Ant War & How I Used a Tiny Camera to Spy on Ants in My Giant Ecosystem Vivarium

Summary

In this thrilling installment of the AntsCanada series, the 'Pantdora' vivarium, a 1000 gallon cloud rainforest ecosystem, becomes the battleground for an epic 'War of the Ants'. The narrative unfolds with the invasion of a supercolony of black crazy ants, disrupting the harmony by ousting termite and marauder ant colonies from the prized 'Hallelujah Tree Stump'. Utilizing an endoscopic probe camera, the host reveals the stunning inner workings and expansion tactics of these invasive ants. Amidst the chaos, the ecosystem's resilience is tested, with new inhabitants like Charlie the tree frog and the Green Reaper mantis adapting to the shifting dynamics. The episode delves into themes of survival, adaptation, and the intricate balance of ecosystems, showcasing the unending battle for dominance and the indomitable spirit of nature's inhabitants.

Takeaways

• 😲 The video documents the creator's 1000 gallon rainforest vivarium called Pantdora
• 😯 An invasive 'Dark Horde' of crazy ants is taking over and displacing other insects
• 🐜 The ants have a strange genetic ability to inbreed without issues
• 😀 The mantis that disappeared was found alive after shedding its skin
• 🎉 The displaced termite colony was discovered alive under the tree stump
• 🌿 Despite challenges, new crickets and plants continue to be born and thrive
• 💡 The creator realizes invasives play an important role in strengthening ecosystems
• 🌳 Overall the rainforest exhibits resilience and retains hope for a positive future
• 😍 A potential mating pair of mantises may breed and have babies in the future
• 👍🏻 The creator decides to introduce pitcher plants to help control the invasive ants

Q & A

What species of ants invaded Pantdora and caused havoc in the ecosystem?

A supercolony of invasive black crazy ants snuck into Pantdora and began displacing other species like termites and Marauder ants from their nesting spots.

How were the black crazy ants able to thrive and rapidly expand their colony?

The black crazy ants have a genetic adaptation that allows virgin queens to mate with their brothers within the nest, negating the negative effects of inbreeding. This allows them to quickly amass a large workforce of sterile sister workers.

What important creature went missing for several days, concerning the creator of Pantdora?

The resident female giant Asian mantis, nicknamed the Green Reaper, disappeared for a few days after shedding its skin. This concerned the creator as he feared she may have been killed.

How did the creator confirm the termites were still alive after being displaced by the black crazy ants?

Using an endoscopic camera, the creator spotted termite mounds beneath the tree stump, indicating the colony had retreated underground and was still alive.

What was the massive slaughter of newborn crickets caused by?

Hordes of black crazy ants invaded the areas where young crickets were emerging defenseless from their eggs, capturing and carrying many back to their nest as a new food source.

Why did the creator have a change of perspective regarding the black crazy ant invasion?

He realized that adversity posed by invasives forces an ecosystem to adapt and become more resilient over time, much like exercise for the human body, so they play an important role.

What potential solutions were proposed to curb the exponentially growing black crazy ant population?

Plugging up nest entrance holes, manually vacuuming ants during migration, and introducing natural predators like pitcher plants that trap and digest ants.

What important discovery renewed the creator's hope for Pantdora's future ecosystem?

Seeing the native Marauder ants stand their ground and defend their territory against the invading ants showed him the ecosystem could fight back and rebalance itself.

How did the black crazy ants initially gain access to the Pantdora vivarium ecosystem?

They were accidentally introduced along with some new plants added to the rainforest environment.

What technique allowed the creator to visually access the inside of the black crazy ants' nest tunnels?

An flexible endoscopic camera probe with a light was able to be snaked inside the wooden tunnels to reveal chambers full of ants and brood.

Outlines

00:00

🐜 Introducing Pantdora, a miniature rainforest ecosystem with various creatures

Paragraph 1 introduces Pantdora, a 1000 gallon miniature rainforest ecosystem containing interconnected species of plants and animals. It has been evolving over 6 weeks, with a war unfolding between native Marauder ants and an invading supercolony of aggressive black crazy ants called the Dark Horde. The Dark Horde has taken over the termite-occupied Hallelujah Tree Stump, forcing out the termites and Marauders.

05:07

👑 The Dark Horde migrates with queen larvae that can self-propagate without mating flights

Paragraph 2 describes the efficacy of the Dark Horde ants during a colony migration, carrying valuable queen larvae that can genetically reproduce with their own brothers without mating flights. This allows the black crazy ants to quickly self-propagate.

