I popped open the container and with the help
of a friend, threw all its contents into Vortexia as quickly as I could! They came pouring out, and to my surprise
there weren't just 500 workers! The colony was easily a couple thousands! I shut the door, trying to ignore the excruciating
pain of stinging weaver ants all over my arms! I turned the key to lock the weaver ants in. It was a painful venture, but before I knew
it, they were in! Thousands of weaver ants scrambled up the
vines and spread out into the dense expanse and foliage of Vortexia. I was awestruck watching them carpet all landmarks
of what was now going to officially be their kingdom! I stood speechless at the sight and couldn't
look away as the mighty weaver ants rushed all areas of Vortexian territory. It was a marvelous sight to behold, seeing
all the weaver ants filling the territories. But what I saw next, truly moved my soul. Look! A pupa! The ants have started to move in the brood,
which means tonight, AC Family, the weaver ants begin the official move and construction
of a leaf nest! At last! This was going to be epic! Please SUBSCRIBE to my channel, and hit the
BELL icon. Welcome to the AC Family. Enjoy! I can't believe we had done it, guys. The great Weaver ant colony was in. Over the past few days that they'd been with
us, I never imagined the colony was this big! The workers poured out from openings in the
mother leaf nest, and marched down the branches as they stepped out into the foreign territories
we had constructed for them. This was the start of an amazing adventure
for the ants, and for us, AC Family. But there was just one problem. There were ants that were loose on the outside! This was obviously not good, not only because
these ants pack a painful bite and I didn't want them running all over my condo, but also
because these outside ants were as good as dead, without the rest of the colony to integrate
with for every day vital activities like feeding, communication, and seeking of proper shelter. So I knew I had to catch these stragglers,
for their own good, and mine! So I took the container in which the weaver
ants were given to me, which I knew still had weaver ants in them. I took some baby powder and covered my gloves
in as much of it as possible, then popped the lid open and smothered the baby powder
all over the inside of the container. This baby powder layer would make the walls
of the container slippery for the weaver ants which would help keep the escaped ants much
more easily contained. I then swept as many escaped ants as I could
into the container, and spot picked every individual loose ant I saw. Get over here, little one! I won't hurt you! I then connected the container back to the
whole setup so they could all reunite with the main colony. Speaking of which, if you're new here, welcome
to the Canopy of Vortexia, a fully automated, hi-tech climate controlled, tropical ant kingdom
we've constructed for this new weaver ant colony joining our Antiverse. And my, are our weaver ants just loving it! Now that they were in here, I could really
take a good look at the colony as a whole. The first thing I noticed was the size variation
in weaver ants. There were really large workers, and really
small ones. Each of these workers were born this way. In this case, the extremes wouldn't be called
supermajors and minors, like in our Titans, for instance, because their body shapes and
proportions are generally the same. They're just different sizes. At the moment, the ants seemed pretty preoccupied
with exploring the new space. It was just breath-taking watching them traveling
on every landmark of Vortexia. Check them out! The thing that excited me the most about all
this was watching their trails lead to this main site here on the Schefflera plant, where
the ants had decided to setup their leaf nest, evidenced by their clear storing of the brood. You can see the white pupae there. Now if you're new to Weaver Ants, boy are
you in for a treat! What makes these ants super famous, as far
as ants go, is their tree top lifestyle and their impressive and unique nesting behaviour. So get this: These ants create massive leaf
nests like hanging baskets using the living leaves of the trees they nest in. The silk produced by their larvae are used
like glue to fuse a grouping leaves together to form the nests. Today you'll get to see the entire process
of how these leaf nests are constructed, including the quote-unquote "weaving process" of these
famous weaver ant leaf nests, and trust me! The footage will blow your mind, so do keep
on watching until the very end! Now, check this out, AC Family! I also noticed that the ants were trailing
here, which I followed to this area up here, which then lead down to this area here. And what lay at the end of the trail truly
surprised me. Look! Hmmm... The ants seem pretty interested in this money
tree, as well. Could the ants be thinking of building a second
nest? OMG! Wouldn't it be cool if the weaver ants decided
