Over the past few months, our quest to improve
the quality of life for the millions of ants hailing from the different beloved colonies
on this channel, saw extravagant and beautiful makeovers to the worlds in which the ant colonies
live, breathe, and die. But there was still one important colony that
patiently awaited its turn for a home and lifestyle upgrade, and AC Family, this time,
it wasn't a colony of ants. No, today, we're going to be setting up the
stage for a very big intrusion. It's finally time to upgrade the home, of
our ants' livestock, and if this channel has successfully perked your intrigue for insects
and the creepy crawlies, well, brace yourselves, 'cause things are about to get encroachingly
interesting! Please subscribe to my channel, and hit the
bell icon, welcome to the AC Family. Enjoy! Now if you've made it this far into the video
and you're totally put off by roaches but haven't clicked off yet, don't leave! Let me say this! If you've watched this channel and have found
ants surprisingly interesting, I think it's amazing that you've given ants a chance into
your hearts, but I assure you, if you stay with us for this exclusive and intimate look
at the secret lives of these equally amazing insects, which just like ants, have gotten
such bad reps among people all around the world, you just might shock yourself by coming
to at least appreciate them, or heck, possibly even love them! OK, I hear you. Let's not push ourselves now right? I completely understand the aversion. I too get squeamish when I see huge roaches
running close by. In Canada, where I grew up most of my life,
cockroaches in the home are a homeowner's worst nightmare! Roaches have simply become associated with
a mal-kept place, being vectors for disease and bacteria. They are perhaps the world's most loathed
vermin next to rats. Here in tropical Manila where I currently
live, massive roaches are seen pretty much everywhere and it's not uncommon to see a
roach the size of a tennis ball running or even flying around! But the cockroach species that you and I see
that infest our human living spaces, only make up less than 1% of all cockroach species
we've ever discovered. Of the 4,600 different types of cockroaches
in existence, only 30 of them are domestic pests. This means that over 99% of all cockroach
species live away from human homes and want nothing to do with sharing your apartment
or nibbling on your toothbrush. Just kidding. So today the charming colony of cockroaches
we will be looking at belong to this greater majority of roaches that don't live in human
homes, well not naturally anyway. These scuttling juggernauts, who live in an
enclosure in my home, are known commonly in the pet trade as Dubia roaches, scientifically
Blaptica dubia. These cockroaches are not domestic pests,
but instead are native to the tropical rainforests of Central and South America where they live
in colonies along the rainforest floor, and play an important role as decomposers of decaying
and rotting vegetation. A group or colony of cockroaches by the way
is known as an intrusion. You may have seen a previous video on this
channel where I talked about this intrusion of Dubias, but today's episode is going to
be a bit different because I felt, in light of all of these ant habitat upgrades and ant
life improvements, the next step was to improve the living space of our roaches, which yes
may just be the ants' food, but see, all the more reason to give the cockroach colony a
home upgrade, too. The happier and healthier the ants' prey is,
the better food it is for our ants, kind of like the how free-range and grain-fed livestock,
nourishment and health-wise, is better for us humans. And since we here at AntsCanada love all living
things, why not give the prey animals the best possible paradise of a home they can
live in for the days that they are alive, right? They may as well crossover happy cockroaches. Which brings me to their current living conditions. This intrusion of Dubias have been living
in this plastic critter-crawler for years. Dubias are a very popular prey-insect for
keepers of reptiles, tarantulas, and other insectivorous pets, not only because of their
great nutrient content, but also because they are easy to keep, and will tolerate some of
the most basic living conditions. We're taught in prey-insect-keeping that Dubias
can survive well in setups kept as dry as possible to minimize mold, maggots, and odour. Moreover, the cockroaches can live on egg
carton and toilet paper rolls, furnishings which are readily available and easiest to
change once they become soiled. We're taught that the roaches could be gut-loaded
on a steady diet of orange slices for water, perhaps a carrot or other easy-to-obtain water-retaining
veggie, and some dry dog kibble for good measure, to gut-load the insects with a few vitamins. But it wasn't until recently that I realized,
"Hey, why am I settling for the bare minimum for these cockroaches when I could go epic
and natural, just like we've done for our ants?" I mean, these roaches are technically by default,
also pets, so if we could upgrade our roaches' setup and even upgrade their diet to something
a bit more varied, I bet the resulting happier and healthier cockroaches will be of greater
benefit to the ants, as each cockroach will be more nutrient-rich. Healthier and happier cockroaches may breed
more frequently and more abundantly, produce healthier and more robust offspring, which
therefore means more food for the ants. Now before we get to designing their new epic
setup, I wanted to quickly address feeding ethics. Many of you have expressed concerns that the
cockroaches look alive in these videos when fed to my ants. This is definitely not the case, as I've tried
that in the past, and it lead to a horrific sight! I personally prefer to freshly, pre-kill my
roaches before offering them to my ants. I usually split them with scissors at the
neck, or somewhere along the thorax, and/or down the abdomen. The reason the cockroaches still move their