10:07

😱 Discovering a strange worm before witnessing the true craziness of the Dark Horde

Paragraph 3 shows the discovery of a strange unidentified worm with eyes. The next day, the Dark Horde's devastating impact is witnessed as they launch an attack on the emerging generation of baby crickets, massacring them.

15:07

🔍 Using a camera to explore chambers inside the Dark Horde's nest

Paragraph 4 details the use of an endoscopic camera probe to explore and spy inside the hidden chambers of the Dark Horde nest within the tree stump. Their brood, eggs, and queens are seen as they retreat away from the camera.

20:12

😓 Witnessing a worm attack and the grim survival story of Jiminy the cricket

Paragraph 5 shows one of the strange baby worms attacking and possibly laying eggs in a baby cricket. The grim story of Jiminy the cricket unfolds as he tries to survive the first day of his life during the cricket massacre.

25:15

😌 Signs of hope and the important role of the Dark Horde invaders

Paragraph 6 highlights signs of hope and recovery in Pantdora despite the Dark Horde invasion, including crickets, spiders, vines, and the surviving mantis and termite colonies. It suggests the Dark Horde plays an important role in strengthening the rainforest ecosystem.

30:19

🌿 Adding carnivorous pitcher plants to help balance the ecosystem

Paragraph 7 decides adding natural biocontrol agents like carnivorous pitcher plants can help restore balance to the Pantdora ecosystem overrun by the Dark Horde ants, while still recognizing their benefits.

35:21

🙌 Ending the episode asking viewers to vote on the developing story

Paragraph 8 concludes by welcoming pitcher plants and asking viewers to vote on the developing story to impact outcomes, ending with calls to like, share and subscribe.

Keywords

💡ecosystem

An ecosystem refers to a community of living organisms (plants, animals, microbes) interacting with each other and their physical environment. The video focuses on building a rainforest ecosystem called 'Pantdora' in a vivarium, containing interdependent species of plants and animals. The ecosystem faces threats from invasive 'black crazy ants' that disrupt the natural balance.

💡invasive species

Invasive species are non-native organisms that spread uncontrollably in a new environment, causing harm to native species and ecosystems. The 'black crazy ants' in the video are an invasive species that infiltrate Pantdora and threaten its ecological stability.

💡biodiversity

Biodiversity refers to the variety of plant and animal life within an ecosystem. Pantdora contains diverse flora and fauna, including insects, amphibians, plants etc, making it a biodiverse rainforest habitat. The invasive ants threaten this.

💡adaptation

Adaptation is the evolutionary process where organisms develop traits and behaviors that improve their survival and reproduction in a habitat. The video shows how Pantdora's native species are adapting and evolving defenses against the invasive ants over time.

💡symbiosis

Symbiosis refers to close, long-term interactions between organisms of different species. The video shows symbiotic relationships in Pantdora, like ants farming aphids for honeydew and termites sharing tunnels with ants.

💡predation

Predation refers to one organism killing another for food. The video depicts predator-prey dynamics in Pantdora, like ants hunting newborn crickets and the mantis preying on other insects.

💡food web

A food web shows feeding relationships between organisms in an ecosystem. The complex food web in Pantdora includes predators like the mantis, parasites like ants farming aphids, and detritivores like springtails recycling waste.

💡niche

A niche refers to the role or profession of a species in an ecosystem. The video shows species occupying different niches in Pantdora, like ants as predators, crickets as herbivores, and termites as detritivores.

💡carrying capacity

Carrying capacity is the maximum number of organisms an environment can support. Unchecked growth of the invasive ant colony could exceed Pantdora's carrying capacity, depleting resources and causing ecosystem collapse.

💡sustainability

Sustainability involves maintaining ecological balance to ensure the health and longevity of an ecosystem. The video explores sustainable solutions to manage the invasive ants and restore Pantdora's natural equilibrium.

Highlights

This is the crazy story of what I saw when I used an endoscopic probe camera to spy on a colony of enemy ants in their nest.

Black crazy ants are crazy, right? Well, it gets even crazier, for nothing could have prepared me for the true craziness I was about to witness with the Dark Hoard.

I woke up to the most disgusting sight ever. It slithered its way down the driftwood surface and towards the moss. Ughhh what is it?

I was sure it served its beneficial function in the rainforest, and I would be witnessing its ecological purpose soon.

Over the past few weeks, I’ve watched these invasive black crazy ants, who snuck into this tank by way of the plants, grow from a small colony with a hundred workers into an enormous horde with thousands of workers and hundreds of queens.

