Naturalistic ANT SETUP Failure

[@peturrojo]

I keep ants for a few years now. It's hard to keep them in an open enclosure. They will find their way out. Mineral oil or liquid teflon is better for barrier,but as you noticed doesnt go well with silicon seallings...

[@FallenAngelHiroko]

AntsCanada is a great place to get ants and their setups. In fact, his channel brought me here.

[@ericbeeman8717]

Thays what I was gonna say to haha ants Canada yes thays awesome

[@ReyZar666]

agree

[@RandyGBH]

He’s been told this in the past multiple times lol

[@asylumental]

Same, ants Canada started all my entomology adventures

[@meanjeanmcqueen6171]

I was going to suggest the same thing, lol.

[@ethandooley9945]

There are products made for this job that work much better than homemade recipes, but acrylic enclosed set ups like the artificial nest you have are usually the easiest and safest method to keep ants. You can build/buy foraging areas like the tub they are in now to add on to the nest using plastic tubing.

[@zdenekkotras1801]

I have 3 of my colonies in glass natural open setups. I would recommend going for something bigger than Lasius. Lasius sp. are very good climbers and quite good at escaping. Also the ants don't wanna move into the new nest because it's still too big for them. They feel safer in the test tube.

[@NorthernAnts24]

Finally someone in the comment section who speaks sense

[@elrg9176]

As an ant keeper i highly recommend watching ants canada for ideas and info about ant keeping it will definitely help you out in your ant keeping journey all the best and good luck

[@Raziel1984]

if i got it right he should be able to meet him in person in orlando :D

[@mindchops346]

He is one of the worst for info. Ideas are ok but repetitive most for views

[@kukri1877]

@@mindchops346 I can't stand how much drama he creates in his videos. 20-30 minutes of stuff, with like 8 minutes of unique video. Everything else seems to be recaps.

[@mindchops346]

@@kukri1877Ik best ant keepers or ones who actually dont clickbait are the small 1k-3k. Ant canada doesn't really show "ant keeping". His vids are more like episodes.

[@136iti]

@@mindchops346 he does offer good products for keeping ants on his shop so that is helpful. Lots of enclosures made specifically with ants in mind. But I do agree that his episodes are mostly drama.

[@joebauer2768]

You live, you learn ;). Don't be afraid for the colony that lost a lot of workers: As long as the queen is healthy, they'll start over. I've kept a few colonies of european species (greetings from France btw!) and i've always found that tubes within a foraging area were by far the easiest and safest way to keep them. Great vid as always! Thx and keep up the good work :)

[@andreadebiasio3888]

Remember, the key for an ant keeper is to have patience. Don't move your colony too soon (I'm afraid that less than a year could be too soon, you could change the test tube or add a small outworld). I higly recommend watching AntsCanada for more informations

[@ChrisDeger]

@TheDarkDen Careful bud in the wild ants eat large spiders, they team up to kill and eat them. The ants are so small the spiders have no natural defense.

[@mattlovelltv3794]

This is a pleasantly surprising upload, and I like it a lot. I'm a big fan of other ant channels as well, and I like seeing your journey

[@MrDLYouTube]

Please study and read Ants Canada. He has a book out on ant keeping. Get better aquariums to have them in etc. The test tube should never have developed all that mold/filth etc.

[@hunterblades6237]

Just watch Ants Canada bc your ants have no water so they won’t move and AntsCanada sells enclosures.

[@shaunacorrigan9372]

I was wondering if the escaped ants would come back for the queen. Guess that answered that question!😅 It was an interesting watch, anyway. Hopefully the escaped colony doesn't cause any problems in the Dark Den and the other colony will start to take off in their new setup. Looking forward to updates!

[@akeemsmith2291]

Yes ants Canada for sure.

[@asylumental]

Antscanada has some of the easiest setups for ant keeping. All the aspects of the keeping are already well thought of and we'll designed for simplicity.. Hope to get some collaboration content between you and Mikey when you are in Florida!

[@CreepyPets_]

Finally a Ant Video 👍👍👍

[@SnakemanPCFL]

Don't know if anyone mentioned, but check out ants Canada on youtube. He has kept ants for years.

[@frankallen8440]

Who knew that wrangling ants could be so stressful.

[@NC-wm6hz]

If you don’t do your research on them :)

[@havanbarnes]

I think you need to talk to ants Canada

[@Dysnomia]

ANTSCANADA WHERE ARE YOU!?! SOMEONE CALL ANTSCANADA!! GET THIS MAN A REAL ANT ENCLOSURE!

[@imaybestupid2045]

Awesome expanding the den,as everyone has said I also recommend you view ants canada good ant channel

[@martyparsons8395]

You need to watch some Ants Canada videos!

[@WintonNight]

So good to see the full scope of the ants setup - from failure to success. Ants are hard bro miss you petko

[@tarantulamum4322]

petko, do you get the ants from outside, if so how do u collect them? I want to start an ant colony, would love some advice pls. thank you. Lisa. 💙💜🇬🇧

[@scotellacott]

I find Lasius are very stubborn when it comes to moving them. Almost every time I have to force the move

[@RepvertYT]

Mine just move with some heat

[@andreaskrupe6778]

This also means they are not really bent on escaping. So there is an upside to everything.

[@arachnophobe2arachnoholic]

What a nightmare

[@Workof]

I recommend a tube setup for ants, open enclosures are nice but kinda hard, especially with very light/small ants. Also i personally dont like these small acrylic nests, the sponge dries up way too quick and it doesnt really give them more space than a test tube. My oldest colony is 4+ years old and just moved out of their test tube. Youll figure it out! Everyone kills some colonies at the Start...

