Ant Room Tour | Big-headed Ants 

Throw springtails in! They are too small too be eaten by the ants, and they will help great with the mold!

Ants Australia, As inhumane and brutal this may sound, i have to say my favourite ant species is Temnothorax Pilagens 'Invisible Ants'. Temnothorax pilagens, or pillage ants, are very small slave-maker ants with a unique set of skills. Slave-maker ants don’t have their own workers, so they steal other ants’ larvae and use them as slave labor. This means that in its colony alone, they can be a variety of different species of ants, with different shape and sizes all working (or slaving) as one. Pillage ants are very small, and they raid colonies of ants that are themselves so small that they live in a single acorn. These little acorn fortresses only have one entrance. So how do pillage ants gain access? They walk in through the front door. Usually, they aren’t even noticed. Scientists think they have some sort of chemical camouflage that allows them to remain mostly undetectable to their enemies. In other words, they possess chemical invisibility, which is truly amazing. But sometimes they are found out, in which case fighting ensues. In such scenarios, the small pillage ant will stab its opponent in the neck with paralyzing venom that kills it quickly or enables it to subdue the ant. Some Interesting facts about Temnothorax Pilagens are: .Pillage ant casualties have never been observed from fights, whereas the other ants can suffer anywhere from 5-100 percent losses. This may be because of the Temnothorax Pilagens 'chemical invisibility' and so as it quickly finishes off an ant that has notice its presence, before the ant can alert other members, it activates its 'chemical invisibility'. .Pillage ants has never been observed to attack in groups larger than four individuals. This is just simply amazing. Considering its small size, you would think it needs an whole army to take on colonies, but just 4 little part assassins and part ninjas.

ANOTHER VIDEO WITHIN TWO WEEKS! THIS IS CRAZY :D

8:35 You missed the opportunity of saying "They go nuts for nuts"!

Yes!!! Great video Jordan, looking forward to see how big this colony can get! 🐜

My son is an ant fanatic, so I was pretty stoked when I found a big-headed ant queen about 6+ months back. Since then the colony has grown to about 100 ants. I’ve been wondering how to feed and take care of them, and this video really helped. Thank you!

I lived in the Philippines from most of my childhood meaning I was immersed in a huge variety of ants but from out of all of them my favourite is the odontomachus sp, the trap jaw ant.These guys really fascinated me with their amazing looking jaws that can shut in less than a second and there unique body structure.I dreamed of having a colony of these critters and hopefully that happens.

This is my favourite ant video thus far! Makes me want to raise Pheidole. I like how dense and full of footage, rather than just the same thing over and over again. Great job mate!

i feel like i enjoy your videos more over ants canada just because you feel more down to earth about your love for ants. I feel like Ants Canada started out like you but has let the youtube fame get in the way of everything. Everytime i see his videos its always some crazy thing he is doing with his ants or some clickbait title. Dont get me wrong, hes a great youtuber but i like how calm and collective you are. I love watching your videos and i feel like im learning so much about this new hobby. My first queen ant just hatched her first workers and its so exciting. Thanks again for your hard work

10:00 Huh, so I guess ants have learnt to use tools now?

My favourite Ant species are definitely the invasive “crazy ants”, also called “raspberry ants”. These invaded the Houston area about 10 years ago. They look sort of like fire ants, but they usually don’t sting, whereas fire ants will sting en masse. Another thing I like about them is that they displaced a lot of fire ants. Fire ants seem to have recovered somewhat the last few years, but they don’t seem to be as numerous as they were before the crazy ants showed up. One thing bad about the crazy ants is that they like to build their nests inside electrical equipment. That happened to me when they built a large nest inside the outside unit of my home air conditioner. Fortunately, I discovered it before it got big enough to cause a problem. But over all these are my all time faroutite Ants. They are just majestic and badass! -Greetings

Hey Jordan! Great job on the Videos once again. My favorite ant species are Tetramorium sp E. I remember as a kid, seeing these very basic, small, black, stinging ants that would have giant wars on the sidewalk during spring time. I always used to watch them fight and found it so fascinating how they knew who's ants belonged to what colony. Although their clump looked like a giant mess, for the ants, it was very clear what they were doing. When I started ant keeping about 3 years ago, I caught my first queen, a Cacophonous Novaebrencencis. She was a beautiful queen who started a very nice colony. The day their first major enclosed, I made a big mistake. I put fluon around the edge of their outworld and decided not to put a lid on to help aerate the set up. I went out for lunch and came back to a nothing. No ants, no brood, no queen. My initial thought was that the ants had escaped. This made me so sad and want to quit ant keeping. However, that night, before going to bed, I was taking down their set up to wash it, and found about 20-50 Tetramorium workers in their outworld. This made me hate those ants, and I never wanted to keep them. Little did I know, I caught a Tetramorium queen the next summer. I did not know it was tetramorium tho. She laid eggs and had her first tiny workers. I thought at first they were Tapinoma but I was wrong. After they hit their 100 worker mark, I realized they were Tetramorium. I wanted to get rid of them, but I decided to give them a chance. We had our ups and downs, such as escapes and disagreements within they own colony, but I don't regret keeping them for a second. I realized that there is no point holding a grudge against a Genus of ants because 1 bad thing happens. Right now they have 5-8k workers and produce alates every year. They are currently house in THA Phalanx, 3 AntsAUS ytong size 1, 4 AntsAus ytong size 5. I'd love to test out this acrylic type nest on them. I've never used one. Let's just hope I win! Keep up the good work! Dan Ps: Go check out my instagram @AntsToronto

