How to have an EPIC Antfarm: Helpful Tips for Amateur & Wannabe Ant Keepers
Summary
TLDRIn this engaging video, Aunt Canada and her friend Jor-el from Manila, Philippines, share their passion for ant keeping with viewers. They demonstrate the process of expanding an ant colony by adding a satellite nest to a thriving solenopsis Jem'Hadar colony. The video introduces a new product, the Omni nest vertical, which offers a modular and expandable habitat for ants. The hosts also discuss the importance of patience, creativity, and learning from the ants themselves, providing valuable tips for both novice and experienced ant keepers. The video is a treasure trove of insights for anyone looking to dive into the fascinating hobby of ant farming.
Takeaways
- 🌏 Aunt Canada and Jor-El, from Manila, Philippines, are friends who met through the ant-keeping hobby and are now collaborating on a video.
- 🐜 Jor-El's solenopsis geminata colony has grown significantly since its purchase from Ants Canada in January, requiring an expansion.
- 📦 Jor-El has created a custom 'Outworld' for his ants using a plastic container from a hardware store, providing ample space for the ants to explore.
- 🏢 The video demonstrates the addition of a 'satellite nest' to the colony using a new product called the 'Omni Nest Vertical', which has different levels and sliding plates for access control.
- 🔍 The Omni Nest Vertical is designed with water retention in mind, and its features will be discussed in more depth in a future video.
- 🔄 The process of connecting the satellite nest to the main colony involves careful handling to minimize disturbance and escapes.
- 👨👩👧👦 Jor-El's family has become involved in the hobby, making it a shared experience and providing support in managing the growing colony.
- 📚 Patience is key in ant-keeping, especially when starting with a small colony, as it allows the ants to acclimate and begin to reproduce without interference.
- 🍽️ A variety of foods are fed to the ants, including bread, seeds, sugary treats, and protein sources like mealworms and other insects, with care taken to avoid contaminated food.
- 💡 As the colony grows, the ant keeper must become more proactive, checking on the ants frequently and adapting to their needs for food and space.
- 🤝 Engaging with a community, such as a Facebook group, and sharing the ant-keeping experience with others can enhance the enjoyment and learning process.
Q & A
What is the main topic of the video?
-The main topic of the video is about setting up and expanding an ant farm, specifically focusing on the solenopsis Jem'Hadar colony.
Who are the hosts of the video?
-The hosts of the video are Aunt Canada and Jor-el, who is also known as Yonko from Manila, Philippines.
How did Aunt Canada and Jor-el meet?
-Aunt Canada and Jor-el met through the gun program when Jor-el enquired about purchasing ants from Canada.
What is the purpose of adding a satellite nest to the colony?
-The purpose of adding a satellite nest is to provide more space for the growing ant colony, as they need more room to expand.
What is the new product introduced in the video called?
-The new product introduced in the video is called the Omni Nest Vertical.
What are the features of the Omni Nest Vertical?
-The Omni Nest Vertical stands vertically and has different floors with access controlled by sliding plates. It also has a side designed to retain water.
What is the current size of Jor-el's solenopsis Jem'Hadar colony?
-Jor-el's solenopsis Jem'Hadar colony has grown significantly since its purchase in January, starting with just a queen and a few workers.
What advice does Jor-el give to new ant keepers about being patient?
-Jor-el advises new ant keepers to be patient, especially in the initial stages when the ants are in a test tube, and to resist the temptation to move them into a formicarium too early.
What kind of food does Jor-el feed his solenopsis Jem'Hadar ants?
-Jor-el feeds his solenopsis Jem'Hadar ants a variety of foods including bread, seeds, sugary treats, candies, chocolates, mealworms, super worms, and meat scraps.
What is the biggest challenge Jor-el faced as his colony grew?
-The biggest challenge Jor-el faced as his colony grew was becoming very active and checking on the ants every 2 or 3 hours, and ensuring they had enough food and space.
What is Jor-el's advice for those who want to get into ant keeping but feel overwhelmed?
-Jor-el's advice is to utilize the abundance of material online, involve the people around you in the experience, and not be ashamed to share your interest with others.
Outlines
🐜 Introduction to Ant Farming with a Special Guest
The video starts with an introduction by Aunt Canada and her friend Jor-el, who is also known as Yohko in Manila, Philippines. They discuss their shared interest in ant farming, which led to their friendship. The main focus of the video is to demonstrate how to expand an ant colony by adding a satellite nest to Jor-el's Solenopsis geminata colony. The hosts showcase a new product, the Omni nest vertical, which is designed to accommodate growing ant colonies with its modular levels and sliding plates for access control. The video captures the process of introducing this new nest to the thriving colony.
