MY NEW CRAZY KILLER ANTS! | Harpegnathos Venator #1 - Ant Holleufer

[@豚抽象]

I think the humidity of the environment where you raise the sickle-hunting ants is a little low. They have a high requirement for humidity, which is about 70%, so that they can grow normally.

[@Kio_vidz]

venator workers (from what i heard) can lay eggs when the queen died, the workers would fight for dominance and the most dominant worker will be egg layer and probably every worker is capable of laying normal worker eggs, so its like a good thing bc then they can make themselves another queen then maybe a male drone and the queen mate and the cycle gonna close.

[@antssg1329]

Hi for the harpegnathos venator the cricket you gave them was too big they prefer to hunt about 2 or more smaller crickets a day depending on the colony and brood size. I wouldn't recommend you to open the nest to clean it as they will still put sand back on the sides as its a very normal behavior.

[@AntHolleufer]

Yeah I knew it was too big the second one saw them next to each other. I just drop in some baby roaches now. And Yeah your right they will probably just put the sand back again 😆😅😅

[@antssg1329]

@@AntHolleufer yea baby roaches are another good protein source of them👍

[@EstheticAnts]

When you send two colonies and both queens die...🙈😝

[@AntHolleufer]

😅😓😅 you can never be sure with ants 😅

[@dr4d1s]

@@AntHolleufer You can never be to sure with Ant Holleufer.

[@JELONGreatMrRed]

You dont practically need a queen for Harpegnathos Venator, they can inbreed, even their workers can inbreed. I saw a guy with 4 queens of venators after his first queen died. Workers just lay unfertilized eggs that hatch into males, and those males fertilize the workers so they can lay fertilized (worker and queen) eggs and revive the colony.

[@birdantics2053]

The colony dosent necessarily need a new queen, they can also reproduce using gamergates, so introducing a drone inside should also work.

[@AntHolleufer]

Smart thinking 🤔 I’m currently talking with a few so hopefully I can get a queen or male or something to help mate a new worker or queen 🤔

[@H2_S0_4]

They are basically almost the same species as Australian Myrmecia. Potent venomous sting, unique eyesight, aggresion and inescapable jaws. Not to mention hard difficulty in just keeping them.

[@AntHolleufer]

Exactly! And easier to get in Europe!

[@CLT_Yudhis_10]

Yes, and they actually native to my region. Sadly, i can't find any of them🙂

[@coverhoeven2904]

I just love that Tshirt :D Interesting ants as well, would be nice to see how they go. Hope you get a new queen

[@AntHolleufer]

😆😆😆 old but gold i’d say 😆

[@klippschliefer4968]

in these ant species, the workers are capable of mating and replace the queens if they all died, but i didnt think that your worker is fertilized.

[@Hiysta]

Beautiful video ! I know the time it takes to make this content and it’s much appreciated. Very sad to hear about the queen but my god are they majestic!

[@AntHolleufer]

Thank you! ❤️❤️ this once took all most double the time compared to a normal one but I captured some great moments 🙌🏻❤️

[@stefanschafer405]

Beatiful and interesting video! You make a good job :) Let me see if you have more videos from your Harpegnathors. I have mine in the delivery and hope they get me soon ;) Greetings from Germany.

[@rosyvision]

This guy never seems to have any luck with his ants.

[@den_exw_onoma5043]

I own a colony of this species their sting is like getting stung by a scorpion.

[@AntHolleufer]

But I haven’t been stung my a Scorpion so now I’m more terrified 😳😳😳

[@den_exw_onoma5043]

@@AntHolleufer It is 20 times worse than a bee sting.

[@AntHolleufer]

😅😅

[@crystalm4324]

So the same company that built and sold you the faulty out world, where your ants escaped twice. Also sent you TWO colonies with dead queens!?! Great company.

[@Agape_James]

Bro i saw two ants be like Joe i am snuck help me ok jeff 3:34

[@MoniDimoni]

I love when they move the gaster like cats... when they attack it's so much fun they fail a lot, but when they get it right, it doesn't escape 🤣 Nice vídeo, Congrats 🤗

[@AntHolleufer]

Thank you ❤️ And yeah they are truly stunning ants to observe! 🙌🏻🙌🏻

[@AntWarriors]

Brilliant video, such a fascinating species of ants. This clip was epic to watch 10:39.