First off, I wondered if interfering with the natural order of things would defeat the whole purpose of our project here. Pandora’s whole purpose was to watch how a wild ecosystem truly develops.

The idea of the Dark Horde eventually leading to the ecological collapse and end of Pantdora made me deeply sad on all levels of my being. Pantdora was such a promising biological project.

I realized that an ecosystem actually needed such agents of adversity and challenge of the likes of the Dark Horde, in order for the ecosystem as a whole to be strong.

Like heavy weights at a gym or viruses to a body, the Dark Hoard was training the components of our rainforest to become stronger and more resilient.

But it didn’t mean we couldn’t do anything to help support a better balance within Pantdora, because after all, even natural remedies, when a person’s health is challenged, could help achieve a healthy balance much quicker.

I decided to push the camera further inside. It was a challenge seeing as there were some problematic twists and turns in the tunnelling.

Black crazy ants are crazy, right? Well, it gets even crazier, for nothing could have prepared me for the true craziness I was about to witness with the Dark Hoard.

I woke up to the most disgusting sight ever. It slithered its way down the driftwood surface and towards the moss. Ughhh what is it?

I was sure it served its beneficial function in the rainforest, and I would be witnessing its ecological purpose soon.

The idea of the Dark Horde eventually leading to the ecological collapse and end of Pantdora made me deeply sad on all levels of my being. Pantdora was such a promising biological project.

Transcripts

This is Pantdora, my 1000 gallon cloud rainforest ecosystem vivarium, a tropical world full

of interdependent species of plants and animals.

Its purpose is to study the workings of a wild ecosystem, and so far, watching this

rainforest evolve over the past six weeks has been nothing short of a crazy ride.

Within this majestic paradise of moss-carpeted soils, a drama of epic proportions has been

unfolding.

A great Pantdoran-wide War of the Ants has been taking place, a struggle for power and

dominion over all of Pandora’s rich resources for food and space.

One such resource has been what we call the “Hallelujah Tree Stump”, a colossal mountain

of driftwood containing a network of holes and tunnels crafted by termites, which we

were pleasantly surprised to discover was occupied by both a colony of termites, as

well as a colony of native Marauder Ants.

But recently, an intruding supercolony of black crazy ants invaded the peace and moved

into the stump, breaking into the termite network of tunnels and murdering them, as

well as, forcing the marauder ants to move out and into the soils, and check the black

crazy ants out now.

Over the past few weeks, I’ve watched these invasive black crazy ants, who snuck into

this tank by way of the plants, grow from a small colony with a hundred workers into

an enormous horde with thousands of workers and hundreds of queens.

Here they are migrating with all their brood and multiple queens to a new spot they’ve

found near the rock embankment by the pond.

As an invasive army, their mission was simple: invade and conquer the entire ecosystem by

eating everything, growing the colony as big as possible, and killing anyone who stands

in the way.

And this week, for the first time ever, I witnessed first-hand the devastating impact

these black crazy ants can have on an ecosystem, and by using some highly specialized equipment,

I was able to get a first hand peek into the secret lair of the black crazy ants, by sticking

a endoscopic probe camera into the Hallelujah Tree Stump, and when I did, the things I saw

within their darkened netherworldly chambers, left my jaw on the floor!

This is the crazy story of what I saw when I used an endoscopic probe camera to spy on

a colony of enemy ants in their nest, Part 10 of my ecosystem vivarium series, where

ants truly mean war, here on the AntsCanada Ant Channel.

Please SUBSCRIBE to the channel and hit the BELL ICON.

Welcome to the AC Family!

Enjoy!

The nightly mists filled the rainforest with humidity and a refreshing blanket of clouds.

“Well, this is nice!” said Charlie, as he stared into the vast expanse into which

he was just added.

Charlie was the newest tree frog to be added into Pantdora.

The vast rainforest was still and peaceful all around.

He was content to call it home now.

He would soon be meeting his other tree frog colony-mates like Kermit, who stared at the

strange tree frog newcomer from a nearby vine, as an acrobat ant threatened to spray him

with formic acid if he didn’t leave immediately.

“This kid has no idea what he’s up against.”

Kermit thought.

“He’s better off staying up high in the canopy.”

Miss Piggy was also watching the rather inexperienced newcomer, perched on his driftwood right in

the open.

Charlie spotted a rhino beetle climbing the moss, and a trail of marauder ants moving

beneath the driftwood.

