Making Beautiful, Simple Ant Farms

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So AC Family, I felt it was time to revert back for a bit to some classic ant keeping, just ants and a setup. And it just so happens, that one of my most cherished ant colonies has been due for a very long time now for a new ant farm upgrade. It's been awhile since we heard about the Dark Knights, my black crazy ants currently living in their two story ant setup, but that ends now. I had the perfect home waiting for them to move in. It was time for some innovative ant housing technology, I can't wait to show you. Please SUBSCRIBE to my channel, and hit the bell icon. Welcome to the AC Family. Enjoy! Behold in it's glorious floral immaculacy! A brilliant splash of spring is coming up for the Dark Knights! Isn't nature just gorgeous? But there's something about this ant palace that will surprise you, and just so you know, what you see here is only a taste of what else I've created. Wait until you guys see the whole setup and the grand event that happens at the end! But before we get to that and the big move into the new territories, let's have a look at the lucky ant colony to receive the new home. For months and months, all you fans of the Dark Knights have begged and pleaded for an update. The last dedicated video we made on these gorgeous gals was way back in August of last year, and before that all the way back in January of last year! That's quite the lack of spotlight for the Dark Knights, and for that I truly apologize. The reason for this? They simply have been the perfect, predictable, un-eventful, non-crisis, easy going ant colony I've ever owned. The perfect ant colony, I would say! They're friendly, never tried to escape, ate well, were always intimidating enough to keep wild ants from breaking into their setup, and best of all, grew bigger, but rather gradually and non-explosively. Essentially, creating a video about them would have taken 5 minutes tops and would include nothing new. But that ends today, and you nor they will believe how much of life a change is coming their way. You will be shocked and delighted by the end of this video! Now because the Dark Knights have been a simple-to-keep ant colony, I wanted to keep things that way. The past months saw extravagent, complex ant setups with rivers, and river beasts, lights, and automatic rain systems, but these setups made way for a whole slew of complications and challenges which we were forced to deal with and figure out on the spot. But not this time. I promised myself that with these Dark Knights, we would aim for beauty as usual, but keep things simple, because they too were a beautiful yet simple ant colony. I also noticed that a lot of you since watching these ant videos have taken an interest in ant-keeping yourselves, which is amazing, and for those of you in North America, Europe, and Northern Asia, there isn't a better time to go ahead and dive head first into the hobby, since this year's ant nuptial flights are just getting started! I'll explain more about that in a bit, but for all of you wannabe ant keepers buzzing with ant love, I'll be including pointers for you here and there on the basics of ant keeping, while we build a beautiful, simple setup for our beloved Dark Knights. So the current setup of the Dark Knights has been sufficient for the ant colony for over a year. The colony is currently inhabiting a Hybrid Nest and an Uncle Milton Ant Farm, but the majority of the colony resides in this rooster plant pot within a rubbermaid bin. This colony actually has the greatest length of running area of over 40 feet. If you recall from a past video, I punched holes into my wall to create a super long network of tubing which ran two stories high down to the top of my fridge. This was the only colony that had access to my first floor because these were the only ants that could survive the cool air-conditioned climate, outside of the Ant Room. Any time they got too cold, they would simply migrate upstairs to the ant room without a fuss. They loved moving around, and nomadism is a very big part of this species lifestyle. Black crazy ants are very much so travelers. And this also holds true on a global scale. Black Crazy ants have managed to invade almost all parts of the world, hitching rides in cargo, on ships, and in planes. I have seen Black Crazy Ants in nearly all tropical and subtropical countries of the world that I've visited. Reports claim they've even been spotted in temperate places like New York and Quebec, Canada where they managed to survive winters by living indoors! Scientists aren't sure where black crazy ants originally came from but it is suspected that they originated in India. So now that you know a little about these ladies, let's take a look at the colony. If you recall from a past video, these ants are special in that the queens of this species have a unique ability to create males that are genetically unrelated, which means these males can mate with their own sister queens and it not be genetically incestual. You see, in most regular ants, the queen will give birth to male and female alates, meaning reproductive virgin males and females born with wings. These alates wait for the big nuptial flights that happen only during a specific season of the year. When nuptial flight actually happens, usually in Spring or Summer in temprate regions, the alates take