pro tip use a bigger scissor at this point I thought that went easy but of course I should not have thought that blue bub guys this is the escape oil and it can be used to make it easier to connect the tube everything is set up so now it's finally time to put in the ends I hope so much that is not what she said here we go watch till the end if you want to see them move into the nest areas I'm also covering the nest areas with this red foil that blocks the light a bit hopefully that stimulates the ants to start digging here but of course first they need to leave the tube and to motivate them I'm giving them this yummy blanched Cricket there's one end that comes take a look but she's not sure yet nah she got work to do the seeds need to be processed in some kind of bread that is what makes these ants special They store these seeds so they have a food Reserve but this one is doing another job she is moving out to waste and this is a dead worker at this point I realized that the ends are not only smarter than me but also cleaner than me and then finally the first handset food outside a disgusting Cricket H interesting more RS followed soon and they start uh licking the cricket it doesn't look like they're really biting it wait I guess they are really licking it yeah I'm looking forward to that if this video gets 880,000 likes while these ones are enjoying a nice meal there are other ants that are taking out the trash even further the entrance of the nest area of course here is another one that is not the right spot buddy I was observing the ants and I noticed this one started digging in the corner and that is why I added too much sand you have a chance that the ants will start building a nest inside of the Arena but keep watching the ants will still surprise you later while I was filming this someone very important showed up the queen decided to take a stroll out of the tube I guess she's looking if the others were working hard enough but Queens don't usually like it outside so she gets back into the nest I was observing the ants all day already so I went to sleep and the next day I woke up to a surprise the queen was gone and I saw some ants digging here near the entrance of the nest and also the one in the corner found some help I have no clue where the queen is she is in one of the two areas where the ends are digging so we better follow our worker underground no Queen to be seen here but back above ground I noticed a worker grabbing this I'm assuming that this is a piece of the anbr follow the food I guess she is going in the hole in the back unfortunately Ely I have no angle of filming this but to be sure I remove the stone on top so there's less weight on the tunnels they're digging here you can see a worker process one of the seeds these are the first step of making the end bread now do you want to see something very sad I don't know why I'm asking you this because you can't answer but I'm Waring you this is sad this is a crippled worker I saw it fall from the top of the arena and I guess it fell on a stone or something because she can't use her back legs anymore I did not know ANS took fall damage a while later something weird was going on the ants were bringing back the ant Brad and a few hours later another surprise appeared yes she's back but that means there's another chance of them getting in the real Nest area so I put some seats in the entrance and it worked one worker was exploring the nest areas I didn't want to remove the foil because I was afraid I was going to scare her now she's going back to report to the Colony and hopefully they follow soon in the meanwhile I'm giving them some sugar water these ants usually get their sugar from the seeds day process but I wanted to give them some of this anyway they don't seem to be interested in sugar water exploring this new area is more exciting and more and more ants are doing so the ants ran back and forth for a few hours even I got tired of watching them but they had to be absolutely sure the nest was safe before they started moving in this Precious Cargo like these eggs here uh ma'am those are not eggs I don't know what this one is doing but it's carrying a worker inside the nest but I think it recognized its mistake and she carried it all the way back to the tube of course she was very careful while carrying this worker and she banged its hat against everything she passed and that might explain why it had to be carried I'm not sure but I think this is a new worker as you can see she has a lighter colored head hat than the rest of the ants and also she's still pretty clumsy the ANS kept running back and forth moving stuff so I pretty pretty sure a colony move was happening soon and of course like always I was right yeah that was a lie but for once I was actually right the queen moved into this popcorn Nest but she seemed very restless and separated from the workers that is because this Nest is still a bit too big for this small Colony the move happened a bit too soon that is why I decided to cover the test tube this way the ends have the choice of staying in there until the colony is a bit bigger and in the meanwhile some workers have already started building a nest here this is actually the right spot because a dry popcorn Nest is designed to store the seeds and this Nest here is a bit humid and that is what the ants need so they will probably keep digging here until the colony is big enough to move in and the first ones to see this move will be these patrons thank you to everyone that watched and thank you to all patrons and thanks again to antore for this set now please go watch this video it will help me a lot

Channel: Homemade Ecosystems

Views: 6,177,236

Keywords: terrarium, homemadeecosystems ants, ant colony, ant farm, ant terrarium, pet ant colony, ant queen, getting an ant queen, terrarium with ants, building an ant farm, starting an ant farm, antfarm, getting an ant colony with queen

Id: LcqHwqaBdhY

Length: 13min 33sec (813 seconds)

Published: Fri Dec 01 2023