It’s been such a hard week for me, as it
has for I’m sure all of us around the world in these crazy times. But guys, I’m afraid I have a really sad
announcement to make. For those of you who have supported me and
have been watching the channel for awhile, you may be reading the title of this video
with a tonne of questions, but I promise I’ll tell you everything in full, and explain why
I had to make the very tough decision this week to release many of my ant colonies, including
some of the OGs, back into the wild. Please SUBSCRIBE to my channel and hit the
BELL icon. Welcome to the AC Family! Enjoy! Today, I will be going over which ant colonies
I’ve had to release back into the wild or other pets that have made appearances in these
videos, that I’ve had to give away. I’ll also go into the reasons why I chose
to release or rehome them. Now, the good news is I’ve chosen to keep
some of the ant colonies and critters, but before I get into the shortlist, I have one
request: please hear me out until the end before reacting, as there’s a lot to cover. I do acknowledge that some of you might be
upset if your favourites have left the Antiverse and this channel, but please be kind with
your comments and just please keep in mind, I did it for the well-being of the ants and
for ant love. OK, so let’s get to it. Now, right off the bat, I realize a lot of
you come here, expecting to not hear about the bad news sweeping the world, so I’m
not going to expound on it further, but in my corner of the world, it’s completely
shookt my country, my community, and indeed right down to our precious Antiverse, our
Ant Room, here in my condo which is so full of various life forms that we’ve so carefully
protected and nurtured over the years. Now, normally, I have a helper who comes over
every day to help me with the maintenance of all our creatures. Together, we handle feeding duties, cleaning,
maintenance and repairs of equipment like filters and irrigation, and random tasks like
water changes, and such. As you can imagine, caring for millions of
ants, ecosystemic terrariums, and other pets is a round the clock, time-consuming, and
expensive endeavor. But three weeks ago, due to current, ongoing
circumstances, it became mandatory lockdown where I live. Luckily a week prior, I completely stocked
up on as many pet and ant supplies as I could just in case things got dire, and it’s a
good thing I did, because today my city is in strict lockdown, enforced by police and
the military, where nobody is allowed to leave the home unless it’s for essential travel,
like picking up groceries or getting medicine. This means, not even a quick stroll for fresh
air outside is allowed. All my go-to pet stores are closed down, as
are all non-essential businesses and public transportation. It feels like life has stood still everywhere. So, for three weeks now, I haven’t left
my condo not even once, have been eating food cooked at home from my stash, growing my own
veggies and herbs for consumption, shooting and editing these ant videos to get them up
on time every weekend, and without my helper, I’ve had to handle all the maintenance of
the ants and pets myself. Now, I was okay with the pet workload, as
I’ve always been fulfilled working around my pet ants and critters, however the decision
to let them go has not been a result of not being able to keep up with maintenance, but
rather a result of not being able to keep up with the food demand. You see before lockdown, I bought as many
roaches, mealworms, and superworms as I could, and hoped this lockdown would be done before
I ran out of feeders. Sadly, it looks like what I thought might
be a quarantine of 3-4 weeks, is now looking like it may last months, and so here I was
with a dwindling feeder population, and a tonne of ant colonies and pets needing feeder
insects. The message in the math was clear: I needed
to let many of the ants go, for their own good and the good of the ants I would be choosing
to keep. And so AC Family, it’s a nightmare that
I even had to get to this point, but here is the shortlist of ants and creatures I've
chosen to keep, and the ones that sadly had to be released back into the wild. Let’s start with the Dark Knights. This supercolony of black crazy ants is one
of the OGs of the channel, as I’ve had them for almost 4 yrs. AC Family, I’ve chosen to keep these ants. They’ve been easy to feed. They’ll even eat leftover meats from my
table, as well as fish food, so they wouldn’t be taking up many feeder insects. The Dark Knights fandom can relax. Moving on to the Golden Empire, our super
colony of yellow crazy ants. These are also OGs to the channel and have
been through a lot, including recovering recently from a devastating mite plague. AC Family, I’ve chosen to keep the Golden
Empire in the Antiverse. They, too, are easy to feed, and though they
do need feeder insects to survive, I just want to see them get back to the millions
they once were. They’re a colony that fought to survive