to the air and fly to meet other alates from neighbouring nests in order to mate on wing. After the big mating session the males die, since they're no longer needed in the ant world, but the now pregnant female alates break off their wings, and go off to start new ant colonies. This by the way is the stage where you need to catch them if you're looking to start your own ant colony. Once you find a queen, you put her into a test tube setup, and she will lay eggs for you which will grow into worker ants which will begin your ant colony. If you want some tutorials on this start-up process watch this helpful playlist here, after watching this video. Now this whole process is completely hacked in Black Crazy Ants. First off, black crazy ants are polygynous which means queens will band together and form massive super colonies. Most regular ant species are monogynous and won't tolerate another egg-laying queen in the same nest. Second, this species doesn't need to have nuptial flights which tend to be feast days for birds and other predators. Instead, black crazy ants mate inside the nests, completely skipping the nuptial flight step! Now coupled with the fact that they are able to mate incestually by family tree but not incestually by genetics, that means a black crazy ant colony can amass a huge super colony with thousands if not millions of queen ants all laying eggs and creating an enormously, explosive supercolony... hence black crazy ants being the most successful ants at world domination. Now the Dark Knights here started with only two egg-laying queens when I first got them, but today, I'm guessing there are more queens in this colony. If there are, I hope to find out and spot them during the move into the new home. But see get this, AC Family. This all really makes me appreciate and love the Dark Knights even more, because despite an ability to explode in population, it seems the ants instead know their existing parameters, they understand the regular amount of food they receive every day, they know their territory limitations, and choose to simply not explode in size under our care so they could live comfortably. Well, it was time to give them some growing room, AC Family! They've come a long way and totally deserved it. So here lay what would be their new territories. Behold, these large crystal palaces known as the AC Outworld 2.0 from our shop at AntsCanada.com. Ok, by the way, did you guys even know we had a shop? I haven't mentioned it in my videos recently but, if this is news to you, we do and we sell all easy-to-use ant keeping gear, shipped worldwide with full customer email support to help. I said crystal but these AC Outworlds are actually made of ABS plastic, making it a sturdy home for my ants. I'm actually super excited to use this new design of outworld for the Dark Knights! Now if you're at home wondering what is an outworld, let's break it down into simple terms. When keeping a pet ant colony, you need two parts: a nest where the ants live and where all the young and queen stay, and you also need what's called an outworld, basically an area the ants can forage for their food, establish garbage sites for you to clean up weekly, and essentially all the ants' natural outdoor activities. In some cases as is the case for the Selva de Fuego, the Hacienda Del Dorado, El Dragon Island, The Shire, and The Grove, the nest and outworld is the same container. But some ant keepers like to keep the nest and outworld separate, so they can see what's happening inside the nest by way of formicarium, and simply connect the nest with the outworld with tubes. Me, I like both setups but today I will be creating the two-in-one setup for the Dark Knights, because I don't need to see everything that's going on inside the nest. Since most of my ant colonies are huge with millions of members, I've really become a fan lately of seeing more of the outworld ant activity and simply settle with seeing what the ants decide to show me in visible areas next to the glass! Had the Dark Knights been a small ant colony, I probably would have went for a separate formicarium and outworld setup because, less colony members means less ants in the outworld, and most of the action happening inside the nest. Now check out these awesome outworld features! First, size wise, it's quite large! 12” long X 6” wide X 6 ½ ” tall, which is actually 10% larger than the old model, and what makes it great is that it is rounded and seamless, meaning no corners for the ants to climb up, which is exactly what happened in the Selva de Fuego. Now check out this awesome lid! It's full of microholes for good ventilation, and what I love is that now I don't need to remove the whole lid if I don't need to. I can just open this plug and drop in the prey insects through this chute. It's good to have a securely fitting cover on an outworld if possible not only to keep ants in but to keep other things out, in my case, geckoes and even wild intruding ants whose name we shall not speak, not the the Dark Knights can't whoop Pharaoh ant gasters, anyway but you know what I'm saying. Now check this out! This middle plate pops off leaving this upper lip under which I place my ant barrier, be it petroleum jelly, baby powder mixed with alcohol, or fluon. Today I will be using baby powder with rubbing alcohol. With the barrier there I can work around the outworld and not worry about ants