📦 Setting Up and Expanding the Ant Colony
This paragraph details the process of setting up and expanding an ant colony. The hosts discuss the importance of patience and careful planning when introducing a new nest to an existing colony. They demonstrate how to connect the satellite nest to the main colony using tubes and ensure a snug fit with tape. The hosts also share their experiences with ant farming, emphasizing the need for creativity and adaptability in managing the colony's needs, such as food and space. The video captures the ants' rapid exploration and adjustment to their new environment.
📚 Learning from an Ant Keeper's Experience
In this section, Aunt Canada interviews Jor-el about his journey as an ant keeper, focusing on his successful experience with the challenging Solenopsis geminata species. Jor-el shares his approach to ant keeping, which includes a strong sense of curiosity, patience, and creativity. He discusses the initial challenges of starting with a small colony and the importance of not disturbing the ants too much during the early stages. As the colony grows, Jor-el emphasizes the need for active management, including regular checks and providing adequate food sources. The interview offers valuable insights for both new and experienced ant keepers.
🌐 Engaging with the Ant Keeping Community
The final paragraph wraps up the video with advice for those interested in ant keeping. Jor-el encourages new enthusiasts to make use of the abundant resources available online and to share their experiences with others. He highlights the importance of community involvement, such as joining Facebook groups and involving family members, to enhance the enjoyment of the hobby. The hosts also invite viewers to subscribe to the channel and explore various playlists related to ant keeping, signaling the end of the informative and engaging video.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Ant Colony
💡Solenopsis Geminata
💡Ant Farm
💡Satellite Nest
💡Omni Nest Vertical
💡Outworld
💡Formicarium
💡Nanotics
💡Antkeeping
💡Mealworms
💡Expansion
Highlights
Introduction to Aunt Canada and her collaboration with Jor-El to feature his ant colony.
Jor-El's journey from purchasing ants to forming a friendship and learning about ant care.
The expansion of Jor-El's ant colony and the introduction of a satellite nest.
Description of the ant colony's setup, including the outworld and its dimensions.
Unveiling of a new product, the Omni nest vertical, and its features.
Explanation of how to use the Omni nest vertical and its modular design.
The process of connecting the satellite nest to the main colony without causing harm to the ants.
Observation of the ants exploring their new space in the satellite nest.
Jor-El's experience and tips for new ant keepers on patience and learning.
The importance of not disturbing a new ant colony and allowing it to grow naturally.
Jor-El's approach to feeding his ants, including mealworms and other protein sources.
Advice on avoiding certain foods that could harm the ants, like pesticide-exposed cockroaches.
Reflection on the balance between planning and discovering in ant keeping.
Jor-El's advice for new hobbyists on involving others and sharing the experience.
Encouragement for new ant keepers to learn and grow with their colonies.
Invitation to subscribe and explore various ant-related playlists on the channel.
Transcripts
hi guys what's up aunt Canada here and
welcome to the ant Canada and Channel
I'm here with my good friend jor-el so
Yonko from here in Manila Philippines I
met you through the gun program he
enquired about purchasing ants from and
Canada and form aquariums
and uh well because we're in the same
city we are friends now so he was kind
enough to agree to allow us to feature
his and colony his selwyn ops his gem
another colony in this video and we're
going to give you guys tips on how to
have an epic ant farm but before that we
have uh something special for you guys
because your and colony is a really big
now and it's ready for an expansion if
this that's right I got the Queen about
six months back and now I find that they
just need more and more space as they
keep on growing and becoming a bigger
colony great yeah so before we get into
all of the talk about ants we're going
to add a satellite nest to his
solenopsis Jem'Hadar colony and it's a
specialness to watch this alright so
jor-el and I are ready to add a
satellite nest to this amazing booming
ant colony solenopsis Geminid Oh colony
here he's got a great setup I see he's
got a huge out world lots of food lots
of water he's been feeding them well and
the colony has just exploded since he
bought this colony from ants Canada
when was that November January well in
January just January well so January for
every March April May June July August
so it's been it's pretty much like a
seven-month colony right yeah and they
just started off with a queen and maybe
what was it like three or four workers
his setup right now consists of a on the
nest extra large why don't you explain
what this Outworld is here what did you
do I just took uh I bought a plastic
container plastic Tupperware from the
hardware store and sort of drilled the
hole for the hose and put flew one on
top
the dimensions are ideal it's about
three or four square feet in area and
the height of the sides are maybe half
foot tall five or six inches so it's
perfect to see the odds walk around yeah
it's really nice I like the open concept
of the old world great okay so now we
are going to add the satellite nest now
I'm going to introduce to you guys our
brand new product which will be hitting
the store at ncaa.com in just a week or