Love your background music

Incredible work Jordan, insightful of every stage of ant metamorphosis and each one's behaviour. Inspires me to build a colony of my own!

Saw some of these little guys near my dads office as a kid. Poked them with a pencil and got to see all the majors come out

My favorite species is Polyrhachis cyanoventris because they're like shiny blue dragons. I just find them so beautiful and mesmerizing.

Im happy to be like 300, very good video!! This vivarium is beautiful.

This is so AWEOMSE I've been waiting so long for this

Another comfy video! Thank you, this compliments my very rainy day here in the States.

Man your videos and production have improved monumentally since you started with that first big headed ant video, seriously awesome work! I also love that you don't use clickbait or flashy titles, just honest quality content :) I'd say my favourite genus is Oecophylla, their vibrant green colour and intriguing way they build their nests, what a spectacle! However I also really love Pheidole because I have heaps of fond memories as a child just watching them forage and traverse, I remember being fascinated by the fact that there was a big headed ant amongst an army of smaller ants and coming to the conclusion that it was a "soldier". Nowadays I'm searching for a Pheidole queen to start my own nest and a new hobby, even though I'm 25 now I'll probably still get lost watching them for hours!

GREAT VIDEO! I love those big-headed majors, they are so cute =D

Carebara is my favourite species by far. When I first got into Ant-Keeping, Pheidole was my favourite, until I found out about their gigantic cousins. Those girls are truly an awesome species of ant, I hope one day, (if I move to the correct country, as I don't think they're native here in Australia.) I can keep my own colony of them. :)

My FAVOURITE ant species is the weaver ant. I love how they have learned to adapt to the world around them by harvesting silk from their larve and use it to weave leafs together and build their nests. I also love the way they work together when attacking possible predators or prey by each gripping to a leg and pulling. They are an extremely intelligent and resourceful species that I absolutely love. I have tried to find them at a waterfall range but instead encountered a colony of my second favourite species (Myrmecia). I believe their beautiful colouring of green and orangey brown help them camouflage from predators and is one of the MANY reasons they are so diverse from any other ant species. I have searched hard but never found a nest of weaver ants so I don't have a photo. I absolutely love the way they build their nests in trees. One of my favourite features about weaver ants is the brilliant colouring of the elates and I would FREAK OUT if I ever found a fertile queen. These ants send a great message of teamwork and resourcefulness across the world. P.S I love your ant documentaries and I believe you should make a documentary on weaver ants.

I wish there was just a endless video stream of these ants! They’re so cool to watch!

I like how you actually allow the elates to be free when they are ready

LOVING IT JORDAN!!!!

I have been waiting for this for a long and I hope your ants do well

This was entirely fascinating to watch. You should do more of these elaborate tours soon. And update us on how you ended up solving the mold problem.

I love these type of vids! Keep it up Jorden

You know, i'll never start taking care of ants cause my cat would go crazy, and right now i should study for my college exams, but oddly enough your videos are so enjoyable, something like national geographic channel, Cheers!

I am so happy to found your channel. I love your videos. Very cool and interesting ant content with amazing camera quality

Really cool video, keep up the good work and looking forward to more videos

Isn’t it weird that some of the ants you see in one shot you think you will never see again! But then again they might be seen again because you can’t (or will really struggle!) to identify that certain ant (hope you caught my drift!)

asian marauder ants, because of how they adapt and how they can have up to 16 queens, and also their big majors that can cut though wire and cement.

beautiful colony really makes you think of all ants and how they help every country and environment thanks for sharing love it :)

For me I find Pheidole ants the most amazing genus of ants in the world. Because of their amazing and striking colour and their diversity between the different castes. I have seen them running along paths each either carrying food to the colony or more workers being sent out to help with transporting the food. When I see them in the wild I get so excited and just wish that the queen was out (But that’s never going to happen in a mature colony. The fact that they will eat basically everything they can get their mandables on is amazing to see. Pheidole ants are definitely my favourite ants in the world.