[@AntHolleufer]

Thank you! Felt so happy after that clip. Could have been so much worse but it turned out great! 🙌🏻

[@bruh09nh74]

The workers from harpegnatos venator can also lay fertile eges of the Queen died and replace her

[@AntHolleufer]

Oh I hope that will be the case for this girl! ❤️🤞🏻

[@stefanomaraviglia1559]

Impressive video as usual ..where did you bought it ? i mean the Harpegnatos

[@AntHolleufer]

Thank you! And Esthetic ants 😄

[@smoonze4297]

This is such a fantastic video can't wait to see the colony again

[@AntHolleufer]

Thank you! ❤️ hoping to soon get a new queen for them! Also, thank you for the membership❤️ be sure to join the discord server! 😄

[@smoonze4297]

@@AntHolleufer I have experience with keeping this species. They prefer formicarium that are made out of clay. Their pupae are unable to spin silk themselves and needs substrate to help them do so. Hard sand might hurt the pupae.

[@Antymatters]

Excellent as always, fascinating ant species, real shame about the fatality, I'd love to keep them oneday but deffinetly not ready yet and there pretty sketchy and fierce 😀 hope you find a new queen for them. After watching sids can safely there one of the coolest ants

[@AntHolleufer]

Haha you will get them soon enough don’t you think! 😆 yeah are quite insane to observe and i love it about them! 🙌🏻❤️

[@roellalieu]

These ants are gamergates. You should be fine with current colonie. Theoretically, a colonie can life forever as a gamergate will replace the queen or previous gamergate. Happy to see your first larvae. I bought same ants at the same week as you did. This means my eggs (1 month old) could start hatching as well. One small tip. These ants like large chambers, only 1 or 2. Like they would create in the wild. Also makes it easier to film ;-)

[@AntHolleufer]

Oh that’s nice! Will be interesting to follow both colonies then! Hopefully your colony is doing well! Thanks for the tips. For now I will keep them in this setup but I may change! 🤔🙌🏻

[@AntsCzech]

Those eggs - idk IF Harpe lays trophic (for larvae to eat) eggs, but if that is a normal unfertilised egg and the workers still have gemmae (thoracic buds that the alpha gamergate removes from the other workers, so that they can't mate), you have a chance that they will restart the colony. Aplha gamergate will mate with the male that ecloses from those eggs and will start laying :D

[@AntsCzech]

judging by what happened in the video and by the color of the eggs, there were yellow (I suppose trophic) and white (unfertilised normal) - the larva eclosed from the white one and was fed with the trophic eggs - you have to tell me if they didn't just change color (some eggs do that)

[@AntsCzech]

You should do your research before you get some animal Holleufer! :D

[@AntHolleufer]

Haha must say if haven’t done the same amount of research on them after they had a dead queen 😅 expected her to be alive and that would change the situation a little 😆😅 but it will definitely be interesting to see what will happen over the next few weeks! 🤔

[@AntsCzech]

@@AntHolleufer yea, feed and don't disturb, you'll see a result in few months XD

[@AntHolleufer]

Exactly what I’m planning! 🙌🏻

[@CamponicoAnts]

Yeeesssss one of my favorites :D Was a pleasure to watch during ant-maintenence

[@AntHolleufer]

❤️ thanks man! ❤️

[@ultrapendone]

an worker laid an egg is an queen

[@kevinpoe8137]

Do you still have the trapjaw ants or have they died out by now, also H.venator is a species with gamerates and queens, the gamergates only become reproductively active once the founding queen dies, but even gamergates must be fertilized to produce workers

[@artemsemchyshyn7831]

Can someone explain ALL differences between saltator and venator?

[@ingarssilins176]

Hi! I have same problem. I have received my colony without gamergate/gueen. But seller told me that males produced by workers can fertilize worker. I don't know how this is true with venators, but I will hope with you that this is true.

[@AntHolleufer]

Oh that doesn’t sound good. I hope you colony will do well! Let’s hope they can reproduce!

[@SHEERFARTATTACK]

these ants kick ass brother!

[@AntHolleufer]

Thanks man! ❤️ appreciate it! ❤️😄

[@phoenixpingu]

The harpegnathos venator is a very awesome looking and strong ant species it's not hard to keep I would say it's normal difficulty you only need to keep an eye on the humidity to be very high because they can't drink water because of it's mandibles they only eat live prey that they catch. It's a really cool ant species the only problem is they are very fragile when transported .I have now a Messor Barbarus, Camponotus Nicobarensis,Odontomachus monticola.