legs even after dispatching them is because of the insect nervous system, which is composed
of masses of nerve cells called ganglia, which run down the center of the body. This is why, they say that even if you cut
the head off a roach, it still survives for a few days. This may not be so true, but without a head,
the roaches indeed can still move due to the ganglia which are still in tact. And the reason why I offer freshly pre-killed
prey, instead of dried insects or already dead insects, is because the ants can consume
wet insect guts much more easily than dried insect guts. It also has better nutrients. Think of fresh beef verses beef jerky! Alright, and now to do we what we love! As creators of worlds, it was time to create
a proper roach kingdom! And here lays our empty shell of field, an
empty tank, the venue from which shall spring forth a new world of natural art, the kingdom
which will be the new habitat of our Dubia roaches. I went straight to work. I had a few goals for this soon to be roach
home. I wanted to offer a territory that best duplicated
their natural habitat, but also offer a venue for the cockroaches to do what they do best,
the role which nature has chosen for them: Enablers of decomposition! You see, people often ask me, why should one
want to keep ants. It's not like bee keeping where you have a
product like honey that humans could consume? And to that, I say, aside from the inspiration
and education ant-keeping brings, I love that ants can in some cases be used for their decomposition
capabilities. Why keep a vermiculture composter when you
could use ants to further decompose your discarded food scraps like these chicken bones? But even more effective at decomposing organic
waste than ants, are the amazing cockroaches! During an environmental studies course I took
in college, I did a project on how forest roaches could be used to speed up the decomposition
process of organic waste. They would even eat newspaper soaked in fruit
juice. Turns out, forest roaches like these Dubias
can be just as effective if not more effective at breaking down organic trash than worms. So I wanted this roach terrarium to also be
a mini-composter. Let's coin the term now! A Blattocomposter, from Blattodea the order
of roaches! And then, the new roach territories were done! Behold, the new, soon-to-be home of our Dubia
intrusion. It was an organic playground of soil, driftwood,
and leaf cuttings from my tropical house plants, set to mimic the leaf-litter and groundscape
of a typical jungle floor. I wanted there to be various places for the
roaches to hide, which the winding driftwood certainly offered, but also, I wanted to install
what I call the Dubian Dome. A darkened rock hide with open chambers and
two floors for the roaches to occupy, but one that we could access if we wanted to take
a peek inside. You may notice that the earth towards the
back and side forms a slope. This was perfect, because I wanted to form
a sort of feeding pit for the cockroaches. In this section, I wanted to place all the
roaches food, so that if the roaches wanted to feed, they would need to come out of hiding. Speaking of which, let's add a few goodies
now before we proceed with the grand release of the Dubias, shall we? Some fish pellets, and slices of apple. Alright, and finally, it's time to add the
roaches! Here we go AC Family! Releasing the intrusion into these virgin
lands! I carefully shook the cockroaches from the
egg cartons. It was the last time they were going to have
to live on some man-made material used to insulate chicken eggs, and instead inhabit
a more natural setup, a forest floor! I dropped in some two to three hundred cockroaches
of different sizes into the terrarium. They instantly scurried about in attempts
to find some cover. They wedged themselves into crevices within
the driftwood, and a lot of them surprisingly were able to conceal themselves by burrowing
into the soil. I was surprised by this. I never knew these roaches were capable of
burrowing, but then again, of course they could! Soil was what they were meant to live in,
not egg cartons! Some of the roaches immediately began to feed
from our goodies. Look at them just munching away at the apple! What's neat is, these roaches can acquire
all the hydration they need from the food they eat. I was happy to see that they were settling
in nicely. Although, most of the roaches had disappeared
into the shadows of their new home land, I decided to leave them for a bit, to give them
a chance to warm up and explore the territories in the dark. Now watch what I saw one hour later, flicking
on the lights. Woah! Roaches were everywhere, but the sudden illumination
of the territories startled our nyctophilic friends. Nyctophilia is the preference for dark or
night, and it seems our roaches are ultimate shadow-lovers. It was hilarious to see that some of the roaches
were not so good at hiding, but still quite neat to know the roaches had begun to explore
their new home. But, it was time to see where the bulk of
them were hiding. I looked towards the entrance of the Dubian
Dome. I just knew they had to be in there! Removing the rock cover, and wow! There they were, a big community of them huddling
in the darkened areas of the rock hide. It was amazing to see them all snug in there. Let's leave them in the dark. But I knew there were still many more roaches
hiding somewhere in these lands, and I had a small inkling as to where. I peeked behind this wall of driftwood and
voila, we found another big gathering of roaches! Roaches of different ages huddled together
in the comfort of each other's presence behind this great wall of wood. It was great and satisfying to see the Dubias
in a more natural state like this. Some of them felt comfortable enough, poking
their half concealed bodies out from below some leaf cover, to continued to feast on
our apples. I loved watching the different ages coming
together to feed. Look at how cute that little baby roach is! Adorable. I left the colony to allow them to spend their
first night in their new home in peace. Lights off! By morning, I peeked into the habitat. The roaches had all retired into their darkened