Though, there wasn’t anything in the rainforest that could eat tree frogs like him (yet),

there was a chance he could run into a rather unpleasant encounter if he wasn’t careful

about whose way he was getting in.

The black crazy ants, whom I’ve finally named the Dark Hoard, were on the move again.

This was the Dark Hoard’s second mass colony emmigration within the past 12 hrs.

These ants are nomadic and don’t stay in the same place for very long, and here they

were moving in silence, to another location in the Pantdorn rainforest, under the cloak

of night, because this trailing event would be exposing some of their VIPs, or VIA’s

rather.

Have a look!

They moved swiftly over the rainforest’s mossy surface.

The ants carried their white babies from the glass, through this plant, and up an arm of

the Hallelujah Tree Stump, to this hole.

The efficacy of the Dark Hoard during a colony move was incredible, and they needed to be

focused because look.

The workers collectively carried one of their VIA’s across the glass.

This massive larva is a future queen.

From it, will hatch a winged virgin queen, as you can see there, and due to a complex

genetic hack scientists recently discovered, the new queen hatching from this larva will

be able to breed with her biological brother within the nest, while the rules of inbreeding

will be completely negated.

You see, this species of ant doesn’t need to mate with unrelated male ants from another

colony, like other ants do.

They don’t even need a nuptial flight either.

They just mate with their biological brothers at home, and all offspring resulting from

this pairing come out healthy, due to this strange genetic hack, thereby allowing these

black crazy to self-propagate forever, as long as they keep producing queens and males,

which they’ve been doing here in Pantdora.

Black crazy ants are crazy, right?

Well, it gets even crazier, for nothing could have prepared me for the true craziness I

was about to witness with the Dark Hoard, the next day.

Ughhh!

What is that?!

Brace yourselves, guys.

I woke up to the most disgusting sight ever.

It slithered its way down the driftwood surface and towards the moss.

Ughhh what is it?

It could be a baby earthworm but it didn’t seem to move like an earthworm.

A springtail also came by to check out its royal grossness.

“Sup bruh!”

it greeted, as the worm made its way towards the moss.

Its head was so pointy, and again its movement didn’t quite match the slinky-type movements

of an earthworm.

Anyone care to identify this worm?

And omg are those a pair of eyes I see?

What a weird creature.

Anyway, I was sure it served its beneficial function in the rainforest, and I would be

witnessing its ecological purpose soon, but suddenly a swaying movement caught my eye

off to the side.

It was our resident mantis, whom I’ve named the Green Reaper, thanks to one of you who

recommended the name.

I watched as the Green Reaper swayed back and forth mimicking a leaf blowing in the

wind to disguise herself from predators.

Some say this swaying is for visual depth perception , too.

Whatever it was, seeing her always brought a smile to my face.

She was so fat now, having eaten a lot of prey in the rainforest.

Now I say “she” because thanks to you mantis experts watching her in the last episode,

you identified her as a female, which is great!

She was such a stunning creature!

Now the next question I had was what her exact species is.

Some said Giant Asian Mantis, others said the green morph of a Marbled Mantis.

I wonder, is she full grown now or will she have a final version with wings?

The reason I ask is because look: I found another mantis, not sure if it was a male,

but it was smaller.

Any mantis experts out there care to determine if this is a male or not?

I would like to pair the two mantises if they are a match and once they are mature enough

to mate, so our Green Reaper here could lay an ootheca, an egg case to give birth to more

mantises within Pantdora.

Wouldn’t that be awesome?

By the way, I so love and appreciate how I can reliably crowdsource information like

this with you guys, so we could in the end all learn together.

Thank you for that, AC Family.

Anyway, I watched as our Green Reaper made her way up the moss wall, but little did I

know, this would be the very last time I would see our Green Reaper, before her mysterious

and sudden disappearance from the rainforest.

Up on the moss wall, Charlie was watching a frightful scene below, along with a cricket

who also positioned itself far away from the action happening in the lowlands.

They were safer up here, as they watched.

The Dark Horde was now on the move again, out of the hole they had moved into the night

before, and across the stump, down to an area at the foot of the stump.

Another conjoining trail of black crazy ants were also coming in from another area of the

stump.

It was crazy to me that the black crazy ants, no matter how many times a day they moved,

always ended up coming back to the Hallelujah Tree Stump, and I was determined to find out

what was so special about this Tree Stump.

Online, I managed to find this.

It’s an endoscopic probe camera, which essentially is a tiny camera with a little light with

three intensity settings so we can really catch the action in the darkest of places,

and a long flexible neck.

