Don't click away! What you're about to see here is one of the
coolest ants you've ever seen in your whole life! The ant, as an insect, in general is well
known for its resourcefulness, a steadfast hard working ethic, a great propensity for
teamwork, and an undying devotion to the "whole", the collective "hive mind" mindset. What you're about to see today, as we take
a peek into the lives of one of my top favourite ants in the entire world, the utterly savage
marauder ants, will totally blow your mind! You thought fire ants and bullet ants were
scary, wait until you see what this ant colony of mine is like! AC Family, it's time enter the secret and
intriguing lives of the Titans, our multi-queen polymorphic colony of Asian marauder ants,
here on the AntsCanada ant channel! Please SUBSCRIBE to my channel, and hit the
BELL icon! Welcome to the AC Family! Enjoy! A commotion is growing among the colony above
the surface of the nest. It's feeding time again right now in the territories,
and on today's menu, pieces of the most delicious almond, which the Titans had just learned
about a few minutes prior, and were wasting no time at grabbing to carry into their underground
nest for further processing. I just love feeding time for the Titans, because
they always take what I drop into the lands with an eagerness and zest that is somehow
super satisfying. And you're about to see soon just how crazy
and even intellectual they can get at feeding time when we feed them a giant cockroach,
but more about that, later! But as for now, this offering of almond chunks
is being appreciated greatly by the Titans. If you're new to the channel, the Titans here
are an interesting species and colony of ant. For one thing, they're what you call polymorphic,
meaning they have different sizes and shapes of workers. Have a look! See that large worker there! That's a major! It sports a massive head, specialized in defense
and cutting things up. The colony will be needing majors to help
break up these almond chunks into smaller bits for the colony. Right now, though it looks like it's patrolling
the area making sure no tresspassers come around to steal their nutty bounty! But this menacing major is nothing! We'll be seeing what the Supermajors look
like later! Another thing that makes this particular colony
pretty sweet is that they are a massive ant colony! If you think this looks like a lot of ants,
trust me on this: This is probably a tiny fraction of the entire colony who reside mostly
underground in their subterranean chambers. Speaking of which, later we'll also be peeking
into their nest chambers, so do stay tuned for that coming up, as well! I hear they make some huge underground chambers! The reason this colony is so big is because
they are actually a supercolony, meaning they have several egg-laying queens, another thing
that makes the Titans awesome, but also another reason they're so hungry all the time! They've got a lot of mouths to feed! With multiple queens that constantly need
food to produce eggs, and perhaps thousands of ant babies, i.e. larvae to feed, these
ants need to work over time to gather enough food to feed them all! We saw in a video last year, when they were
first introduced to this terrarium that there were at least 6 egg-laying queens in the colony,
along with the sheer mass of brood the queens were producing! You guys gotta watch that video after this
video if you haven't yet! But speaking of their terrarium, you guys
might be shocked to see what what their territories look like today. AC Family, don't panic but it seems the Titans
have decided to redecorate! So this is what the Titan's territories used
to look like. We called Olympus, a gorgeous mountain castle
zen-themed kingdom used to look like exactly one year ago! The Titans used to come racing down hills
of virgin soils, adorned with towering tropical ground plants. It was pretty, pristine in fact, the garden
perfectly tended and pleasing to the eye, a haven for the Titans, if you ask me! But apparently, if you ask the Titans here,
they had other plans for exterior decorating! This entire area here used to be full of those
beautiful, towering tropical ground plants. Well that's all gone now! These ants are currently celebrating their
1 yr anniversary in Olympus, and check out what their idea of pretty and pristine is! Yikes! The ants have been busy clear-cutting the
entire area of plant life, leaving only mounds of bare, exposed earth in this mountain castle
kingdom of Olympus. It's amazing how different one year of customization
makes in an ant terrarium! A skeleton of a Japanese juniper bonsai tree
hung morbidly off its dead branches, like a scarecrow warning of what could happen if
you enter these lands ruled by such powerful ants. I'll tell you what I think happened to all
the plants in a bit, but first check out the castle! The Titans love nesting under this castle
monument for some reason, which brings me to what I believe the Titans have been doing
to their lands, which caused Olympus to completely become a dead zone! From what I understand, the subterranean nest
tunnels and chambers of Asian Marauder ants are pretty extensive and are composed of massive
underground caves where the ants gather in huge groups, storing food, brood, housing
the queens, etc. I'm thinking the ants killed the plants we
planted from the ground up, totally making it hard for them to root properly. So they all eventually died out. Now, I knew that one day, we'd like to peek
into the Titan's nest to actually check out these underground caves the ants excavate