two it's called the only nest vertical
and this is the size large you can see
here it's a kind of like the Omni nest
original version that is currently
selling at the store only it stands
vertically and now if you look here
you'll see it's got different floors and
you can affect the access of each floor
by these little sliding plates here
you can totally modulate it according to
the size of the colony let's say you
just want to give them access to this
first floor here you can switch this
around and totally block it off because
to get to the other floors they have to
go through the sides now one of the
sides here is designed to retain the
water I'm sure you guys have questions
about this product and I promise I
promise promise you guys I will go more
in depth with you guys in terms of the
features of this Omni nest vertical in
my next video when they become
completely available at the store ok and
there we go I think now the ants are
ready to move in general are you ready
yeah ok I always get nervous Durrell W
whenever here disconnecting things well
I learned that you
except that you get bitten a few times
after that it becomes much easier yeah
right exactly and I forgot to bring my
gloves so there are two openings on the
other side here let's flip this around
two openings one up there and one down
there and we are going to attach these
tubes to there to those openings and
what we've done is we've wrapped some
tape around the edge of the tube so that
they fit snugly into these holes so I'm
going to put those there now like that
and then this I'm going to put that
right there like so great now we've
rigged it on this on the nest vertical
so that the ants can have access to all
the levels again you can kind of block
off levels by flipping the these pegs
around you know and it'll keep them from
going to the next level but because this
colony's huge they're going to want to
move so let's do that let's give them
access now if you want if you just want
the entire nest to just have complete
access another thing you can do is
completely remove these pegs and just
place tape over all of the holes you
could do that too
okay so what are we going to do here
jor-el so let's adjust the hosts around
this area okay you take one side I'll
take the other yup and then plug yeah
plug it started we get in position to
connect it already you're AB the pair's
I said ah okay we're going to cover
would you rather disconnect because I
think the smaller holes will fit exactly
to this okay so let's cut in here set or
reset make sense it does and then we
each block one side get all right sorry
to break the highway guys and I hope
there are no casualties yeah oh holy ah
they're fast
so jor-el wants this bottom tube to
attach to the bottom of the only nest
vertical just so it goes directly to the
old world
so look here yeah thanks I think I need
it here we go ah so decent acting in
there yeah okay not so bad we don't have
that many escapes all right really I
just learned that might actually help to
squeeze the end of the tube all right so
they have a smaller hole to get out ah
good job and the attachments have been
made great all right it looks like the
answer exploring now interior and
hopefully they like their new space one
white not so bad yeah I don't think I
got bit actually which is a nice change
all right guys so while the ants are
moving in I wanted to talk to you are L
about your experience on I'm keeping and
hopefully help other wannabe and keepers
and amateur ID keepers out there who
might be wanting to get into the hobby
or just got into the hobby sure um and I
wanted to interview you in particular
because uh myself you know dealing with
other end keepers I find that some
people just have the nth thumb you know
hey okay and if there's someone who has
the ant thumb it would be you because
you went from just a you know cult
beginner to keeping one of the hardest
species um that I've ever kept
solenopsis German era and you've done
really well so what would do you think
would be um I guess your secret uh well
I think what really helped me is my
sense of fascination even even way back
when I was small I also wanted taking
care of you know insects picking them up
trying to keep them at home so it's a
sense of curiosity that is all is
sustained by my drive because definitely
and keeping I think requires a lot of
patience
and you have to accept that at one point
or another you go you're going to get
stuck oh that's just real reality of it
yeah but you get past that and you
really pay attention there are a lot of
things to learn a lot of things to see
and more than anything
like I take it like a a challenge you
know it's my creativity against their
instinct you have to keep on finding
ways to keep them inside the formic area
without getting out you have to keep on
finding new food trying to be creative
how to sustain their the mealworms you
have to keep to feed them eventually
so really it's fun once you get past the
the hesitations or apprehensions that
you may have sweet and oh just to
clarify
he's keeping a ver a stinging species
but for those of you who don't want to
keep a stinging species um there are
other species house spray formic acid
and you know don't have a stinger I
wanted to talk to you about the
beginning like when you first receive
the ants in the tube it was a queen and
a few nano ticks what was it like
keeping them at first to be the attitude
to be completely honest the hardest part
was being patient you know you have you
have them in the test tube and you have
to wait one or two week wait one or two
weeks before anything really happens so
it gets really tempting to try and move