It can take both video and photos, and stores everything into this handheld device here

with a screen for viewing.

It can’t clearly capture things directly up against the lens of the camera, but you

can definitely see things quite close to it and beyond, and I was excited to finally have

a peek into the Hallelujah Tree Stump, to spy on the black crazy ants within, once and

for all.

It might give us insight into the design of the interior of the stump, how the black crazy

ants nest, and how we might be able to stop them from taking over Pantdora.

This would be the first time I would ever peek into an ant nest in this way.

We would be like a robot ant, being sent into the pits of black crazy ant hell.

But as I was about to embark on the most interesting learning experience of my life, some other

very unfortunate lifeforms were entering their most horrifying learning experience of their

lives.

A tiny baby pushed itself up having just emerged from its egg.

It had taken several minutes to finally reach the surface to emerge into the beautiful forest,

but suddenly, it was grasped by some mandibles.

Plucked from the Earth before it could ever spread its legs to set foot on the soils.

Another baby, Jimminy, wriggled its way out from the soils, still unable to spread its

legs.

The baby crickets were now beginning to emerge all around Pantdora, the next generation of

crickets.

When Jiminy finally was able to spread his legs from his egg casing, he stood still and

took in the incredible world all around him.

Another cricket came rushing by, “Run!”

“What?!”

“Run, run, run!”

she exclaimed.

“Why on Earth do we have to run?!”

Jiminy thought.

There were four particular holes in the Hallelujah Tree Stump that I wanted to really check out.

The first hole was this, where the Marauders used to be seen trailing from, another hole

just above it, a hole at the top of the tree stump where the termites were first spotted

before the Dark Horde broke into their tunnel, and a hole at the back from which I had seen

the Dark Horde emerging once.

I went in to check out the first hole.

At first, all I could see was blurriness due to the camera being up against a wooden wall,

but then I could see black moving shapes, black crazy ants rushing by the lens, until…

Aha!

Woah!

We hit the first chamber of the Dark Horde.

I couldn’t believe my eyes.

So many ants!

I decided to push the camera further inside.

It was a challenge seeing as there were some problematic twists and turns in the tunnelling

that made moving the probe deeper tough, but eventually, I managed to snake the camera

further in and we proceeded deeper into the Dark horde’s first chamber, which caused

the ants to go crazy!

So far, I couldn’t see any brood nor queens really, just workers, and a roach leg there.

Let’s move in deeper.

Woah!

This was insane!

I couldn’t believe we now had visual access into the nest.

Ants began attacking the camera lens, spraying it with formic acid, which of course didn’t

do anything to the equipment, and then bam.

A second deeper chamber and the Dark Horde did everything in their power to keep us from

going in deeper.

What could they be hiding in there?

I pushed even deeper to enter their next chamber.

Ugh!

There was a piece of wood blocking our access.

Do we go down, or around it from the left or the right?

And then after a couple minutes trying to make my way around the blockade, I finally

reached the innermost part of the tunnel.

Aha!

Queen larvae, eggs, and pupae!

Suddenly a mad rush of ants came attacking the lens, as the Dark Horde picked up their

brood to scramble it away.

I spotted blurry images of queens rushing by, and the colony was now in full out retreat

mode.

Jiminy made his way carefully through the moss, everything seemed pretty peaceful until

he caught sight of something truly concerning.

A black crazy ant approached from behind, and Jiminy hopped.

He began to run.

Now he definitely knew he was in danger.

Jiminy stopped to survey the scene around him.

Ants were everywhere, and soon he realized he was in the middle of one big masacre, as

he watched the black crazy ant swarms come pouring in to abduct newborn baby crickets

like him, and carry them back to the Dark Horde’s nests.

The odds were against the newborns because they were still white and soft, having just

emerged from their eggs.

It hurt them to move around too much while they were still hardening.

They needed to rest until they fully hardened and became dark in colour.

But waiting too long could be fatal!

Jiminy decided to move, as it ran through the slaughterfield past the black crazy ants.

More and more black crazy ants, who were learning about the new easy prey popping up from the

soils came to join the hunt.

Marauder ants had also learned of the new prey and they also appeared on the scene.

Babies instinctively headed to higher moss, while others weren’t so lucky to be able

to, and were seized by the black crazy ants.

Jiminy managed to evade the black crazy ants all around and stopped to take a breather.

Running around like this really hurt.

But suddenly a black crazy ant came creeping by and a voice from beyond called out “Watch

out!

In coming ant!” which saved Jiminy’s life as he jumped away.

