Managing and Dealing With Escaped Ants - AntsCanada Ant Tutorial #29
Summary
TLDRIn this informative tutorial, the host of Ant Canada shares their experience in managing ant husbandry, especially in the challenging tropical climate of the Philippines. They discuss the difficulty of containing ants with traditional methods like Vaseline and introduce PTFE, or 'Insecta Slip', as a superior barrier. The video offers practical tips on preventing escapes, dealing with breaches, and maintaining ant colonies, along with insights on the global ant-keeping community and the importance of appreciating local species.
Takeaways
- π The speaker moved from Canada to the Philippines and had to adapt to different ant species and containment methods.
- π North American ants were easier to contain compared to the more resourceful and challenging tropical ants in the Philippines.
- π‘ PTFE, also known as Fluon or Insecta Slip, is recommended as an effective barrier to prevent ants from escaping their enclosures.
- π¦ Fluon can be ordered from a site called buyequip.com and is included in Aunt Canada's habitat nest kits.
- π To apply Fluon, invert the container and mix every three to four weeks, and apply it to an inverted Outworld to avoid unsightly streaks.
- π« Avoid reapplying Fluon over itself as it creates a gripping surface that ants can use to cross the barrier.
- π Use packaging tape to line the tops of ant enclosures before applying the barrier for easier maintenance and replacement if needed.
- ποΈ Paint brushes are useful for handling ants without harming them, and surgical gloves are recommended for protection when dealing with stinging species.
- π Use a glue gun or silicone caulk for securing joints and connections in ant enclosures to prevent escapes.
- πΎ If ants escape, use a vacuum with a removable canister to collect them quickly and return them to their enclosure, ensuring not to dehydrate them.
- π Aunt Canada promotes local ant keeping through the 'Global Ant Keepers Project', encouraging the sale of local ant species to prevent ecological harm.
- π Aunt Canada is celebrating its fifth anniversary and continues to innovate with new products and DIY kits for ant enthusiasts.
Q & A
What is the main topic of the video tutorial?
-The main topic of the video tutorial is how to prevent ants from escaping in ant husbandry and what to do if they do escape.
Why did the creator of Ant Canada relocate to the Philippines?
-The creator of Ant Canada relocated to the Philippines in December 2011 due to certain circumstances that necessitated the move halfway across the world.
What challenges did the creator face when setting up Ant Canada in Manila?
-The creator faced challenges such as finding materials available in Manila to continue making the products loved by customers and adapting to the more difficult-to-manage tropical ants.
What is the significance of PTFE in ant containment?
-PTFE, also known as Fluon or Insecta Slip, is a liquid Teflon used as a barrier to prevent ants from escaping. It hardens into a slippery surface that ants cannot cross.
How can one obtain PTFE for ant containment?
-PTFE can be ordered from a site called buyequip.com, and it is also included in small bottles with some of Ant Canada's habitat nests.
What is the recommended method for applying PTFE to ant habitats?
-The recommended method is to turn the habitat upside down and paint the barrier at the top to avoid unsightly drip marks.
Why is packaging tape used in ant containment setups?
-Packaging tape is used to line the tops of formicariums, providing a surface on which a barrier like PTFE can be placed, and it can be easily replaced if the ants find a breach.
What are some tools recommended for handling ants during maintenance or if they escape?
-Paint brushes and surgical gloves are recommended for handling ants to prevent injury and to avoid squishing them.
What should one do if ants have already escaped from their habitat?
-If ants have escaped, one should use a vacuum with a removable canister to quickly collect the ants and address the breach in the setup to prevent further escapes.
What is the Global Ant Keepers Project and how does it work?
-The Global Ant Keepers Project is an initiative where ant keepers from around the world can sell ants they've captured or bred locally to people in their area, promoting local species appreciation and reducing ecological risks associated with mail-order ants.
How does the creator of Ant Canada feel about the ants native to North America after keeping tropical species?
-The creator appreciates the ants native to North America more after experiencing the challenges of keeping tropical species, such as their easier containment and simpler care requirements.
Outlines
π Relocation and Challenges of Ant Husbandry in the Tropics
The speaker introduces the video, explaining that while they've covered many ant husbandry topics, they've never discussed preventing ant escapes due to past ease with North American ants. They recount their move from Canada to the Philippines in December 2011 and the challenges of adapting to new materials and ant species. They highlight the difficulty of keeping tropical ants, particularly the solenopsis genus, which are resourceful and challenging to contain, even with tried-and-true methods like petroleum jelly (Vaseline) and PTFE (Insecta slip).