You are so amazing...your videos are so intresting and i love them! You're doing a nice jop

AntsCanada: Does ants stuff Ants Australia: Ant Tour / Ants stuff

I just rewatched your previous updates on them! Good timing!

My favourite ants are the leafcutter ants. I find it quite remarkable how such tiny and fragile creatures have endured for thousands of years and are still going strong! I love how they were the first living creature to actively farm their food and care for it and most importantly, i love how massive their colonies can get! Very small bugs in colossal nests! They´re amazing, there´s no way around that! Great video :D

MY FAVOURITE IS Dracula ants (ambIyoponini) like the way that their mandibles spiral slightly down and how they spend their time mainly underground hunting living a life in the shadows! I also find it interesting how they suck the blood from their young I’m not sure how they have developed this trait but it’s interesting either way, I love their colour and their shade. The workers use venom to stun their prey which are brought back to the colony to feed upon! The colour of the winged males is weird as well. For some reason the colour of the males is a slightly darker orange than the workers. Experts say that they fly to other colonies before mating!!!! It’s like a way of meeting the elated before they go and mate!! I find them super interesting. Another interesting fact is that the queens occasionally can be smaller than the workers! I hope you have enjoyed my insight about Dracula ants they really do live up to their name! Also Jordan I would like to say thanks for hearting a few of my comments your a super nice dude! Thank you!

Im here because of Ants Canada

Very cool video i love when ant videos have a story line! Great work

ive been interested in ants for years, I cant get enough I'm hooked on your videos or anything ant related, cant wait to gather some coin to start my own colony...keep up the damn good work!!!! :)

Jordan..... I like pheidole pallidula a lot!!! I have them in a testube ant i realy want a place were they can live and grow up. sorry for the bad Engelish

My favourite ant species? Ive always adored the campontous genus. They're diversity and beautiful colouration and adaptions to they're enviroments, from Camponotus Inflatus, a species that has repletes, to tree dwelling species, or golden tailed species such as Camponotus Auriventus. But if I was to choose, it'd be C. Consobrinus. This species was my first ever Camponotus colony, and they're gorgeous colours and quirky behaviour made me instantly fall in love with them. They are the coolest ants, and I can't stop watching their antics, (no pun intended). :) My Instagram is : @AustralianAnts, and I will post a photo of these girls on there for the competition. Thanks :)

Great video! I love Pheidole! :D

Amazing video! love your work!

Did you solve the mould problem? I heard of some ants farming beneficial mould but if this is not from the ants maybe it's too humid the environment. Mould and fungus grow in humid environment, also it needs light maybe there is too much light & water. I recommend looking into natural anti-fungal foods these won't harm the ants but also should reduce the mould. I'm guessing the soil had existing fungus in it so you should look for a sterile soil that isn't contaminated with fungus then do a good clean of the tank to remove any microscopic spores then create a new tank with sterile ingredients. Soil less potting mix would be good too like peat moss, coco coir, sand, sawdust, compost, worm castings, etc...If you can find leaf mould compost that contains beneficial fungi which will compete with the bad fungi

OMG ANOTHER UPLOAD!!!!!!!

great video man! i really love your work!

My favourite species has always been the banded sugar ant (Camponotus consobrinus). I know they are a pretty common sight in Australia, but when I was a kid there was a wild colony beneath a palm tree in our front yard and I was always sitting near them watching them go about their business. The first time I saw them beginning their nuptial flights was truly amazing and the experience has led to a lifelong passion for ants. I'm still waiting for the day I'll manage to find a banded sugar ant queen of my own but until then I smile every time I see a worker scurry across the footpath.

Do they eat springtails as well??

great video mate

Congrats on another great video

This video (despite being from three years ago) is still such high quality! Nice Job!

My favorite species of ants are the fish hook ants because first of all they are gorgeous and very intimidating. And second they can be very aggressive and have explosive movements.

I want Pheidole now 😂

I’d have to say pheidole (partly because of this awesome video) because they are such easy maintenance for such a satisfying reward. I love how they have diversity within one single colony (majors etc.) and how they can grow so large. I also like how they are small and can swarm into food. Overall my favourite thing about pheidole is their huge, powerful, headstrong (get it?) majors, which rip through almost anything with their powerful mandibles. Love these sorts of videos! Be sure to make more.

Hi Jorden, Great vid My favourite ant species has to be turtle ants, the way their structured is just so fascinating. The way they have 'shields' on their heads to block their entrances to the nest is just genius.

Try spingtails they are small enough to not be eaten and they breed like crazy

maybe you can get a new tank en let them move, and just switch between them every now and then? :) guess it could be annoying in the long run though.

Great video! I Absolutely love Pheidole, they are the best beginner species out there!

I’ve been waiting a long time for this video

I got 7 queen of this spieces

How do you stop them from climbing silicone?

I have this same genus right now. Currently have a single queen and 3 workers. The brood is coming along nicely and can't wait to move them into their big home when they need it.