in the Earth, so I placed a dekal removable sticker up against the glass, to block out
all light from the side, in hopes the ants might dig their tunnels and underground caves
against it! What you say, guys? Let's peek inside? Ok...! I went in and pulled on the sticker... Actually wait! You know what? On second thought, no! There's something I would like to do first
in case the ants are disturbed by us giants looking into the recesses of their most private
darkened chambers and come boiling out above ground! The territories, first and foremost needed
a serious facelift! Let's do this! I put on my surgical gloves for protection! Although these ants don't have stingers like
our fire ants, Asian marauder ants do have one hell of a bite! It hurts and leaves marks, even the ones from
the tiniest workers. These ants can strip meat right off the bone,
so these gloves would help, "help" being the operative word! I knew stragglers would eventually find their
way to my bare skin... hopefully not in my underwear this time! Next, I went straight in for the dead bonsai
tree. I tried to do this carefully so not to disturb
the ants. I wanted this dead tree out as it was a bit
of an eye sore. As I began to carefully cut the tree from
its base, I immediately began to feel ants swarming from below. Ahhhh! So much for trying not to disturb the colony! The Titans were right on to me, and began
to run about in alarm searching for the giant blue gloves that had come to disturb their
home. They were mad and ready to attack, and they
certainly did! As expected, I got bit! And took the time to carefully pick the successful
biters off my arms. They were not happy that I'd come to cut their
dead tree down. I didn't want to uproot this tree in case
the roots were giving their nest structure somehow. But overall, I knew this renovation of Olympus
was going to be tough! The Titans were everywhere and ready to get
me no matter what! But, regardless I was determined to keep going. The next step, was I needed to add some activated
carbon to the digging medium to help neutralize any impurities in the soils. This is a technique I learned from terrarium-maker
youtuber Serpadesign. I thought it was brilliant for use with ants,
especially because these ants tend to be on the sensitive side when it comes to toxins
and chemical substances. It would help keep the soils clean, just as
it does for aquariums. Next, I wanted to place in more decorative
rock, but did this with the utmost care, not to squish or cave in any underlying caves
below. I also placed the rocks on already existing
structures so to create the least amount of disturbance underground. In the wild, these ants favour creating nests
under large rocks and tree stumps so these rocks would be perfect for the new Olympus. And after four long hours of rearranging and
renovations, this is what the new ant kingdom looked like! AC Family, behold! The new ant Kingdom of Olympus! Olympus now had a sort of different theme. It was a lush, tropical rocky cliffside, with
some special features that make it better suited to the extreme lifestyle of the Titans! Let me show you why! First, take a look at all the plants here. They've been carefully selected for one reason. Can you guess why? Well, turns out all but one of these plants
are epiphytes, meaning they grow on the surface of another plant or tree and derive their
moisture and nutrients from the air, rain, water, or debris accumulating around it! This means then, of course, that they don't
have an extensive root system, and therefore can still survive even if the Titans decide
to nest under them! Here at the top of the hill we have some bird's
nest fern, a favourite epiphyte of mine because they are easy to grow. These three are growing in some soil plus
sphagnum moss. They're called bird's nest fern from their
nest-like appearance as you can see when viewing them from behind. Check out that one growing on the branch like
a true bird's nest! Love that! Here's some Spanish moss, which of course
don't grow in soil at all, it just grows from these branches and hangs there like tropical
curtains framing the territories well. Here's another bird's nest fern, and above
it one of my favourite air plants, tillandsias! Tillandsias are attractive epiphytes that
help make any terrarium look tropical. I personally love them in my ant kingdoms! Now these two maranta plants are the only
plants that aren't true epiphytes but I've planted them towards the sides and the lower
area of the lands to decrease the chances of the ants mining their large caves beneath
them. They're an attractive plant that I find for
some reason does well within ant setups. Perhaps they thrive off ant poop? Who knows? I also love their look and tendency to grow
low on the ground. Let's hope they survive the Titan lifestyle! Which brings me now to my absolute favourite
part of the territories! The pit! These sunken lowlands have been designed to
look like a true forest floor. Have a look! And apparently, it's not only mine, but it's
clearly also the Titan's favourite place to frequent above ground. Though it looks pretty basic, it was actually
the most complex part of the territories to design. First, I needed to add some start up moss
growing from my moss stash, and lay it down on the soil. Let's hope it decides to continue growing
here in this area. These soils will be the most moist part of
the lands so, I'm pretty hopeful it will like this environment at the pit. Next, I had to sprinkle some dead, decaying