escaping. Check out how cool the back is! This is where my AC Large tubing fits securely, no glue needed. Now you might be wondering what these two smaller holes are for. Well, ants sometimes decide to treat their outworlds like giant nest chambers, which can be annoying if you've spent time and money making or buying a formicarium for them to nest in, but a secret is that ants will not nest in a space that has wind, so if the ants start nesting in an outworld, all you need to do is get a simple aquarium fish air pump and attach it to one or both of these holes. This microwind will be enough of a message to the ants to let them know the outworld is not a nest. It's the outside! Cool right? OK, AC Family, wanna see it's coolest feature? If you're like me and space is a limiting factor, the AC Outworld 2.0 is amazing because it is now stackable! The bottom plate pops right off and I can stack 1 or 2 more outworlds on top! I can even keep the plate on and make it a two floor outworld if I wanted! Though technically the outworlds can stack infinitely high, and you can make a huge tower, I probably wouldn't recommend stacking it higher than three outworlds unless you're absolutely sure it won't topple over. Also worth mentioning guys, if you do ever end up getting one of these outworlds for your ants, you should probably silicone the floor plate to all base Outworlds so there is no leakage if you ever pour water inside. But for me, I love that I can now increase my ants' space and use less shelf room. This stacking feature opens a whole new door of outworld possibilities, and speaking of which, AC Family it is time to do what we love and do best... Let's create some ant worlds! Let's not let the Dark Knights down! With some soil, selected plants and decor, and a whole lot of ant love I went straight to work. When making these ant worlds, I have a rough idea what the end result may look like, but I can never truly see what it will look like until I've actually finished. Overall, I knew I wanted to offer the Dark Knights a lot more digging nesting space, as well as a super intricate insect wonderland in which the Dark Knights can frolick. And after several hours of work, the ant worlds were done. AC Family, I'm pleased to present to you, the soon-to-be ant worlds of the Dark Knights. Behold! This is what I call the "Tour des Fleurs", which in French means the Tower of Flowers. Bursting red and yellow blossoms from a deep bed of soil, a trubute to their sister senior colonies the Fire Nation and the Golden Empire, but more importantly representing Africa and Europe, two continents their species have successfully invaded. The yellow starburst flower to the left is a Gerbera species, native to Africa, and of course to the right, some tulips reminiscent of Netherlands and Turkey. I can't wait for the Dark Knights to be climbing these landmarks! Next, I present to you the "Zen Jardim", representing Asia and South America, also two continents conquered by the black crazy ant species. "Zen" from the Japanese school of Mahayana Buddhism emphasizing the value of meditation and intuition, "jardim" from the Brazilian Portuguese word for Garden. It is a gorgeous network of velvety moth orchids, and at the foot of these towering orchid trees, is a tiny wooden hut, as a symbol of how organic and balanced this colony has been over the entire course of their stay with us. I think they'll really love this ant world, too. And finally, up next, I'm pleased to present to you the Billabong Hills, representing North America and Australia. Again, two continents conquered by Black Crazy Ants. It's made of deep green mossy hilltops and stones and a gorgeous water lotus plant towering high into the apex of this Ant World. All three of these Ant Worlds are gorgeous and distinct, but there is something that all three of these Ant Worlds have in common that may surprise you. Ready for it? I wanted to keep the setups simple, so the plants chosen for these Ant Worlds are all artificial. That's right, the plants are fake, meaning they don't need light, water, fertilization, nor pruning, and will stay in their current shape, bloom, and size forever. I bought these artificial plants at a department store. You'll be surprised how realistic many of the available artificial plants, used for home decor, are nowadays! If you wanna try your hand at incorporating artificial plants, by the way, into your ant outworld setups, and you can't find any at a department store or dollar store, feel free to check our great Biome Kits at our shop that helps us ant keepers recreate a forest, rainforest, or desert habitat within an outworld. Alright and now for the moment of truth. It was time to release the Dark Knights into these new territories. I setup up the Ant Worlds all around the Ant Room and connected them. All unused holes were plugged up with an AC Plug which comes with the AC Outworld kit. I placed my barrier on all Outworld top lips. It was crazy to know, no pun intended, that the Dark Knights had been treading on the same territory for over a year, and that starting tonight they would explore and conquer some new lands. The Dark Knights seemed unaware something was about to happen. I hadn't watered their rooster plant pot for days so the soil was dry to encourage the ants to move out and into the hydrated soils of their new Ant Worlds. So AC Family, here goes nothing! Let's do this! I took