π οΈ Tools and Techniques for Preventing Ant Escapes
This paragraph focuses on the tools and techniques necessary for preventing ant escapes. The speaker recommends using PTFE (also known as Fluon or Insecta slip), a liquid Teflon that hardens into a slippery barrier, and provides tips on its application and maintenance. They also suggest using packaging tape to line the tops of ant habitats, which can be replaced if breached. The importance of using paint brushes for handling ants and wearing surgical gloves for protection from stinging species is emphasized. Additionally, the speaker advises using a glue gun or silicone caulk to secure joins in the ant setup.
π Dealing with Ant Escapes and Containment Breaches
The speaker describes a personal experience of an ant escape and the steps taken to manage the situation. They recommend using a vacuum with a removable, transparent canister to quickly collect escaped ants and emphasize the importance of identifying and sealing any containment breaches. The use of tape and PTFE to patch up the breach is detailed, along with the need to rehydrate ants post-vacuuming by providing extra water in their habitat. The paragraph concludes with advice on preventing escapes and a reassurance that most ants in Europe and North America are easier to contain.
π± Promoting Local Ant Species and the Global Ant Keeper Community
In the final paragraph, the speaker discusses the 'Global Ant Keeper Project,' an initiative to promote local ant species and discourage the purchase of non-native ants through mail. They explain how the project connects ant farmers with potential buyers in their area, fostering appreciation for local species and supporting the global ant-keeping community. The speaker also mentions upcoming products, including DIY kits for ant farms and a celebration of their channel's fifth anniversary, expressing gratitude for the support from the audience.
Mindmap
Keywords
π‘Ant Husbandry
π‘Petroleum Jelly (Vaseline)
π‘Tropical Ants
π‘PTFE (Polytetrafluoroethylene)
π‘Insecta Slip
π‘Breach
π‘Solenopsis
π‘Red Tropical Fire Ant
π‘Global Ant Keepers Project
π‘DIY (Do-It-Yourself) Kits
π‘Ant Escape
Highlights
Introduction to the Ant Canada channel and its focus on ant husbandry and containment.
Relocation from Canada to the Philippines and the challenges of setting up a new ant station.
Discovery of new materials and craftsmanship in Asia that were not available in Canada.
The difficulty of keeping tropical ants compared to North American ants.
Ineffectiveness of Vaseline as a barrier for tropical ants.
Introduction of PTFE (Insecta Slip) as a superior barrier for ant containment.
Recommendation to order PTFE from buyequip.com and its inclusion in Ant Canada habitat kits.
Instructions for preparing and applying PTFE to prevent ant escapes.
Use of packaging tape to line the tops of ant habitats for additional barrier protection.
Importance of using paint brushes for handling ants and avoiding direct contact.
Recommendation to use surgical gloves when handling stinging ant species.
Advice on using a glue gun or silicone caulk for securing joints in ant setups.
Dealing with ant escapes using a vacuum with a removable canister.
How to find and fix breaches in ant setups to prevent further escapes.
The importance of quickly relocating ants back to their habitat after vacuuming to prevent dehydration.
Introduction of the Global Ant Keepers Project for local ant sales and its ecological benefits.
Announcement of new products and DIY kits from Ant Canada.
Ant Canada's fifth anniversary and commitment to continue supporting the ant keeping community.
Transcripts
hey guys what's up at lovers of the
world welcome to the ant Canada and
channel you know we've had ant tutorials
about pretty much everything in terms of
and keeping and ant husbandry keeping
ants in captivity but I haven't created
a tutorial on this topic
mostly because well I kind of never had
any basis to UM to create this this
tutorial my aunt's back when I was in
Canada we're fairly easy to contain you
know I would just use a band of
petroleum jelly Vaseline and the ants
for the most part remained in the form
aquariums in their out worlds and you
know I never had to worry about escapes
but for those of you who've been
following my channel for a while you
know that in 2011 December I relocated
here to Philippines uh certain
circumstances necessitated me to move
halfway across the world and although
were still called ants Canada I had to
set up a station here in Manila
Philippines to um you know to keep and
Canada calm going and you know at first
it was kind of hard for about a year I
had to you know figure out materials
that were available here so I could
continue doing the products that you
guys all love for your ends and after a
year I was able to reestablish and
Canada on here in in Manila and it's
been amazing it was actually a blessing
in disguise moving here because there
are certain materials and great
craftsmanship here here in Asia actually
so you know that wasn't readily
available to me in Canada so that kind
of was a great thing and also um it gave
me a new test sample of tropical ends
and you know for the most part North
American ants were fairly easy to keep
and you know take care of but I promise
you these tropical ends have been such a
handful um I kind of call them and
steroids here in the tropics the ants
are insane um
Vaseline will not keep ant within their
outworlds and in their for materials and
I've been you know forced to try other
barriers for example to keep ensign site
as well the ants are just so resourceful
they'll use their own bodies to you know
problem-solve and cross any barrier that
that I might use I've had to order flew
on PTFE which is the famous Insecta slip
that apparently is the best insect