to create two leaf nests here within the Canopy of Vortexia? It would all be up to the ants of course,
and whatever they collectively decide as a colony, but I just couldn't wait to watch
their nesting building process from scratch. Now, AC Family, as exciting as all of this
was, what I saw next, shocked me and turned all feelings of excitement to those of great
worry. So guys, watch this. I followed a trail down to the forest floor
towards the busy mother nest. Ants were cleaning up the pupae that had scattered
when I literally had to dump them into these lands from within their carrying container. I kind of felt bad that I had to do so in
such a manner, but if you recall in our last video, this immediate transplant needed to
be done in order to get the ants to move in here before the dreaded Pharaoh ants could
claim these territories. Pharaoh ants would have spelled certain death,
had the weaver ants not claimed these lands theirs first, and we on this channel know
how pervasive and deadly these pharaoh ants can be! So with all these weaver ants now in, the
weaver ants had enough war power now to keep the pharaoh ants at bay. They just had a little clean up to do after
their great dump! But it seems the great dump may have been
the biggest mistake I've ever made, for laying in the shadows, near the nest I also spotted
this. Oh no. Is that who I think it is? It was a queen weaver ant. A queen weaver ant with no wings, hanging
lifeless from a few branches of moss. Oh no! Was this the colony queen? Was it possible she was killed during the
rough dumping process? If so this was terrible! But I had to take a deep breath to assess
the possibilities. After gathering my thoughts, I realized there
was actually still hope for the colony, because first off, weaver ants are polygynous meaning
they can have more than one queen in the nest, so even though this may be an egg-laying queen
now dead, there could still possibly be another one or more than one still alive somewhere
in here. Plus, it didn't seem like many ants were too
concerned about this dead queen ant here. Usually, the workers show visible signs of
grieving over a dead queen, and from the looks of things, this queen's death wasn't too much
of a topic. Finally, what could have happened here was
that, this queen could have actually died within the nest during a squabble with a fellow
co-queen, which can happen in multi-queen colonies. Only time would tell if this queen was indeed
the only egg-laying queen in our weaver ant collection. I tried my best keep my hopes up. Little did I know, I would be getting my answer
soon, as well as a whole lot more than I expected! Later that night, I checked up on the ants. At the Schefflera plant, the weaver ants had
continued to store their brood. I could see pupae and now larvae in there. But have a look at these workers here! How exciting! This is actually the next stage of the nest
building process. Workers will take shifts at pulling and holding
the leaves together, using their strong mandibles and legs, while other workers move in with
the glue bottles. See that worker there holding the larva? It's using the larva's silk to glue the leaves
in place. This gluer ant touches the tip of the larva's
head onto the leaf's surface at places it need the larva to attach silk, and it continues
to do this all over the leaf. Using this careful procedure, soon the ants
will be able to construct entire silk walls which will be strong enough to bind the leaves
together. The workers that act essentially as the living
braces during the gluing process, simply rotate shifts, and take breaks when tired. Soon these leaves will be fused together and
the enclosed space will create a perfect environment for the colony to nest in. The transpiration will keep the inner cavities
created nice and humid. So guys, basically the point of all this is
that these weaver ants use child labour to create homes with built-in humidifiers. That pretty much sums up weaver ant life in
a nutshell, or a leaf shell rather. Hehe. But guys, look at what else was new! Not only was action happening at the Schefflera
plant, but remember how we also noticed the ants had a thing for our money tree? Well lookey here! It seems as though the ants had decided they
needed a second leaf nest! How cool! Brace workers were stationed around holding
the leaves of the money tree together in various places. And sure enough, I also saw that the ants
were assembling themselves within the cavernous leaf spaces the brace ants were creating. It was so cool! It made me kinda wish I was a weaver ant in
this colony, hanging out in our luxury leaf tents, although with my luck, I'd probably
be the one ending up like this ant here, stuck between two leaves being a brace ant. Haha! I wonder if they volunteer for this seemingly
stressful task, or if they're appointed. Knowing ants, though, it's probably the former. As the ants continued to establish their nesting
areas within the created folds of the money tree, and the Schefflera plant, I checked