“Thanks!”

Jiminy continued forth, making his way back to the open dirt which he didn’t know was

the wrong move.

He managed to dodge a group of marauders quite easily.

They were rather slow.

Jiminy weaved his way through the droves of ants that were hunting all around him, as

he took another moment to rest his achy exoskeleton.

He couldn’t move now as the ants came dangerously close.

He was on the verge of just submitting to his fate, and resolved to enjoy his final

moments of life.

A baby springtail came along to inspect the baby cricket.

“What’s up, bruh?”

“Not much!”

The sounds of crying babies as they were whisked away by the black crazy ants filled the air.

This was not only the first day of Jiminy’s life, but it was also the worst.

I had seen what I needed to from this first hole.

I proceeded to remove the probe.

It was now time to inspect the second hole before the entire colony was alarmed.

This time the moment I stuck the camera in, I saw a tonne of ants.

Brood and winged queens were everywhere.

I could also see non-winged queens, which means they were mated and active egg-layers

also in this chamber.

It was insane.

The queens began to move away from the bright lights of the camera, as the ants scrambled

about in a panic.

I pushed in deeper which caused the ants to go into a crazier panic.

This tunnel was more challenging to penetrate, as I did my best to wind through the obstacles,

as black crazy ants went rushing about carrying away their brood and guiding their queens

away to safety.

I finally went deeper and could look around.

This was a dead end, and there wasn’t a lot to see here now, so I backed out.

As I did, ants were scrambling everywhere from the hole.

And now it was time to check the top of the stump, where the termites were last seen.

I immediately saw some broken termite tunnels.

Other termite tunnels were kind of in the way as I tried to search for a larger opening

I could enter through.

I found one and I also spotted black crazy ants running around in the darkness beyond.

I wondered if this top hole was connected in any way to any of the previous holes I

explored.

I then spotted a lone black crazy ant inspecting the lens curiously, and then panicked.

Another black crazy ant came rushing in telling it to run!

The great glowing snake was out to eat them!

The worker ran as others came to attack what they thought was a serpent infiltrating their

nest.

Alright, I had seen enough.

Just a lot of termite tunnels here.

And now it was time to check the fourth hole.

I looked inside and though the camera was too large to fit in, I could still see this.

Black crazy ants rushing towards the camera attempting to attack it.

And that was it.

It was so interesting to use this camera.

But as crazy as all of this was, this wasn’t the last I would be using this endoscopic

camera.

I would be needing this device again for something very important.

Ugh!

Disgusting!

I spotted this gross sight!

This was my worst nightmare come true!

One of those baby worms was seen wrapping around a newborn cricket and it looked as

though it was either eating it or laying eggs into it?

I didn’t know, but ugh the sight made me shiver!

So were those baby worms carnivorous, and how did it have the faculty to capture a baby

cricket!

What were these hellish worms?

“Run to the moss!”

the springtail whispered.

“Now!”

Jiminy had found the strength to continue running, and he was almost caught by a black

crazy ant.

By some miracle, Jiminy had made his way to the back mosses where there were a lot less

black crazy ants.

Other babies were not so lucky.

The crickets who did manage to harden and darken their exoskeletons were a bit harder

for the black crazy ants to catch, but even still, colour was no guarantee for survival

as some of the darker crickets were also seized by the black crazy ants.

This was indeed the worst massacre I had ever witnessed in Pantdora.

The marauders were largely empty handed, having only captured one or two baby crickets during

the course of this grim scene.

In fact, I watched a marauder just staring at a newborn cricket being born not knowing

what to do and eventually moving on.

They just weren’t the same hunting machines like the Dark Horde was.

For the rest of the evening, these newborn crickets would be hunted and dragged back

to the Dark Horde’s nest.

Only the luckiest and quickest crickets would survive.

As for Jiminy, he was one of the select few who made it out alive during the first hour

of life.

Speaking of being alive, it struck me as peculiar that over the next few days, I hadn’t seen

our Green Reaper anywhere.

She was literally nowhere to be found.

I usually spot her hanging out in the canopy, either on the glass or hanging out by the

heat lamp.

It concerned me because after watching the cricket masacre, the idea that she may have

been killed and eaten haunted me.

My first suspect though, was not the ants.

It was this one, basking on the mossy hill.

I wondered if perhaps our sun skink killed her.

He’s been known to tear earthworms in half and leave them half eaten on the floor, as

well as taking on prey larger than he could consume.

I inspected his poop which he left all around the rainforest floor.