another AC Outworld, filled it with moist soil, placed a clear pillar on top of the soil, and boom! I placed their entire rooster plant pot onto the pillar and sat back to watch! Immediately the ants went into hi-jinx! They were startled and scrambled all around eventually making their way down to the moist soils of the outworld. My hopes were that the ants would discover the rich soils below and want to move out of the dry pot and into new territory. So far, it looked like the plan was working. Ants scrambled up and down spreading news of the new soils which lay below. The rooster plant pot sat heavily on the pillar, but I knew this setup was only going to be temporary until the entire colony was moved out. I couldn't wait for that to happen. I resolved to retire for the night, and leave the setup to allow the Dark Knights to move in peace. But AC Family, you won't believe what I woke up to, in the middle of the night. Gasp! Just playing. Imagine I left you hanging there. No, this is supposed to be a simple and complicated-free episode, which is why I woke up. Basically, I got paranoid and decided last minute to switch plans to a safer and simpler approach to having the ants move in. I returned the rooster pot into the rubbermaid bin and attached their rubbermaid bin to the AC Outworld, allowing the Dark Knights to move on their own terms and in a comfortable manner, comfortable both for the ants and for us. The huge plant pot balancing act on a flimsy clear pillar made me super paranoid and kept me from falling asleep! I couldn't allow for the pot to topple over somehow and unleash the Dark Knights into my home! That would have been disastrous! Better safe than sorry, right guys? So I let this setup be, so the ants could move in on their own. By morning, the ants seemed in a rush. The move had begun. Ants were now forming trails within the tubes and the Ant Worlds and they had already begun excavation work in the soils. Despite the commotion, it seemed the ants had not yet begun to move the brood, which meant the colony was still refusing to leave the safety of their rooster pot, which was fine for now. In time, perhaps when the tunnels were excavated, the Dark Knights would move the brood and queens en masse into the new territories. I made sure to provide the ants a big dish of raw honey to give them all the energy they needed, to fuel this massive rehoming and nest excavation operation. The ants filled up their social stomachs to distribute the honey to the other Dark Knight members within the nest. By night, I saw something that made my heart jump for joy! The Dark Knights were now shipping in the brood! Yes! It was official. They were moving in the babies. Those white things are pupae, ant teenagers waiting to become adult ants. The ants were in more of a dash now, as this phase of the emmigration involved movement of the most important members of the colony, namely the brood and the queens. This phase was super critical and dangerous! In the wild, this mass exodus exposes the brood and queens to outside dangers like predators and the elements. It is so important the Dark Knights work as swiftly and efficiently as possible. At first the ants didn't seem to have any rhyme or reasoning to where they were locating the brood but it wasn't long until they established a trail which would take all moving ants into a tube that lead them to the Tour de Fleurs. Less ants were drinking from the honey now. They got enough of their fill, and need all the ant power they can get to get this mass emmigration completed and the brood and queens to safety. Speaking of which, there's one of the queens now. I'm always amazed at how quick the queens of this species are. They're just as fast and nimble as the workers. She made her way to the Tour de Fleur. So far, things were going perfectly as planned. I returned to the Dark Knights in the wee hours of the night to check up on them, and I came to this. An awe-inspiring, mass assembly of brood and workers! I held my breath as I looked around at the huge throngs of Dark Knight pupae which hung in clumps all around the outworld. And AC Family, look! Dark Knight queens were everywhere! There were so many queen ants gathered in this massive colony convocation. I knew it! The Dark Knights now had many queen ants, expanding from just the original two from when they first started. I bet, the Dark Knights have hundreds if not thousands of queens. It was all just amazing to see! And it looked like the ants were treating this entire outworld like one giant nest chamber. I totally could have placed an air pump into one of these two ports to send these now nesting ants, off into one of the other Outworlds, but no. I didn't want to. Instead, down on a knee, as I filmed them wide-eyed and spell-bound, I realized that never before have I ever had the opportunity to appreciate the majestic presence of the Dark Knights like I did now in this moment. It was truly special and I was honoured to be able to film it to you, guys. Before shutting off the lights to head to bed, I uttered a verbal 'thank you' to the colony that had always been nothing less than awesome and worry-free. Enjoy the new kingdoms, ladies, and have a swift remaining emmigration. By morning, the Dark Knights had completely moved out of their rooster pot and were now all in their new territories! I loved watching the ants climbing the plants, the