up on the mother nest, and noticed the workers shipping out the brood from within, carrying
them up into the leaf nest locations into the trees above. It was strangely satisfying, and almost therapeutic
to watch the workers carrying the young up the branches and into the nests. It's kinda hard to explain, but watching ants
do their thing always puts me in the most relaxing trance, and I could do it for hours! How about you guys? What is also funny is how counter productive
the ants can be sometimes, particularly when not everyone in the colony is favour of a
campaign. Some ants felt the old mother nest was still
a better place for the brood, and were busy bringing brood back to the mother nest. Haha! Ant society is funny in that sometimes it
takes some members a bit longer to be convinced. But it did seem the majority were bringing
brood into the new homes. It wouldn't be long before the entire colony
was on the same page. Speaking of the nests, the Schefflera nest
apparently needed some expansion, as I noticed brace ants, pulling together leaves at an
adjacent location of the plant in place. It seems these ants had plans of making this
an epic multi-chambered high-rise condo. On the money tree, ants were also busy at
work fusing more leaves together. Look at that team work! Now here's something real cool, guys. Check this out! The ants continued to cooperatively work like
this through the night, having three major projects happening at once. There were two separate crews for building
each of the two nests, and within each crew there were individual jobs. You had the ants as seen here doing the bracing,
and at times multiple ants would latch on to each other to create stronger links. Ants that did the gluing. Ants transporting brood out of the mother
nest and into the new nests. Again so satisfying to watch! Ants acting as living bridges to make the
lives of the brood transporting crews easier. Ants tending to the brood within the new nests. Even ants visiting the feeding stations, to
be food porters, feeding members of the colony through mouth to mouth regurgitation, i.e.
trophallaxis, as they work. What astounded me was their overall synergy! If you think about it, these ants communicate
exclusively through pheromones, biochemicals produced from glands in their body which carry
specific messages that when wafted around by many ants cause the ants to perform these
various tasks. But each task depends on the other, and even
on the rate of progress. For instance you couldn't have too many brood
transporting crews or else the new nests would completely fill up, and you couldn't expand
the nests without enough brood, i.e. larvae, for gluing, so there needed to be a balance
of sorts of the rates at which the ants were operating, performing their various tasks. This was a sheer display of collective ant
intelligence at work. Each ant individually, pretty basic. Collectively, due to the nature of how they
communicate, they were a single brilliant mind! Little did I know, I was about to witness
the mind-blowing creations of their collective brilliant mind the next day. The next morning, this was what I saw at the
Schefflera plant. Ants were everywhere, and their nest structure
was now much more complex, having joined several groupings of leaves together. AC Family, it was such a sight to behold! Look at that! They even had plans for a sun roof! Have you guys ever seen anything like it? Can you imagine how much work and coordination
it must have taken for them to construct something this big over night? I couldn't help but stare in amazement. Tonnes of brood had already been loaded into
the nest, and workers were busy gluing the edges of the leaves together. The brace ants were still hard at work, and
the traffic in and out of the nest was pretty impressive. And check out the nest at the money tree! Whoa! The ants looked so cozy in there behind that
silken wall between the leaves. As this wall was being woven, I could see
the ants all huddled together in the exposed spaces. I knew when they were done this nest, we'd
no longer be able to see them like this inside. This nest looked like it was taking on a neat
slanted architecture, with a top balcony. Various spaces between the leaves were slowly
but surely being blocked off with silk walls. I loved watching the weaving process! Even when I kept these ants 5 yrs ago, I wasn't
able to see them spinning silk, like we can here now with 4K video quality. When this silk wall is done, it will be completely
opaque. Look all those sleepy heads in there! Speaking of which, in case you're wondering
if ants sleep, yes, they take many few minute naps a day, but frequency depends on how much
work force is needed. The ants continued to construct their silken
leaf fortresses through the day, working non-stop, around the clock. They carried their larvae around like glue
bottles, and it was amazing to think that the very lives of the entire colony depended
on the children. In most animals, it's the adults who carry