[@ziyuwang4075]

it might be possible that the male ant can mate with the strongest marker and make them fertile so the hope have not lost

[@niceman6930]

hey i like to try some brood boosting but not sure how i get alot off brood if you can help me

[@AntHolleufer]

Well depending on the species the best way is to flip rocks around ant nests ☺️

[@marla2477]

Did you get sent replacements as the queen arrived dead?

[@guuleedjunior_theceo]

Can you make more videos cuz I wanna see if they become a medium colony

[@ravend.delapaz5089]

Thats guard general ant💀

[@Antramblings]

amazing ants and a great video . Hope you get your new queen soon 😉

[@AntHolleufer]

Thanks man! And yeah I’m talking with a few to get a new 👀 hopefully this times of because a reality!

[@Antramblings]

@@AntHolleufer Have you seen the "off site stock list " for ant con yet 😉

[@cmaxbs]

Why do you need decoy test tube

[@AntHolleufer]

I think it’s if they open the package they will see that rather then the ants although I have no idea 😅

[@basicallynoskill]

Theo are my favorite ants

[@roellalieu]

How often do you water the nest? And how much? The eggs of my colonie dont hatch, I believe the nest might be too dry. I also use 3D printed nest with sand at bottom.

[@AntHolleufer]

It’s very humid inside. Water them once a week but the sand looks wet most of the time so I think they have the correct humidity 🤔

[@boeing4576]

Where did you buy it from

[@EstheticAnts]

check the description

[@AntHolleufer]

Nicely said mr ea!

[@clinteastwood5359]

What camera do you use? that quality is amazing

[@AntHolleufer]

I use a cannon EOS 90D with a 100mm macro lens and depending on the size of the ants I also have a *2 extension tube 😄

[@hognoseboy743]

What camera and lenses do you use for filming the ants close up? There is some very high quality footage in this video.

[@AntHolleufer]

I use a cannon EOS 90D with a 100mm macro lens and depending on the size of the ants I also have a *2 extension tube 😄

[@gelphaze1229]

This species is very hard to care for, by far the hardest ant colony I've ever taken on, the biggest problem I've had with this ant is keeping the young alive, as they can get sick really easy or workers sometimes kick the larva out to die and as for more then one queen in a colony is possible how ever I've had incidents where workers would sting the queen and kill her as they fight over dominants in the colony, shortening the colones lifespan, they say there not suppose to kill one another for dominants but I don't no how sure that is?

[@AntHolleufer]

Oh dang that doesn’t sound to well. I’m hoping mine will do okay but yeah that doesn’t sound to good 😅

[@anter6546]

This species is so cool. Like how they look and move. Nice Video and great footage!

[@AntHolleufer]

Yeah they are insanely crazy! 🙌🏻🤩 and thank you! 😄

[@luischen5358]

This ants will be family of buller ants 👍👍👍

Crazy Amts 😮

[@RobertSela]

Unfortunately there is a huge difference between Harpegnathos venator and saltator. The venators are very cheap for a reason: the saltators are more stable, forgiving, and frankly the colony just develops better and more interesting to watch. Thats why there is almost always the venators on the market because they usually stay in the store for quite a long time without being bought.

[@aussiedoge1825]

come to Australia, we have 93 species of ants similar to this called myermecia

[@AntHolleufer]

Yeah I know them, would love to keep some of them! 🤩

[@ant-oc5zh]

Try to use clay ,they nest in heavy clay in the wild and feed them high protein and feed them often too .They are native to my country

[@AntHolleufer]

Thanks for the tips! I’m trying to just give them food everyday although they don’t hunt a lot. 🤔

[@marla2477]

What happened to them in the end ?

[@AntHolleufer]

I got a new colony and merged them and it didn’t go well. Sadly they didn’t make it but I new colony now

[@ultrapendone]

that is an queen

[@NoobSharkey]

Lets go more harpegnathos content online (Edit: Well Harpegnathos Venator can by right have gamergates altho less likely than saltnator so hopefully you can get males eventually)

[@AntHolleufer]

🙌🏻🙌🏻🙌🏻

[@bruh09nh74]

But the workers has to be mated

[@mindchops346]

Intro reminded me of ants canada

[@AntHolleufer]

Hope that’s in a good way 😶😅

[@mindchops346]

@@AntHolleufer Yes lol

[@koar4968]

WAIT If you can hach a male ant ant separate for 3 hours an put it back it will mate with the gamergate (egglaying worker) and it will be fertile. But the gamergate only lives for 5-7 months (i dont know for harpegnatos venator) so a queen is the final answer to sustane the colony population.

[@Baby16612]

If they do hatch a male it cant mate with its own sisters that would be weird.