leaves to not only give it that forest floor feel, but also start the process of enriching
the soils for the marantas and offer food for soil creatures. In fact, I took that dead bonsai tree and
cut it up to create an awesome leaf litter layer throughout the territories! No need to waste a thing right? And with the excess tree, I placed it as decoration
on top of the castle. We might as well use everything! And just like that, AC Family the new Olympus
stood majestic and beautiful, but functionally better suited to the Titans. What do you guys think of it? Could you live here if you were a Titan? Well, interestingly enough, what I'm about
to show you next was truly awesome! Are you ready for an interesting surprise? Turns out more than just ants live here now. After examining Olympus, I noticed a few creatures
living amongst the ants. See if you can spot one of them! There! It looks like we have millipedes, AC Family! These baby millipedes will help break down
decaying vegetation, which is excellent for the system. It seems the ants see them as friends and
don't bother them. Great choice as they are toxic and produces
cyanide! Now let's see how sharp your eyes are, AC
Family. Tell me if you spot this next awesome creature. Did you see it? On the moss, I spotted this cute fella that
likely came with one of the plants! It's a bagworm, a caterpillar of a moth that
creates an awesome protective home which it carries on its back made of debris all glued
together using silk. Guess it has loved the leaf litter we sprinkled
on the forest floor and put it to good use! It acts as an awesome shelter for the bagworm
in case of danger, and also a great disguise, as the ants completely pass by oblivious to
the worm's presence! Otherwise, this worm would be a tasty morsel
for the Titans. Nature is so sneaky! Woops! The home seems quite heavy. Nothing the bagworm can't handle though. Besides bagworms, the territories actually
also has earthworms and nematodes, also great for the system as they help break down organic
matter! It was great to know the Titans had this good
support team of other creatures to work together with to ensure these territories continue
to thrive. The ants themselves produce a lot of garbage
from leftover food, and need these other creatures to help cleanup. Speaking of which, now it's time for something
truly incredible! AC Family, it's that time again. Feeding Time and what I have in store for
the Titans will bring about an epic show for you, that will blow your mind! The ants seemed preoccupied and unaware that
it was feeding time. They were pretty busy at the moment excavating
tunnels and disposing of leftover garbage from yesterday's almond meal. They seemed to be forming trails along the
forest floor pit where I was intending to drop their meal for the evening. I couldn't wait to see how the ants were going
to feed on tonight's entre: a giant cockroach, dropped into the pit! Wait until you see the Titan swarm! Ooohhh I couldn't wait! But first, the appetizer. Some superworms! A few Titans discover it, and it wasn't long
before more came to the party. And then even more! Take a look at that major going to town! This superworm has been pre-killed and cut
as several places of its body, just decrease its suffering, but due to the nature of insect
nervous system, it still is capable of twitching and movement. And a lot of people have told me that insects
don't feel pain, but there is no proof of this. In my opinion, of course they feel pain! I've watched live insects twitch in a pit
of fire ants, and if you've watched our cockroach giving birth video on this channel, you'll
know what I mean! Alright, speaking of roach, it was time to
offer them a chopped up roach, which the Titans swarmed immediately! This is their favourite! But you guys will totally trip out at how
brilliant these ants are at dealing with these huge roach chunks! Prepare to witness the Titan swarm! There's the other half of the roach! Yummy! Check out how quickly the ants appear on the
scene in this quick time lapse video! From above, the entire forest floor pit is
carpeted with swarming ants. The sight was pretty awesome! In the wild, I've seen this species swarm
like this, and I always find it amazing to see it happen in Olympus, especially now in
the new territories. The two pieces of roach are rather far apart,
but check out how the ants bring them into the nest! At the moment, here was one of the main entrances
into their nest, and I already saw that ants were carrying chunks of dirt from inside the
nest. Others were carrying dirt to other places... Hmmm... what could they be doing, you ask? At the site around the roaches, you could
see a few of the workers were already beginning to manipulate the dirt around the roach pieces. This is the start of their master plan! Just wait, AC Family! Some ants stood guard for thieves as the rest
of the colony worked hard all around. Ants have started to pile soil onto this roach
piece, and it the ants have already managed to break off smaller parts of the roach to
cooperatively transport into the nest for further breakdown. Amazing teamwork! And into the nest the roach leg goes! It always staggers me to see the Titans feeding
this eagerly! These shots from here on in are not time lapsed! These are just hungry marauder ants on a mission! Look at them! Even if this roach were alive, it would definitely
not have been able to stand a chance at survival against the hoard! And there, AC Family, is the roach's head,
and from the looks of things it looks like they're going to attempt to pull the huge