repellent and still the tropical ends
here have managed to find weaknesses in
the barriers and so again this too was
kind of a blessing in disguise because
it allowed us to test our products on
the most Hardy most escaping ant in the
world you know um and the colony that I
have now for those of you who are
following my channel it's a red tropical
fire end which is solenopsis genera
found in most tropical countries and I
can tell you of all the species that
I've kept they are definitely the most
difficult to keep and well I say that
because no they're not hard to feed they
actually are explosive in growth but
they require a lot of resources a lot of
food a lot of water you know I have to
be there to constantly clean their out
world there are stinging species and
they've been able to cross Vaseline even
powder baby powder mixed with alcohol
that I use usually brush at the top they
can cross that also um PTFE they've
managed to find a weakness in the
barrier and I've had to figure out ways
to keep them in and I managed to find a
way so this tutorial then is to cover
the ways on how you can continue ends
and keep them from escaping okay so for
the first part of this video I'm going
to explain what you guys need to prevent
escapes and then in the second part of
this video I'm going to
show you how to deal with a breach in
your end set up where ends are already
escaping so first things first what you
need is a very good deterrent in my
experience flu on also known as PTFE
also known as Insecta slip is the best
barrier for keeping insects in their
setups and what it is is it's liquid
Teflon it's the same material that's
used to coat your pots and pans makes it
very slippery and ants just slip off it
I love it because it hardens into a sort
of enamel sort of candle like candle wax
like substance and even if you touch it
it doesn't rub off unlike you know baby
powder or even Vaseline now where can
you get blue on um floor one can be
ordered from a site called buy equip
calm and it's very fast very affordable
shipping is is great really convenient
way of getting this for those of you who
have ordered our habitat nest any of our
habitat nests we include a small bottle
of this flow-on for you to use it comes
with the kit and there are certain
instructions you know it says do not
shake or use mechanical stirrers as it
causes clogging and clumping so what you
have to do is every three to four weeks
you just got to turn the bottle upside
down and mix it that way
also it really helps to turn the
Outworld upside down when you're
applying the layer of flow on because it
does drip and then when it does drip it
leaves unsightly like white streaks I
guess on your out world which isn't
harmful but it doesn't look so neat now
the weakness in this I found is that you
cannot go over it twice if you place a
band of this insect the slip onto the
top part of your outworlds you can't go
over it and why it's because it causes a
lot of gripping surface for the ends to
really to actually cross it so what I do
is I turn the out
upside down and paint the barrier at the
top which brings me to my next item that
I think is very very important whether
you are using flow-on or whatever um
barrier you choose to use a tape
packaging tape very cheap you could buy
it um at most hardware stores craft
shops all that and what this would be
used for is to line the tops of your
form aquariums
so basically with tape what you do is
you line the top of your world with this
tape and then on top of the tape you
place your barrier and I found out the
most effective because if ever the ants
find you know a breach in the barrier
where they can actually cross it you can
remove the tape place another tape and
then reapply it a new fresh layer and
that helps to for those of you guys who
are fond of using Vaseline and tend to
put garbage and then bodies on the
Vaseline and if you put enough really
crafty ends we'll be able to create a
bridge of dead bodies and debris and
garbage and eventually cross out and
escape from your out world so with this
it gives you an opportunity to really
replace the barrier if you need to
especially important for flow on another
thing you should use is paint brushes
invest in paint brushes maybe get four
of them and what these are used for is
for actually handling the ends so you
know when I'm working around the ants
when I'm disconnecting tubes or if any
ants escape I just grab two of these
paint brushes and use them to scoop up
the ends it's actually better than using
your hands because it's a it's good for
handling ants and not entering them of
course you know you're a giant and
you'll squish them inevitably so I find
paint brushes work really well another
thing you can use if you are dealing
with a stinging species like my
solenopsis jamming era is you can add
you could buy surgical gloves very
important to protect yourself you know I
still have marks from three
ago when ants were attacking me when I
was working in the out world so having
gloves really is worth it protecting
yourself another thing I would recommend
is to glue gun or silicone caulk all the
parts where you are joining parts
together especially if you are splitting
tubes you know where you have a tube
entering another tube that you've cut
yourself
be sure to silicone caulk those areas
because you never know someone might
come along and knock it open and you
know the ants will escape and as well
certain ants are good at chewing parts
of the rubber of the tubing so having
that extra enforcement there to keep the
ants in is definitely helpful I've
experienced this again with solenopsis
giannetta alright so what do you do if
the ants are already escaped well I woke
up this morning to a monstrosity escape
mission I went downstairs and all over
my table there were ants everywhere I