[@AntHolleufer]

Haha definitely would be weird😆 it seems like an interesting theory! May try it once the larvae hopefully because a male and see. But not to sure if it will work or not but worth a try!

[@koar4968]

@@Baby16612 yeah but 1/2 generation will be fine if you do this.

[@koar4968]

@@AntHolleufer it workt with my odontomachus colony. they are ponerini ants so i think it woud work, 🐜

[@kaidrogon5472]

Incredible

[@AntHolleufer]

🙌🏻 yeah 🙌🏻

[@甘木-u6o]

Friends, don’t be discouraged. From my experience in raising eggs, if there are males and princesses in these eggs, they will mate and give birth to a new queen. There is still hope.

[@antsjp6230]

We call these stag beetle ants in Japan. Far more welcoming than crazy killer ants…

[@AntHolleufer]

😆😆 that’s definitely another word for them 😅😆

[@kennthchin287]

These ants nest , have large space . They can Jump as well .

[@AntHolleufer]

Yeah they are quite crazy! 🤩🙌🏻

[@penintended9214]

No any colony member can become a queen in this species. They establish a dominance hierachy and the most dominant ones lay eggs. Bud they do need to be mated. Basically these colonies can make new queens by themselves. ") I would suggest you just wait and watch.

[@SwembaSwemba]

In some primitive speices like this, the workers can lay eggs but they are infertile like you thought

[@AntHolleufer]

Yeah they are quite interesting as they are so unlike normal ants. I really can’t wait to see what ends up hatching out of that larvae. Will be very interesting to see 🤔🤔

[@Fabey93]

I really love them. but ponerinae are too difficult for me. I am more the Stenammini-Guy lol

[@AntHolleufer]

Haha it’s good to know when to stop 😅 I respect that! 😄🙌🏻

[@jesseklinkenberg9072]

Sick

[@AntHolleufer]

🙌🏻

[@dulnethwijewardana4382]

Wow

[@williamcook9823]

Can't wait 🤙

[@AntHolleufer]

🙌🏻👀

[@RepvertYT]

Nice video Alex and your getting close to 4K 👀

[@AntHolleufer]

Thank you and that’s not wrong 👀👀

[@ililiiiiii4349]

This video is already 4K? 🤔

[@ybodoesgames]

im pretty sure this species can have gamergatez

[@johnhosasck8667]

No way to get anything like this colony in the US. Hey, at least we got some of our own cool species but these are still freaking awesome!

[@AntHolleufer]

Hahah yeah that probably isn’t possible 😅 but like you say. There’s some otters instead!

[@johnhosasck8667]

@@AntHolleufer That is very true!

[@cityants1166]

Hello 😁

[@AntHolleufer]

Heyo 👋🏻

[@antsofsydney]

So sad to hear about the Myrmoteras :( They're even cooler than Harpegnathis in my opinion.

[@AntHolleufer]

Yeah 😕 they definitely seemed like a cool species 🤔

[@Nolbantakan]

I have ant

[@AntHolleufer]

Nice! 😄

[@hoanguc6344]

Hv is an Indigenous ant of Asia and as we know they r gamergate 

[@AntsCzech]

All the workers in the colony are gamergates, any new worker eclosed will sitll have gemmae (dunno if the queen removes it from the workers or not) but when they get males, they'll mate with their brothers and start laying (the dominant gamergate) wiki: workers retain functional spermathecae (Gobin et al. 2008), and many of them can mate with their brothers inside the nest (Peeters et al. 2000). These mated workers do not begin to lay eggs until the colony’s short-lived queen senesces or dies (Peeters & Hölldobler 1995). In newly orphaned colonies, mated workers aggressively compete in order to achieve reproductive status (Liebig 1998; Liebig et al. 2000). Those that are successful develop their ovaries and begin laying eggs (they are now considered gamergates; Liebig et al. 1998, 2000; Peeters et al. 2000). As the active gamergates gradually lose fecundity or die, new gamergates arise to take their place, and as a result a Harpegnathos colony is theoretically immortal (Peeters et al. 2000).

[@AntHolleufer]

Okay that’s certainly interesting 🤔 insane how many studies that have been made 😆 but your are saying I shouldn’t do anything but feed them and see then?🤔

[@NoobSharkey]

This sounds like it is for Saltnator which i assume it is just cuz venator have less research. But probably a similar concept can be applied to venator altho less gamergates are found in venator colonies than queens unlike saltnator

[@AntsCzech]

@@NoobSharkey i suppose so as well