thing to the nest entrance. They've already begun ripping off chunks of
meat from the inside and taking home the roach bacon! They've ripped off another leg piece, and
oh, they're taking it down another nest entrance it seems. As for the other nest entrance, it seems ants
are taking soil out. Ants were also beginning to build structures
along the pathway to the nest. I assumed they were making it easier somehow
for the roach chunks to slide towards the nest. I knew their master plans would unfold before
our eyes over time, so I continued to watch. It was important that the marauder ants get
this huge roach underground and into the nest as quickly and efficiently as possible because
if this were in the wild, birds or other creatures could smell this fresh meat and steal it from
them, and this roach could feed hundreds of thousands of ants for a couple days. Getting this roach into the nest was a matter
of survival! They've already done a great job with the
other chunk, which was now half sunken into the ground. Wow! Not only were they burying the chunk, they
were actually pulling dirt from under it so it sunk into the soil and I'm guessing into
one of their nest chambers! At the nest entrance, it appeared the ants
were busy making the internal tunnels larger, but for some reason keeping the actual entrance
of the nest small. Hmmm... I wonder why? The ants were beginning to pull the roach
towards the nest, little by little, and they had piled debris and soil on top of the roach. I felt this was a bit counter productive because
it might add weight, but perhaps it was also to camouflage the chunk to obscure its appearance
from thieves? And suddenly out of nowhere, I saw this! A massive supermajor appeared on the scene,
but after a quick inspection, felt it wasn't needed for this project and rushed back into
the nest for some reason. Haha! See how huge the supermajors area! They're literal tanks! Majors did also show up on site, but it did
seem the bulk of this operation was pulled off by the normal sized small workers. Not sure how they decide, but the Titans are
calling the shots of this operation, so I'm not questioning their intelligence. As the huge roach chunk was pulled millimeter
by millimeter forward, I began to notice that the ants weren't actually piling the debris
on top of the roach anymore, but more creating a sort of debris wall at the back end of the
cargo. Hmmmm... What were these ants up to? Check it out, AC Family! Leave your guesses in the comments and by
the end of this operation, go back to your comment and let us know if you were right! All will be revealed soon, I promise, guys! 20 minutes later the roach chunk had approached
the nest entrance, which oddly was still the same size. It did still seem like dirt was being moved
out from within the nest. The ants were also now really Trump-level
committed to building that wall on the tail end of the roach chunk. OK seriously what were these ants up to? But the entrance to the nest was still kinda
small. What were they waiting for? How were they expecting to fit this huge chunk
in there? As for the other roach chunk, it was completely
gone now, and like quicksand, the ants had literally undermined the roach until it sunk
below ground level. The site was still active though, as I saw
ants moving soil from another area. I found that kinda weird, but again, this
was actually all part of their plan to be revealed soon. As the roach got real close to the entrance,
and the wall being built real thick behind the carcass, I began to notice the ants were
starting to veer the roach carcass into the other nest entrance on the right. Oh ok! And it was in that moment that it all made
sense! And it was at that moment that the Titan's
plans and utter brilliance came to light! Ahhh I understand now! The ants needed to get the food down into
the nest as quickly as possible, right? So the reason they were moving the soil out
from one area of the nest, was because the ants had planned for a one directional movement
of soil. In other words, workers would work to take
soil out from one hole, so to not hinder the roach from moving inside in any way! Imagine trying to lug a gigantic piece of
roach into a nest with a tonne of workers trying to carry dirt out of the same entrance! This system of having an outbound soil exit
and an inbound roach entrance allowed for the swiftest relocation of the food inside,
because everything was moving in a single direction. This was also why they weren't making this
left hole bigger. It wasn't necessary seeing as it was a dirt
exit hole, and no giant roach would need to fit in here! And why should the ants waste time, energy,
and expose the entrance to their nest if they don't need to. And sure enough, the massive roach was stuffed
down the right nest entrance, and that massive wall they had built at the rear end of the
carcass had become the solid door to seal up everything up completely as soon as the
roach was in! Wow! The ants had the foresight to build the seal
to the nest entrance ahead of time and position it at the rear end of the carcass so it could
close the giant hole immediately! Isn't that just sheer brilliance, AC Family? And before I knew it, the roach pieces had
disappeared inside the nest along with the swarm, with remaining ants were simply doing
a bit of clean up and erasing of tracks. The entire process was mind-blowing and truly
an honour to witness. It seems this new design of Olympus, was so
far proving to be a good match to their lifestyle. And now, AC Family, it's not over! As promised, I wanted to peek into the nest