spaces, and were out of sight. And AC Family, check this out! All the apples and fish pellets were fully
consumed. Checking the Dubian Dome, and yup! They were in there, enjoying all that cozy
darkness and humidity. Behind the wood wall, more roaches just snoozing
away. I even noticed this, a female cockroach giving
birth to an ootheca. An ootheca is the term for this egg sac, which
this roach is laying now but will after be reabsorbed into her body where the babies
will further develop until she is ready to give birth to them. Dubia birth is certainly an interesting thing. I sat and watched her in amazement, take in
her ootheca to completion. Soon the developed roach nymphs will be ready
to hatch, and she'll be giving birth to up to 40 tiny white roach babies. And speaking of which, AC Family, I wasn't
prepared to see what I saw next. A movement on the forest floor caught my eye. Upon further inspection, I was surprised to
discover that it was a nymph caught on its back, seemingly trying to right itself. Oh. How odd. Let's help it out, AC Family. I used a barbique skewer to help the little
one onto its legs. It managed to eventually get right way up,
but as it began to walk around, I noticed something wasn't right. The nymph had some kind of deformity on its
back half of its body, and it caused the nymph to struggle as it crawled around. It wasn't long before it ended up once again
on its back, flailing its legs helplessly in the air. I was extremely saddened when I saw this because
I knew this newborn, still white from birth, was likely not going to make it. Its survival depended on its ability to walk
around, search for food, defend itself from the big boys of the intrusion, and just generally
carry its own within the hustle and bustle of normal cockroach life, but this deformity
meant, it would not be able to do this. Sadly, this nymph would not last the day. It made me wonder if this deformity and birth
defect was the result of roach malnutrition, or perhaps improper humidity from the old
home in the dry and mundane critter-crawler. I wondered if the mother of this little one
was truly healthy during her pregnancy within the old home. I wondered how many roach babies per batch,
born from this intrusion, end up being born with such lethal, debilitating complications. It made me feel so bad for housing my roaches
in such a bare-bones setup for so long. I feared I may have been keeping them in an
unsuitable prison all these years, forcing them to just get by on orange slices, the
random carrot, and cheap dog food. As I watched the little nymph slowly weaken,
I made a promise to myself, to never again allow my prey insects to just get by. From now on, I was going to be committed at
providing my roaches, even if they were technically just ant food, with the best, most fruitful
life possible, before they would go on to provide nourishment to my ant colonies. I continued to develop this roach habitat
into a working Blattocomposter, dumping organic waste like my leftover apple peels and cores,
and even last night's cold french fries, into the feeding pit for the roaches to feed on. I continued to water this setup to keep the
soils moist, and to support the growth of essential bacteria, molds, fungi, and springtails
to assist at further breaking down the organics I placed inside. Turning on the lights in the middle of the
night, it was assuring to see the roaches doing what they do best, the job nature had
intended, and the very reason they were put here on this Earth. No, not to merely be prey insects for other
animals, nor to nibble on your tooth brush, but rather, to decompose. This ameliorated lifestyle would go on to
benefit my ants in the end. I wonder if the ants will be able to taste
the difference in these roaches from here on in. Whatever the case, it was an important lesson
for me to learn through this entire experience. In being the main provider of nourishment
for the millions of ant lives under my care, I realized how important it was to invest
in farming quality food, and not simply settling with rearing bulk food at minimal parameters,
because after all, you are what you eat, and what your food eats. Alright AC Family, what do you think? Did this video help you appreciate roaches
a little more? Alright! It's OK if it didn't. But this new roach kingdom needs a name. Leave your name suggestions for this roach
palace in the comments and I will choose my top 5 favourites for us to vote on in a future
video! But hey, AC Family, listen up, next week I
have a very important update on one of my other ant colonies that you won't want to
miss, so hit that SUBSCRIBE button and bell icon now so you don't miss out on this continuing
ant story within our Antiverse, and hit the LIKE button every single time, including now! AC Inner Colony, I have left a hidden cookie
for you here, if you would just like to watch extended play footage of our cockroaches having
feast! You won't want to miss them munching down! Before we continue to AC Question of the week,
I wanted to plug my daily vlogging channel! That's daily vlogs of my travels around the
world, which often includes lots of nature stuff! Alright and now it's time for the AC Question
of the Week! In last week's video, which by the way trended
at #6 in US, AC Family you did that! Thank you! We asked: Which was your favourite Ant World
created in the video and why? This question had no real right answer, but
congratulations to Hannah Fire who answered: My favourite is the Zen Jardim! The muted pinks
contrast appealingly with the dark stems and little
ants, and it is very relaxing to look at. Congratulations, Hannah Fire, you just won
a free AC Outworld 2.0 from our shop! In this week's AC Question of the Week, we
ask: What is the term used to describe
a preference for dark or night? Leave your answer in the comments section
and you could win a free ebook 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, & SUBSCRIBE
if you enjoyed this video to help us keep making more. It's ant love forever!