A tonne of soil creatures were already working on it.

Tiny beetles, springtails, and mites were having a total buffet on the sun skink feces.

It always amazed me how biodiverse the world of soil creatures was in Pantdora.

So, based on appearance, it didn’t seem like there were obvious mantis parts in that

poop.

My guess was that our sun skink had eaten mostly crickets and other soft-bodied creatures.

So my other suspicion was that the mantis was hiding behind the moss wall?

I had the perfect tool now to actually check for myself.

I stuck the endoscopic camera over the moss wall to peer behind it.

Hmmm…

I could see the wiring that made up the frame of the moss wall, and the end of the vines

of the canopy, but as I continued to look around I could not spot any green mantis anywhere.

Could she really be dead?

I couldn’t spot body parts anywhere.

If it was our sun skink, I would probably find a discarded leg or an arm somewhere right?

Unless the ants cleaned up after it?

Could the black crazy ants have swarmed her and killed her?

As I watched the black crazy ants continue taking home newborn crickets to their nest

in the stump, I struggled with what our next step should be.

First off, I wondered if interfering with the natural order of things would defeat the

whole purpose of our project here.

Pandora’s whole purpose was to watch how a wild ecosystem truly develops, and well,

this was exactly what was happening.

In the wild, invasives like these black crazy ants literally intrude and cause havoc on

ecosystems, and that was what we were seeing.

But I wondered if I should somehow intervene and take action to eradicate the black crazy

ants, by maybe plugging up the holes of the stump to trap the majority of the Dark Hord

inside.

But I knew the stump was full of various tunnels and secret exits so plugging them all up would

be a mission and a half, so hard.

I didn’t want to have to remove the stump from Pantdora, as it was hard enough lugging

the entire thing inside with no decor.

I could only imagine the nightmarish logistics of removing it with all the decor in.

I could possibly vacuum as much of the colony as possible during one of their regular colony

moves.

Despite all these measures, though, I knew it still wouldn’t guarantee complete eradication

of the Dark Horde, because they already had secret hideouts and satellite nests all over

the place.

Just one queen was all they needed to get back their massive numbers.

The idea of the Dark Horde eventually leading to the ecological collapse and end of Pantdora

made me deeply sad on all levels of my being.

Pantdora was such a promising biological project, but I feared we were dangerously reaching

the end of one of the most amazing creations and experiences of my entire life.

The end of Pantdora seemed near and if so, it would be the end of an era.

The next day, I spotted something peculiar in some foliage.

What is that?

Wow!

Looks like some dried skin, and then it occurred to me.

The Green Reaper!

She had shed her skin.

She was alive!

This totally had to be new, as I hadn’t seen it here the day before, so I looked around,

and low and behold, I spotted a leaf swaying back and forth.

Upon checking it out, I saw our Green Reaper, drying in her new skin.

There you are, Green Reaper!

So you weren’t eaten!

What amazing news!

Watching her camouflaged against the leaves, it’s no wonder I must have completely overlooked

her when searching the vivarium for her whereabouts these past few days.

She must have chosen this spot as a suitable place to shed, and what a great choice because

the better the camouflage match the safer she would be from predators who might want

to take advantage of this vulnerable period while she was shedding.

How awesome!

I was happy to know she would be ok.

I later caught her up in the Spanish moss, feasting on a cricket.

She must have been starved!

I totally should have had more faith in her survival skills in Pantdora, because I mean,

millions of years of evolution had to have at least equipped her enough to survive much

longer in this rainforest.

As for the potentially male mantis I had waiting to be betrothed to her, he also ended up shedding

his skin, and I placed him into his own holding terrarum to possibly release into Pantdora

in the future, should it be a male and ready to breed.

That would be super exciting to watch baby mantises being born in our rainforest.

Speaking of babies, I caught sight of some movement below.

Baby crickets were now exploring Pantdora.

I could see them everywhere.

Although the black crazy ants had picked off many of the newborns, the crickets had laid

so many eggs all over the place that there were still a significant amount of baby crickets

now frolicking around the lands.

They were eating the plants, especially the moss, and learning about survival and life

in the rainforest with every exploratory turn.

I spotted Jiminy running across the moss, now completely hardened and black.

Though he and all his siblings weren’t completely safe yet, they were more likely to survive

now that they were hardened and excellent jumpers.

One of the lessons they would need to learn was how to not fall into the pond.

I caught Jiminy that night sleeping soundly in a clump of moss, high up on the moss wall.

Good luck, Jiminy!