all these years, and so I too am willing to fight to keep them. Now on to another OG colony, the Titans. This supercolony of Asian Marauder ants live
in a tall soil terrarium called Olympus. They are endemic to where I live, and have
been my dream species for the longest time, with their massive super majors and prolific
colonies. Here’s the thing, being so prolific has
suddenly become a major drawback. They require a tonne of insects, and though
they will eat meats and egg, they still do best on a high insect diet, and so sadly guys,
the Titans will not be staying with us on the channel. I’ve asked for one of my building staff
to relocate them to a plot of land in my neighbourhood during one of his permitted trips to the grocery. I’m sorry, guys. Like I said, this wasn’t easy. Moving on to the Bobbleheads, my super colony
of big-headed ants. These little, polymorphic bundles of energy
have been such a delight to keep. But AC Family, I have chosen to keep them
in the Antiverse. They also can do well on fish food, meat scraps,
and the odd superworm or mealworm. Despite there being so many ants, they are
so tiny that one piece of food goes such a long way for them. Bobblehead fans, I’m happy they are remaining
with us. And now to the great Emerald Empire, our arboreal
colony of Asian weaver ants living in the Canopy of Vortexia. These ants were collected from my area as
a mature colony and have also been a dream species of mine! AC Family, you guys will hate me, but I’ve
decided that the Emerald Empire would be much better off back in the wild right now. Though they initially had roaches proliferating
in their terrarium, they’ve pretty much hunted them all down to extinction, so needless
to say, this massive weaver ant colony also needs a lot of insects to support their growth
and activities! I’m so sorry Emerald Empire fans, this one
hurts, but it was for their own good. I also had the colony released onto a vacant
mango tree in my neighbourhood that I could see from my window. The Jawbreakers, my OG colony of trap-jaw
ants, now living in the Hacienda Del Dorado, were also collected from my area. Jawbreaker fans, I’m so sorry, but these
ants also didn’t make the shortlist. They’ve been eating a lot of insects, even
if they have soil creatures like springtails to feed on. I took the time to dig the majority of the
colony out and had them released into another field in my hood. I’ve decided to keep the small, unnamed
trap-jaw colony in the terrarium in a bottle episode from last Christmas, though, but if
they start getting more demanding for insects, I’m afraid I’ll have to let them go, too. Now, on to the Black Panthers, my dual colonies
of Asian Bullet ants. These ferocious, giant ants are currently
living in two separate ac connected setups. The two colonies are actually involved in
a sort of experiment of mine where I’m hoping to keep the two colonies going indefinitely
by getting males from opposite colonies to cross-breed with the egg-laying gamergates
of the other. The thing is males won’t mate with their
mothers, and these ants don’t have a queen, but rather a fertile worker that lays all
the eggs while it is alive. These egg-laying workers, called gamergates,
need males that aren’t their own sons to mate with, so cross-breeding should solve
that problem. It’s an experiment of which I would like
to see the results, so I’ve decided to keep the Black Panthers for now. The ghost ants on Skull Island from last Halloween. Well this one’s easy, the ghost ants ghosted
their island setup. Yup! They disappeared one day. I’m assuming they learned to cross water. Don’t worry! They’re established naturalized invaders
in my country and have been for decades, found in pretty much every household and building
nationwide including my own, so their escape makes no ecological impact. I’ve been living with ghost ants moving
in and out of my place for almost 10 yrs now, part of the ordinary domestic wildlife I’ve
become used to seeing daily. They’ve always been such a nuisance, though,
especially when I’m trying to film! Now in terms of my arachnids, like my scorpion
and my tarantulas, they have such a low food demand: live insects once a week or less if
they’re approaching a molt, so they are all staying. My carnivorous plants very rarely need insects
so they stay, too. All fish and aquatic invertebrates are staying,
as they eat fish food. My axolotls eat worms from my worm composter,
as well as fish pellets, so the Axolotlanders are also staying. Jabba the Hutt, our Surinam horned frog, eats
his frog pellets so he stays. Now as for my veiled chameleon, sadly, I’ve
had to rehome her as she has a very high insect demand, and would truly be exhausting my feeder
populations if she remains with me. It was sad to see her go. Valentino, my green tree python, luckily has
been converted to eating frozen mice, and eats once a week, so he too stays. And of course, my parrot doesn’t eat insects