mean they were starting to move out into
the floor etc luckily it didn't look
like that the entire colony was out and
I assumed the Queen was still in the
nest thank goodness and in that case
what I recommend is to have handy a
vacuum with a removable canister
dustbusters you know those dust devil
sucker up things are great any canister
that's see-through is particularly
helpful what I recommend is using the
flat head like this and you see here's
the canister see through the ants get
sucked up and what I do is I kind of
just use the brush to kind of sweep them
into the path of the vacuum and they
collect in this canister and I find that
very very effective I can collect many
many ants quickly which is so important
all right another thing to keep in mind
is that first you need to find out where
the breach in your setup is in my case
what the ants had done was they had
found a play
to grip onto the flu on and using their
bodies they formed a bridge over that
that area now so what I did was I took
some tape and I painted some fluent on
to it then used it to cover that section
that they were crossing thank God so I
dealt with the breach and they could no
longer cross so at that point I can go
on and suck the ends um now one thing to
keep in mind is that when you're sucking
the ends you have to do it as quickly as
possible you don't want the ants to stay
in the canister you know blowing around
for a long period of time you know
because well and muscular systems I
guess let's call them that work on
hydraulics so if they get dehydrated
they become immobile and they die so
with all that wind blowing around it
really dries them out and so you know
every four minutes or so I recommend you
remove the canister and empty it into
the out world just so the ants you know
don't dry up and die in the canister and
of course in their out world give them
extra water so that they can drink after
that suckage and so overall um I guess
the best way to prepare for escapes is
to make sure they don't happen in the
first place for those of you guys who
don't have ants yet and are panicking
don't panic because for most of you in
Europe North America the ants are fairly
containable like I said my experience
living in Canada I had never had any
escapes maybe one small isolated
incident involving Tetra more ium
pavement ants but it was very easy to to
fix that problem but again these ants
here in the tropics are pretty crazy um
it should be reassuring to those of you
guys who buy our products that they're
now being tested on the toughest of the
tough
ants around in the world so good luck
you guys on securing your ant setups
and thank you guys so much for the
support I also wanted to mention that
for those of you who don't know we
actually have a I guess let's call it a
a market an international market where
ant keepers are able to sell ants that
they capture colonies you know
specifically Queens with workers to
people in their area and I wanted to set
up this project because I basically
wanted to I guess promote keeping ants
from your area you know we've always
been against purchasing ants in the mail
especially ants that aren't from your
area because you know of the ecological
dangers it's also dangerous to the
colony in transit and you know the
project was there to foster an
appreciation for your local species and
moving here to Philippines actually also
gave me a broader perspective on how
awesome the species in North America
were you know um I do miss hibernation I
miss simple things like that and you
know ants that are easily contained that
I appreciate now more than ever after
having kept the tropical species that I
always wanted to keep back when I was
living in Canada so yeah we have this
thing called the global adversary'
project and what it is is we recruit and
farmers from all over the world in major
cities to sell ants in their area so
what happens is if you have some ants
that you'd like to sell you contact us
that's contact that us at ncaa.com
and we sign you up you sign an agreement
with us and we find customers for you we
list you up on our website in the Queens
for sales section and we just wait for
customers to message us inquiring about
your ends and you guys get to decide how
much you want to sell your ants for and
what we do is we add $10 Canadian onto
your asking price just to cover our
correspondence emails that I myself and
a friend of mine
um or managing and you get to keep your
entire asking price once the the
purchase is made and then we hook you
guys up so you guys could arrange to
meet together and you know deliver the
colony it actually is also a great way
to foster the relationships within the
global and community so it's really a
great thing be sure to check out our
website and Canada comm under the
Queen's for sale section to learn more
about that and I guess that's it guys
wishing you the best of luck thank you
so much for the support a lot more new
products are coming out including these
awesome out worlds you know the ones
you've seen in past videos we're finally
having our worlds for sale again so look
out for that on our website and we've
got some new do-it-yourself kits called
aunt Canada and cement and I'll create
more videos coming up on how you can use
it to make your own ant farms and as
well to use it to make your out worlds
as well and make a really naturalistic
looking setup anyways thanks guys for
the support really appreciate everything
oh and hence Canada turn five years old
a few days ago so for all of you guys
who have been watching my videos on ants
and who've gotten into end keeping we
really appreciate the support and you
can always count on me to continue to
make n videos to help you guys and to
spread the ant love take care bye
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