society, but in weaver ants, both young and adults cooperate and contribute equally for
survival. And this weaver ant silk, which made up the
fabric of weaver ant society, both literally and figuratively, was actually pretty amazing. It could also be used to patch up holes in
the leaves as you can see here. Incredible to think that somewhere in their
evolutionary past, the larvae of these ants stopped using their silk to create cocoons. As you can see the pupae are naked, and the
workers started using it to glue leaf nests together! What's even more crazy, AC Family, is this! Check it out! The silk is reusable! I noticed ants busy breaking off chunks of
silk from their old mother nest, and carrying the pieces up to incorporate into their new
nests! How economical and efficient! Even weaver ants recycle! Just impressive! Now as impressive as weaver ant silk is, I
wondered how it would stand up against the elements, namely rains. As you know, Vortexia here is a climate-controlled
setup, and a great vortex of mist and rain blows through here every day, and guess what. Vortexia was due for its next rain shower. The skies rumbled and suddenly, the rains
came. The nests were pelted by the torrential rains,
all the ants' work being tested against the tempest that blew through the lands. And suddenly the rains stopped. How had the ants' newly constructed nests
held up to the storm? I looked into Vortexia to see if the rains
had destroyed their nests. Turns out the ants were totally fine, and
continued on their business as if nothing happened. Phewph! What a relief! The silk walls they'd spun were surprisingly
waterproof. As one might expect, the ants proved to be
highly adapted to the wet life. Being tropical ants and all, I'm sure this
was all pretty normal to them! I was happy to know these weaver ants would
be totally ok. At least for now. I still didn't know if the colony had an egg-laying
queen, nor if moving them in here would keep the pharaoh ants at bay, but little did I
know, the answers to those questions would be coming soon. It didn't take long for the weaver ants to
completely move out of their mother nest, which was by now withered and unideal for
nesting, and the whole colony had up into the trees into one of the two new leaf nests. I decided to name this Schefflera plant leaf
nest "Camp Hope", and this Money Tree leaf nest "Camp Perseverance". Over the following several days, the colony
continued to work hard at expanding both leaf nests. The ants were super strong in numbers, pulling
these giant leaves like titans, close together so that the gluing workers could fuse them. It wasn't long before Camp Hope became a huge
complex, multi-floored leaf fortress, that I could only stop and marvel at as it all
amazingly came together before our eyes. Camp Perseverance, also underwent its ongoing
expansion, as the weaver ants pulled the money tree's long leaves together for gluing. I had a feeling Camp Hope would also be quite
the leaf-top penthouse, when they're all done! But AC Family, over the next few days, there
were a few surprises the ants revealed to me in Vortexia, that truly filled my heart
with joy and wonder. Ok, are you, guys ready for this? First, some great news! As we'd hoped, now that Vortexia was completely
conquered and run by the Weaver Ants, I had noticed that the once threatening and trespassing
Pharaoh ants that had previously been visiting Vortexia's food station, were no longer anywhere
to be seen! I guess the pharaoh ants felt the weaver ants'
large numbers now would be too difficult for them to deal with and have decided Vortexia
to be too dangerous for them to overtake. This of course was such a relief! Speaking of food, I also learned quite a bit
about what the ants loved to eat, and what they didn't. In terms of insects, the weaver ants weren't
too fond of superworms but were crazy over mealworms! They worked together carrying the huge mealworm
carcasses back to their nest where they would feast on it and eat up all that valuable protein. I loved watching the mealworms disappear into
the darkness of Camp Perseverance! In terms of their sugar source, it took the
colony a good two or three days to finish one cup of beetle jelly, at which point, I
would simply add another. Woah! Look at how much they love brown sugar flavour! Watching the ants feast was just so satisfying! I knew all these valuable carbs would provide
the colony the energy they needed to work and continue constructing their massive leaf
nests. After all, the amazing stuff weaver ants do
day in and day out isn't easy! What I also found neat was that the sweet
beetle jelly would lure in hungry fruit flies, which the weaver ants were quick to catch
and bring back to the nest to eat! Now AC Family, the second thing I discovered. Remember when we spotted the dead wingless
queen ant at the start of this video? It was scary to think that that queen was
the only egg-laying queen of the colony, and we never knew if the colony had any egg-laying
queens left. I told myself I'd just simply monitor the