vines, branches, flowers, and stems. They formed incredible winding trails to and from various tubes in the Ant Worlds, clearly loving all of this new running and climbing space. Let's start way up here. The gateway outworld is now their main feeding arena so Then we proceed down into the Tour des Fleurs, which is connected to the Zen Jardim, which is connected to the tube which takes the ants out of the Ant Room and downstairs, and also, by way of a very long tube to Billabong Hills which sits high above the Selva de Fuego. The Billabong Hills attaches to their old outworld and finally the Uncle Milton Ant Farm. Their setup was actually now extended an extra 15 feet, making the total travel distance of the Dark Knight's kingdom a whopping 55 ft! The ants had by now successfully completed a lot of their subterranean construction, having built caverns which could partially be seen against the sides of the outworlds. I knew that within these dark underground catacombs, they had cozily stored all the colony's brood and guided all queens inside before sunrise. Their setup looked a lot more neat and tidy now, beautiful, yet simple. It had a good energy, and best of all it was low-maintenance. I just had to water each Ant World a little every few days to keep the soils moist. And of course, as is AC tradition, a house warming gift. I offered these ladies a huge cockroach for an emmigration well-done. So AC Family, it turns out, it's not always drama or crises-management in the Anitverse. If you keep things simple, it means less variables to control and a more predictable outcome, and I guess this applies to more than just ant keeping. I realized today, as I watched the ants frolicking their new Ant Worlds and devouring their house-warming gift, that there's beauty in simplicity. But then I noticed this... Oh no! Look! It seems the scent of the cockroach gift has attracted some scouts. Trying desperately to find a way into the Dark Knights' territories: the ants whose name we shall not speak. But don't worry... This is not a cliffhanger. These wild pharaoh ants are failing at finding a way in. Thank goodness for these new Outworlds! Alright, AC Family, do like the Dark Knight's new homes? Hit that SUBSCRIBE button and BELL ICON now so you don't miss out on next week's super cool ant video! Also don't forget to hit the LIKE button every single time, including now. By the way, I realized the Dark Knights' kingdom still remains unnamed. Leave your name suggestions in the comments section and I will choose my favourites for us to vote on in a future video. Also, if you're new to the channel and want to catch up on all your AntsCanada Lore. I've put together a complete story line playlist so you can watch how all of the ant colonies you love on this channel, came to be, all their challenges and hardships, all their successes and life events, their entire story lines can now be watched from the very start so you can better appreciate the journey these ants, as well as we watching them, have been embarking on. It's incredible how epic the lives of ants are! AC Inner Colony I have left a hidden cookie for you here, if you would just like to watch extended play footage of the Dark Knights living in their new setup! Before we get to the AC Question of the Week, I'd like to plug my daily vlogging channel, daily vlogs of my travels around the world. The vlogs are currently covering my exploration of Sri Lanka, and the ants and wildlife are crazy! Do check it out and subscribe! And now it's time for the AC Question of the Week! Last week, we asked: Name one change we had to make to our river to make it healthier and better equipped at dealing with toxic agents in the water. Congratulations to Carrie Williams who correctly answered: Adding one of my favorite things more plants! Sagittaria grass and duckweed. And a mac daddy filtration system, with extra help from bacteria.? Congratulations Carrie you just won a free ebook handbook from our shop! In this week's AC Question of the Week, we ask: Which was your favourite Ant World created in this video and why? Leave your answer in the comments section and you could win a free AC Outworld 2.0 featured in this video! Hope you can subscribe to the channel as we upload every Saturday at 8AM EST. Please remember to LIKE, COMMENT, SHARE, & SUBSCRIBE if you enjoyed this video to help us keep making more. It's ant love forever!
Info
Channel: AntsCanada
Views: 1,062,495
Rating: 4.9201255 out of 5
Keywords: ants, antscanada, mikey bustos, myrmecology, antfarm, ant colony, ant nest, queen ant, formicarium, antstore, ant habitat, antworks, insects, science, pets, exotic, nature, black crazy ants, paratrechina longicornis
Id: 3WlhLmh7uiQ
Channel Id: undefined
Length: 28min 18sec (1698 seconds)
Published: Sat Apr 21 2018
Reddit Comments

Who would've thought that there would be a channel dedicated to ants with over a million subscribers. Seems cool though.

👍︎︎ 7 👤︎︎ u/ArosHD 📅︎︎ Apr 29 2018 🗫︎ replies

this is what libs have done to canada -- turned them into a bunch of ant enthusiast cucks. MAGA

👍︎︎ 3 👤︎︎ u/dankymcmemes69 📅︎︎ Apr 30 2018 🗫︎ replies

Great. Now I want an ant colony.

👍︎︎ 1 👤︎︎ u/oskar669 📅︎︎ Apr 29 2018 🗫︎ replies

now i want to invest all the money i dont have into a huge black ethnostate of dark knight ants

👍︎︎ 1 👤︎︎ u/R-SenshoX 📅︎︎ Apr 30 2018 🗫︎ replies
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