Hope you grow up to be a great singer one day.

As I looked all around Pantdora, I spotted new inspiring scenes of hope.

A cricket dropped from his old skin as a new adult male, who would soon go on to sing to

females and pass on his genes.

Female crickets were still laying new eggs all around the forest, as new babies scuttled

around.

A jumping spider was hopping around exploring the foliage looking for food around the leaves.

In the pond, I spotted our resident damselfly larva still alive and surviving despite the

presence of the guppies who would have relished him.

The vines were now sprouting beautifully, as they fed from nitrates and ammonia from

the pond.

Cool to know that our vines were now producing leaves which would soon create a nice and

thick foliage layer along our canopy, and another thing I noticed about these leaves

was that based on its shape, the vines were not banyan tree vines like I initially thought,

but instead were a species of true vine, not a tree, which was actually much better because

now I didn’t have to worry about an actual giant tree busting out of the vivarium.

Our true vining system was coming along wonderfully.

Within the Hallelujah Tree Stump, I explored other holes, in which I found some interesting

things, like this sleeping roach and this sleeping cricket and roach sharing a hole.

What I had ultimately learned was that not all of the main holes were connected.

Most were dead ends, which makes sense seeing as the black crazy ants were often seen travelling

from one hole to another on the outside of the stump.

But perhaps the most amazing discovery of all was this.

Ready for this, guys?

I checked the cave beneath the Hallelujah Tree Stump in attempts to catch a glimpse

of our Marauders somewhere, and at first, I spotted Rocksteady, our rhino beetle munching

on some rotten fruit, as well as a bunch of black crazy ants, but as I ventured deeper

into the cave, I spotted this!

See those huge puffs of soil?

Those soil structures looked strangely familiar to me, kinda like termite mounds.

Wait a sec!

No way!

And as I looked around a bit more and went back to examine some of the video I took exploring

that area of the cave, have a look at what I spotted running across the screen.

Did you see it?

There!

It’s so fast you could miss it if you blinked.

Check out this still shot.

See it?

That is a termite!

Our termite colony was alive!

And if these were indeed termite mounds beneath the Hallelujah Tre Stump, it meant that our

termites were not dead, and had moved into the soils just like our marauders!

Hooray!

Such amazing news!

All of this made me realize one thing: Yes, although our black crazy ants were indeed

“invading” Pantdora, and were displacing fauna from their homes, the ecosystem was

still managing to push back and thrive despite their invasive presence.

In fact, life itself was designed to adapt to adversity like invasives.

The way I saw it, the black crazy ants were like a virus entering the human body, and

spreading, and sometimes a virus can claim the life of the infected person, but most

other times, the body has its brilliant way of fighting back against such viruses, with

a newfound immunity to dealing with such viruses in the future.

Sometimes a virus will simply integrate into a new body and have no effect on the well-being

of the whole system once a balance is achieved, and simply stay there

As I watched a Marauder major patrolling the borders of their territory beneath the stump,

which some black crazy ants were attempting to infringe upon, I was reminded that our

Marauders still had the faculties to stand up against the black crazy ants, as did the

termites, as well as many of the crickets, and thank goodness so too did our mantis,

therefore I had every reason to expect that all hope was not lost for Pantdora, and that

our ecosystem still had a hopeful future.

I realized that an ecosystem actually needed such agents of adversity and challenge of

the likes of the Dark Horde, in order for the ecosystem as a whole to be strong.

It reminded me of a quote by a man named Dr. Steve Maraboli who said, “Look around you.

Everything changes.

Everything on this Earth is in a continuous state of evolving, refining, improving, adapting,

enhancing, and changing.”

and so I felt invasives, like the Dark Horde, had in fact a hugely important role in Pantdora.

Like heavy weights at a gym or viruses to a body, the Dark Hoard was training the components

of our rainforest to become stronger and more resilient, and that was a great thing.

And as I spotted Charlie once again perched at his favourite spot on the driftwood one

night, I too like him, wasn’t too worried about a thing, and instead chose to feel awe

at the world around, with confidence that in the grand scheme of things, all was well

and the future was exciting.

But it didn’t mean we couldn’t do anything to help support a better balance within Pantdora,

because after all, even natural remedies, when a person’s health is challenged, could

help achieve a healthy balance much quicker, and this simile also applied to our ecosystem.

The Dark Horde, though beneficial to our ecosystem in some ways, still needed to be kept in check,

and a lot of you helped me to determine our next course of action.

Oh, carnivorous pitcher plants, welcome to Pantdora!

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