them into a form aquarium really early
it gets very tempting to open up the
test tube and try to feed them food but
then with your advice I took it
seriously you know introduce food too
early and you just introduce you risk
ruins inside the test tube and things
like that
so really I had to be patient I had to
wake that I spent the time reading on
ants learning on how to take care of
them there's an abundance of material
online on YouTube on the ants Canada
YouTube channel so I spent that time
learning so by the time I had enough
nanotubes to move them into the four
Macario everything went really smoothly
great so you suggestin keepers who have
that starting colony to really just let
them be
definitely definitely I think that the
less disturbed they are the more
comfortable they become and the more
encouraged they become to start laying
eggs and start their colony
good I think that's great advice because
a lot of people write to me saying uh
you know I had this new colony and I've
been trying so hard to take care of them
and you know really spoil them but then
they don't do well because of too much
care that's right so and you found that
it's been the opposite I think of the
stuff nature has sort of equipped them
really well to start that cause into it
there's really very little intervention
needed from us at the start great
and now contrasting to that what was
your experience like when your colony
started to grow and into the size it is
now uh well it became really challenging
I had to become very active so I check
on them every 2 or 3 hours on some days
my entire household is gotten into the
hobby so that's really good I think it's
still place to do what I said earlier
they do have that survival instinct and
as their colony grows their instinct is
to keep on foraging keep on looking for
sources for food expand your nest so you
just have to be reactive to that if you
feel like you need a new for Macario
then you have to find a way to make it
happen if you feel like they need more
food then you have to find a way to make
it happen
great and now you mentioning food now um
what kinds of food were you feeding your
solenopsis Germanotta okay so of course
antepers note that the staples are water
sugar and protein so sugars easy enough
to come by I give them bread I give them
seeds I give them sugary treats candies
and chocolates protein is a little bit
more challenging a good thing in the
Philippines it's easy enough to buy
mealworms or super worms by by the bunch
you know so and they're not very hard to
leave so I feed them that now but I feed
them scraps meat before
egg you know so pretty much anything
they they get to it the good thing is
they know what they want they know what
they don't so if you put something that
they don't want you'll find that they
ignore it so you take it out before
molds grow on it of course there are
some things which you have to know
beforehand to keep the upkeep away you
don't want to feed them cockroaches
which may have been exposed to pesticide
and yeah that's a big one yeah so um
what
you think then is the biggest thing
you've learned you know think talking
about now you know in retrospect what
would you tell yourself when you first
started off in terms of advice
I'm a bit uh it's a bit of a conundrum
to me because I want to tell people to
plan ahead think about it you know make
sure your plan is foolproof
but then again part of the fun is really
discovering all of this right so it's a
good balance between the two try to
think like an app if that's possible you
don't need to try to escape proof or
your form carrier and all your up worlds
but at the same time you sort of play
with it as it goes you learn you
continue to be creative right you guys
well yeah that's a fun spike bit yeah
and living I found that to actually just
you kind of have to learn with your ants
there kind of isn't a set formula with
set amounts and scent you just kind of
have to read right yeah yeah they're
following me definitely yeah
the final question then is what is your
biggest advice to those out there who
would want to get into the Hobby but
they just feel like you know there might
be too much to know and to learn what do
you have to say to them well as I
mentioned this an abundance of material
online you won't fall short I assure you
I think what's made a very good
experience for me is I've included the
people around me in the experience you
know my wife is into it I've joined the
a a Facebook group and I've found that
it becomes much more enjoyable when I
have people to talk to about it I don't
look at my colony alone my wife cup
should be all the time and friends who
come over to the house are always very
keen to see what's up what's happening
so you know uh as you explore and grow
and learn more don't be ashamed to tell
people about him
every one is a sense of curiosity and
it's just a matter showing them you know
this is one of the interesting stuff
around them that's great
all right thank you yeah and thank you
guys for watching this video
um that's some great advice right there
from a beginning and keeper to other
beginning and keepers and one of the end
keepers um but he's a pro no I would say
that yeah so let's say we go inside and
and see the progress of the or
definitely yeah
hey guys if you like this video don't
forget to hit that subscribe button and
also be sure to check out many of my
other and playlists on this channel my
anti toriel playlist my solenopsis
geminated playlist my touch Amorim
species feed playlist and my camp on
august overboard Kansas playlist and
love forever guys bye
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