progress of the colony over the next few weeks, and see if the colony was showing signs of
decreasing in numbers. If they were decreasing in population, I knew
they certainly did not have an egg-laying queen and the colony would eventually sadly
all die out over time. Well, AC Family, I'm happy to report, that
not only have the weaver ants not decreased in population, but in just over a week of
living in Vortexia the colony has seemed to have exploded in population, necessitating
the colony to create further expansions to Camp Hope and Camp Perseverance, and I'm talking
big expansions! Take a look at how many leaves Camp Perseverance
was made of now! And the population continued to grow so big,
that the ants eventually began working on a third construction project between the two! Behold - a third nest, I've called Camp Love! Isn't that just awesome guys? A third leaf nest! How appropriate that there be three leaf nests,
seeing as this Weaver ant trilogy is a celebration of our 3 million subscriber milestone! Seems these weaver ants are just so festive
and want to share in the celebration! And in case you still had doubts about the
colony having an egg-laying queen, this third discovery truly shocked me! It seems the Vortexian rains had signaled
a full out nuptial flight. The colony didn't only have one princess,
but had many, many princesses, female alates emerging from the nest hoping to mate! Look at those colours! One queen was a gorgeous bluish green colour,
another caramel-coloured, and another a golden yellow. I just couldn't get over how stunning these
queen alates were. Don't you guys think? And if you might be questioning whether or
not these queens were mating in Vortexia, well, I did see the presence of males. See those wings? Those are boy wings! And the ultimate clue that the queen alates
were mating? Wings broken off laying on the forest floor. Oh boy! Perhaps this is also why they decided to construct
a third nest. Maybe this is how weaver ant colonies start? Queen alates mate nearby, then are joined
by fellow sisters from the birth nest, to start new nests in the vicinity. This might also explain why this species is
notoriously difficult to start up in captivity from just a single queen ant. Perhaps they need the support of an entourage
at start up! I bet the workers also help her break off
her wings! And so AC Family, it looks like our weaver
ants are off to a great start in their lush jungle tree-top kingdom of Vortexia. These ants were truly inspiring in many ways. Watching them form living bridges with their
own bodies were testament to how devoted the ants were to helping their fellow ant, always
focused on the greater good of the whole colony. They really showed an innate care an prioritization
at ensuring the well-being of the entire colony, be they princess royalty or ants holding babies
spinning silk, or even ants just hanging around standing guard, every single member of the
colony had an important purpose. It was a beautiful thing to witness. A perfect society in my books! And come on now, can I mention again how these
ants recycle, too! Oh, and I almost forgot. In our last video, you the AC Family voted
on the official name of this weaver ant colony, and I'm happy to announce that these ants
are officially called the Emerald Empire! Haha! What a cute name, of which I highly approve! I will continue to update you guys on the
progress of the Emerald Empire in Vortexia over time. Perhaps there will be more nests made, and
if so, I'll be sure to let you guys know! For me, these ants in Vortexia were the perfect
symbol of how hope, perseverance, and love were the three elements to a perfect world
and creation of greatness. Thank you for watching. It's ant love forever. AC Family, I've got to say, this has to be
one of my top favourite ant colonies of all time! Did you enjoy today's Part 3 of our Weaver
Ant Trilogy celebration of 3 million subs? Guys, though this is the final part to our
Weaver Ant Trilogy, this is of course not the last you'll be seeing of these ants. Only the beginning! And there's so much more ahead with the other
ant colonies of the Ant Room, so you know what to do! Smash that SUBSCRIBE button and BELL ICON
for notifications now so you don't miss out on this continuing ant story! 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. 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 a hidden video of deleted footage not included in today's
episode. I ended up capturing so much gorgeous video
of the weaver ants doing their thing within Vortexia, so do check out that hidden video! And now it's time for the AC Question of the
Week! Last week we asked: What colour can a weaver ant queen be? Congratulations to Kalen Tyler who correctly
answered: Reds, neon green, bluish, browns, and yellows. Congratulations, Kalen, you just won a free
e-book handbook from our shop! In this week's AC Question of the Week, we
ask: What is your favourite thing
about these weaver ants? 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!