It's really cool how you release the alates back into the wild!

Are they are smart or not? They are LITERALLY CALLED *BIG HEADED ANTS*

How old is the colony?? Edit sorry 3 years I was just being inpatient

Wow amazing video jordan

I am a gardener and I like ant keeping just as much for similar reasons thanks for the vid and I love how professional your present info

who's from kurzgesagt?

Ants canada

My favorite ant species is Prenolepis Imparis, also known as winter ants, these ants are my favorite species because the fact they thrive in the cold, it is cool to know they do not need to be kept warm, and it is cool to see them walking around when it is really windy and cold during those winter months(I’m in the US)

Fantastic images🤩.. planning to build some vivarium type to my Pheidole pallidula, now still on queen alone stage

You and ants Canada have changed my life!:D now I keep a pheidole pallidula colony of onky 30 workers!:D they also have super major pupa

Great video! Thanks for sharing :)

Amazing kind of ants!!! Hope this colony will become big and strong!

Brilliant, absolutely fascinating!

The big headed ones I see are adorable they just bite and sit there biting just

Fantastic video. Pheidole sp. Are my first and fav colony. 😀

Great video Jordan! Hope my Pheidole can get as big as yours 👍

New to the channel here. I love how passionate you are about ants. Every video of yours I’ve seen feels like an adventure! Its educational yet intriguing. Hard to put into words how and why I love your content. For once I’ve found a decent Aussie youtube channel.

I really enjoyed the style of this video

My favorite ant specice is definitely phidole or big headed ants because they have majors and also cause they have multiple queens. Also my second favorite ant is carebara diversa because of thier HUGE majors and small workers. I love your videos they make my day!

I have to agree i also love the differences, especially the bullants eye sight :)

Great vid mate

My favorite ant species is probably marauder ants. They're like your big headed ants but the majors are enormous! The size difference between workers and majors is just so cool. These ants are just amazing!!

My favourite ant species is Polyhrachis dives better known as black weaver ants. I first saw this species in captivity at the zoo of Berlin, and I was amazed ever since. I waited a year to buy this species so I would have enough experience to let the colony thrive. So I'm now a proud owner of a 3 queen colony and I just love watching them weave their nest, it's so soothing.

Very cool colony! My favorite ant species are Anoplolepis custodiens - the pugnacious ant. The reason for this is that they massive colonies and exhibit very interesting and unique behavior. They are often found in part of the veld in South Africa where the grass is short due to termites that have a nest in the area. The termites feed on the grass and make a short grass patch on the middel of the grass field which are ideal for Anoplolepis custodiens to forage in and more around. You also often see them scurrying across large open sand or soil patches in the field or on dirt roads, and like many of the desert dwelling species they will then run up on pebbles, small rocks, twigs and anything else that is a few millimeters of centimeters of the ground to cool down their body temperatures so that they don't overheat and die. The fact that they exhibit behavior from both dessert and grassland species are fascinating and I enjoy watching them a lot. Another reason why I like them is that one time when I went to do some archery like many afternoons, that one specific afternoon I had a bottle of Coca-Cola, but this bottle was sticky because it sprayed coke everywhere when I first opened it. While preparing my bow and checking the field I unknowingly placed my bottle of Coca-Cola on an Anoplolepis custodiens colony. The A. custodiens ants attacked the bottle in their thousands eating the sticky layer of Coca-Cola on the bottle. Within one hour they cleaned off all of the Coca-Cola from the outside of the bottle and retreated on their nest. From that day I realized how effectively Anoplolepis custodiens ants forage and how good they are aasy collecting even the scraps of food that are the most difficult to harvest.

My favorite ant species would be in the Myrmoteras Genus. It amazes how these ants can open their jaws up to a near 360 degrees and delicately pick up their eggs with utmost care. I'm also ecstatic of their menacing look with those big eyes which probably provides excellent vision while hunting. I also have known the queen ant also actively hunts for food during scarcity which I find altruistic in a sense. They are also quite rare to see making them a must have for an ant enthusiast like me and see how they thrive and function as a colony. An average colony also is limited to less then 70 workers which makes keeping their living space less troublesome. Thanks!

This commentary is so satisfying!

Fantastic video

I really like the jumping jacks because they are so beautiful and tuff at the same time

Great video!

My favourite ant species to keep would be pheidole. They are incredible, not only they are one of the easieast ants to keep, they are also polygenus wich means that you can have more than a single queen in a colony and they have 2 diferent casts of workers soldiers and minors. Unfortunatly, were i live there arent any pheidole ants, but that doesnt stop me froom beeing amazed by them watching your youtube videos! Ps: Nice video keep up the good work!

We live in such an amazing planet!! New subbie!

That dome is so coooool!

Beautifull video please make more of these ants