at all, just pellets and veggies so she also remains with me. Which finally brings me to the Phoenix Empire,
our now exploding colony of fire ants. I think we all know how much this colony eats. As we’ve seen with their predecessors, the
late Fire Nation, their food demand is extremely high. Guys, this may come as a shock, but I’ve
decided for them to go.. nowhere! At this size, the colony only needs a superworm
a day, or an earthworm from my composter, and later even scrap meats. I believe if quarantine and lockdown must
continue for the next few months, I’ll be able to handle their food demands. Phoenix Empire fans, our fire ants are staying. And so, AC Family, this is the new Antiverse. The ant colonies that we’ll have to say
goodbye to on the channel are now free, enjoying life back in the wild where they were collected,
and in case you were concerned, they were already wild ants when they were collected
and have all their survival instincts still in tact, so it’s not like they’re captive-raised
animals entering the wilderness for the first time, needing to learn survival skills, and
being collected from my area, they’re also native, so they’re not an ecological threat. For me, keeping them now would have been selfish,
and I’m a pet caregiver, not a pet hoarder, so I was at peace with saying goodbye. We can always try looking for them again in
the future to return to the channel, once all of this craziness is over! And as for the ones that we can still look
forward to seeing, they’ll remain here with me for as long as I can possibly manage. I believe my current feeders will be able
to sustain these remaining ants and creatures for several months. Before I officially run out of mealworms and
superworms, I’ve completely ramped up my roach habitat to encourage greater breeding,
converting old Vortexia into a lush roach sanctuary, with Dubia roaches and Madagascar
Hissing roaches now living in a blended self-perpetuating colony to hopefully provide my pets a constant
supply of food for the months to come. I say months but I’m hoping this world crisis
comes to an end sooner than we expect. It’s times like this that I look to the
ants. If there’s one thing that peeking into the
profound lives of ants has taught me, it’s that life is always changing, and sometimes
it’s tough, but like the ants, we need to stick together and cooperate, and eventually,
we’ll endure to make it through, coming out stronger, and more resilient in the end. And so I want to conclude by expressing how
much I appreciate you guys for watching my videos, and supporting the ants. I know the world is really crazy right now,
but no matter what, AC Family, rest assured you can count on the Antiverse and all our
ant friends living within it, to be the beautiful safe haven we can each escape to every week. Stay healthy, everyone! We can do this. It’s ant love forever. AC Family, did your favourite colony remain? Was there a colony you were disappointed to
see go? Anyway, there’s still lots ahead for our
ants, so if you haven’t yet, do SMASH that SUBSCRIBE button and BELL ICON now, and hit
ALL so you get notified at every upload. Also don’t forget to hit the LIKE button
every single time including now. It would really mean a lot to me, guys. Thank you! AC Inner Colony, I have left a hidden cookie
for you here, if you would like to hear the good news I have to share about one of the
creatures in the Ant Room. And guys, did you know it’s anting season
in the Northern Hemisphere, and you don’t even need to leave your home to start an ant
colony?! You can catch pregnant queen ants from the
safety of your own backyard, balcony, or open window starting this month! Be sure to visit AntsCanada.com for all your
ant keeping and collecting gear shipped to you in a special package from our ant-loving
facility in the USA, so you can get the most out of your ant keeping experience. We ship worldwide and also offer full email
support if you need our help! Visit AntsCanada.com today. And now it’s time for the AC Question of
the Week. Last week, we asked: Which of the soil creatures do you love the
most? Congratulations to Queen of Random who answered: Springtails Congratulations Queen of Random, you just
won a free Ultimate Ant Keeping handbook from our shop! In this week’s AC Question of the Week we
ask: Which creature or ant colony in the Ant Room
is your favourite and why? Leave your answer in the comments section
and you could also win a free ebook handbook from our shop! Hope you could 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!
Can I get f in chat for the ones that had to leave
It's a good time to start over with the space you have. Introduce us to new colonies and maybe show your caretaker doing some work. Your first videos give you all the information you need to ant keep, so I'm not worried about you losing the informative aspect of your videos. The way you maintain everything could be great content for us older viewers/beekeepers.
F
He wasn't supposed to let them go. :/