How to have an EPIC Antfarm: Helpful Tips for Amateur & Wannabe Ant Keepers

Summary

In 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

00:00

🐜 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.

05:01

📦 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.

10:02

📚 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.

16:38

🌐 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.

Keywords

💡Ant Colony

An ant colony is a complex social structure that consists of queens, workers, and males. In the video, the theme revolves around the growth and management of an ant colony, specifically the solenopsis geminata species. The script mentions the colony's need for expansion as it grows, indicating the dynamic nature of ant colonies and the care required to maintain them.

💡Solenopsis Geminata

Solenopsis geminata, also known as the fire ant, is a species of stinging ant mentioned in the script. The video discusses the challenges and experiences of keeping this particular species, emphasizing the need for patience and learning as the colony develops from a few workers to a thriving community.

💡Ant Farm

An ant farm is a form of enclosure designed to house and observe ants. The video provides tips on setting up an 'epic' ant farm, showcasing the importance of space, food, and water for the ants' well-being. The term is central to the video's theme of ant care and habitat management.

💡Satellite Nest

A satellite nest is an additional nest or module added to an existing ant colony to provide more space. The script describes the process of adding a satellite nest to the solenopsis geminata colony, which is a critical step in the expansion and management of a growing colony.

💡Omni Nest Vertical

The Omni Nest Vertical is a new product introduced in the script, designed for housing ants. It features different floors with modifiable access, allowing for the control of ant movement between levels. This product is significant as it represents an innovative approach to ant colony management.

💡Outworld

In the context of the video, the outworld refers to the external area of an ant farm where ants can forage and explore. The script describes an outworld setup using a plastic container, emphasizing the importance of a spacious and accessible environment for the ants.

💡Formicarium

A formicarium is a specialized ant habitat, often designed for observing and housing ants in a controlled environment. The script mentions the use of a formicarium as the ants' main living space, highlighting the necessity of a suitable habitat for ant colonies.

💡Nanotics

Nanotics, or nano ticks, refers to the smallest ants in a colony, often the initial members when starting an antkeeping hobby. The script discusses the initial stages of colony growth from a queen and a few nanotics, illustrating the gradual development of an ant colony.

💡Antkeeping

Antkeeping is the hobby of maintaining and observing ant colonies. The video provides insights into the experiences and advice for those interested in antkeeping, emphasizing patience, learning, and the creative challenges involved in caring for ants.

💡Mealworms

Mealworms are a common food source for many ant species, including the solenopsis geminata. The script mentions mealworms as a protein source for the ants, underlining the importance of a balanced diet for a healthy ant colony.

💡Expansion

In the context of the video, expansion refers to the process of increasing the size of an ant colony's habitat. The script discusses the need for expansion due to the growing number of ants, indicating a natural progression in ant colony management.

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