and see just how awesome their underground tunnels and chambers were! The idea of seeing one of the roach pieces
inside one of their massive subterranean caves packed with ants and brood made my heart race! Here we go, guys! Let's start with the front! I began to peel off the sticker. Hmmm... leftover roach parts from a past feeding... And ohhhh we've found a chamber! Not a huge one but one with a big piece of
almond! Wow! They've brought the almond chunk all the way
down from the top of the hill to this bottom area! And look! A baby millipede living inside the ant nest. How neat! They're Titan pets! The ants actually didn't mind it there. Oh, this was so cool to get to see into their
nest! I continued to pull off the sticker and saw
more spacious tunnels, not too many ants but still quite impressive! It made sense that these tunnels had to be
large like this so it could accommodate the super majors and queens with ease. OK and that was all I saw from the front end. No huge caves, but still cool! I sealed the front back up to give the ants
the darkened privacy they needed. And now it was time for the big side! Ohhhhh I bet this side would reveal some huge
caverns and tunnel work. I proceeded to pull off the sticker. I saw some tunnels... and more tunnels... and more tunnels, but
up ahead was the big reveal...! A worm! Eww! Gross! What? As I got to the end, I was a bit surprised
that all I saw were tunnels and no huge caves, not even many ants! Well that was quite anti-climactic! At least we saw a worm! Haha! I guess it seems the Titans have decided not
to show themselves today, but you know what? I was ok with that, because upon further thought,
I felt ant keeping should be a give and take relationship. We give the ants what we as their caregivers
are capable of giving, including a pristine kingdom, food, and privacy, and the ants give
us back a peek into their private lives in return, but only as much as they feel fit. And in a previous video where we visited Antstore
in Berlin and saw these ants in a 100% clear setup, I asked you guys if you wanted me to
transfer the Titans into something similar so that we could see the internal nest action,
but after reading all your comments it seems most of you were ok with having the ants live
in privacy and just enjoying what the ants show us about their lives above ground, and
in this case, I believe I agree. Someone great once said: "Blessed are those
who have not seen and yet have believed!" It was fulfilling enough to know that somewhere
beneath these soils were massive caverns housing hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions of
ants, brood, queens, and food, deep within this tropical mountain castle home we made
for them called Olympus. The fact that the ants only allowed us to
see what they were comfortable with actually made every sighting above ground that much
more special to me. Wouldn't you agree? Now there was one last thing I needed to add
to these lands to officially make the new Olympus, land of the Titans. It was their official monument, which I recovered,
cleaned up and was now going to place here! The Titans will always be one of my favourite
ant colonies in the Antiverse, and it was so fulfilling knowing we were somehow helping
them live their best life in the protection of the Antiverse. Lights off on another epic ant day. AC Family, did you enjoy today's episode? I loved all the things we saw in Olympus today,
how about you guys? Let me know in the comments! The epic stories of the ants of the Antiverse
continue in next week's episode, so you know what to do! Smash that SUBSCRIBE button and BELL ICON
for notifications now, so you don't miss out! And don't forget to hit the LIKE button every
single time, including now! It would really help a lot! Speaking of ants, it's officially nuptial
flight season in the Northern Hemisphere, and a lot of you are catching queen ants now,
and in case you didn't know, we've got all the top of the line ant keeping gear for you
ant keepers at all levels from beginner to advanced, as well as a tonne of new and exciting
products for the ant keeping community not available anywhere else, so head on over to
AntsCanada.com, and browse through our shop. We ship worldwide, and offer full email support
if you need us. We also have ant colonies with a queen available
in most regions, so go check us out and pick up your ant farm kit and ant gear today! If you're new to the channel, and want to
catch up on all your AntsCanada Lore, feel free to binge watch this complete story line
playlist here, which traces the origins of all the ant colonies of the ant room, so you
can follow their stories and better appreciate how these ant kingdoms came to be, and why
we love them so much! AC Inner Colony, I have left a hidden cookie
for you here, if you'd like to see the complete, uncut action sequence of the feeding of the
Titan swarm, as well as scenes of life within the ant kingdom of Olympus. It's all super satisfying to watch! And now it's time for the AC Question of the
Week! Last week we asked: Name one substance found in Fire Ant venom. Congratulations to X.GAMER 3000 who correctly
answered: Solenopsin Congratulations, X.Gamer 3000, you just won
a free e-book handbook from our shop! In this week's AC Question of the Week, we
ask: Name one creature living with the ants in
Olympus. Leave your answer in the comments section
and you could also win a free e-book handbook from our shop! 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!