[@FrugalAnimalKeeper]

So many tips to give you Petko, and am only halfway through. So many sources for information, but I wouldn't watch AC sorry, he also brought me to ant keeping. Research, humidity, water source, sugar source, they like honey, water the soil, I use an underground watering system in my natural set ups.. much more.

[@alanderson749]

Try with a "roof" barrier covered with mineral oil, it work great with small species of ants (or try Odontomachus species, they can't climb glass and are amazing species, pretty easy even in a natural tropical setup)

[@stitchieRAWR]

Shoulda spoken to AntsCanada

[@noraleestone2859]

Ah, the trials & tribulations of guardianship. 😂 Good luck locating the escape artists. It will be a fun video if you do locate them. 😁

[@effy_kujo]

Keep an eye on your T enclosures, they'll move right in and once the colony's big enough, they will start killing your Ts 😰

[@RepvertYT]

Little warning for you if you don’t add an testtube filled with water they can drink from they will die so pls add a tube with water they can’t drink from the nest it’s only for humidity

[@excrucifer1362]

Errr, keeping ant on the same room with tons of arachnid and insect doesnt seem to be a good idea, as u can see in ant canada channel even people with ton of experience still got their pet ant to escape, they're escape artist and they will try to murder everything in your room

[@NC-wm6hz]

Depends on the species

[@ericbeeman8717]

A good trick to soften molts is alcohol or lens cleaner

[@odg8188]

I really think they are still in the dirt. They probably avoided building tunnels on the glass due to the light.

[@andreaskrupe6778]

Yes. And not seeing one outside for two days is not too special.

[@VineyardGHS]

When relocating ants quick food outside of the new terrarium if they do get out they will simply go to the food and bring it home it's programmed in their souls

[@wolfe1970]

You could try copper self adhesive tape as a barrier, i know we use it in the UK to help prevent slugs and snails, could try it with ants as an experiment, good luck!

[@raptornerd4213]

I'd try making new enclosures but applying the silicone on the outside edges. Just an idea. Also, maybe try a hot lamp to get the ants to move their nest. Maybe the light isn't enough and heat resembling sunlight could motivate them to go somewhere cooler and dark.

[@EXOTICPETSCOMMONWEALTH]

Im just thinking out of the box, a what if ? , if you will ! what if those ants gets out of that enclosure and relocate on one of your tarantulas enclosure, that would be insane

[@PghFlip]

I couldn't figure out why the ant was forbidden. I would pronounce it with a long i sound, but you know someone would still get upset.

[@lazyboysjosh7181]

Be cautious as ants will kill tarantulas, ants Canada has a video where his tarantula died and he gave it to his ants

[@zdenekkotras1801]

Just a correction: Ant's can see light even through red filters. It's just more subtle for them, like having a sunglasses, but it doesn't create darkness. 😊

[@mindchops346]

Dark recommend watching ant scapes his content focuses on vivarium and terrarium building only for ants you can get good insight. sad to see the whole comment section is filled with antcanada stands : (

[@Supatsu]

You got a problem with AC? ashe's a guy that keeps a lot of ants. Dont tell me there's some kinda drama going on in the ants fandom... oh my god. Or is he just too popular so of course you have to have something negative to say?

[@mindchops346]

@@Supatsu No its just his way of keeping he been keeping for years but still does beginner mistakes and does things for views. EG: His campo queens where he put them in the same setup. I used to like him but as I learn more about keeping ants I grown to dislike him as how viewer hungry he is. Better people are like Jordan Dean or Esthetic ants way better than ants canada at least they doesn't abuse thier ants for views

[@HR-od9fl]

Could you empty the test tube into the enclosure and see if they move into the new home ?

[@NC-wm6hz]

It will be stressful for them, imagine dumping any animal into some where else

[@Mojohoojo187]

Why don’t you create a sealed tube funnel from the test tube to the artificial enclosure? That’ll make sure they can only have that way to move.

[@requiemavp]

Was there a monster can list somwhere ?

[@symbolicsin]

I always get the feeling you are quite full of yourself, like you think you know exactly what to do when diving into a new endeavor. From this, you can clearly see much needed research is needed to be done. As soon as I seen your "baby powder" line I knew it wasn't going to end well.

[@richardbriansmith8562]

Awesome video but I hope you have more of a success with the ants the next time you try doing it again dark den

[@narutov4]

I highly recommend watching Ants Canada a great youtuber to get all your ant intel as well as keeping them in terrariums.

[@kameenavery9616]

Agreed. I love Ants Canada. Was coming to comments to see it it was already mentioned lol

[@mossdwellers114]

@@kameenavery9616 AntsCanada was great when he was smaller youtube, great tips etc., I hate what channel has became, so cringy.

[@r3m0rs34]

U need enclosures with curved sides

[@MerynMTG]

You should reach out to AntsCanada for some tips and tricks for antkeeping

[@Mimir_the_wise_]

Sounds basic but did you humidify the plastic nest?

[@austenann97]

PTFE/fluon works well to avoid ants climbing out

[@corbettcondray]

Thank you so much

[@allisondrake9076]

OH NO!! I hope you find them!

[@rottebarnethellen]

NIce to see that I'm not the only one failing with the forbidden ant xD

[@hiiiiiiiiiiiiii1994]

dont normally comment as i know nothing about spiders/T's but i kept ants for 6-7 years i kept exotic ants like black crazy ant, solenopsis geminata, invicta ect and not just small colonies ones i the 100s of thousands. im not hating on ants canada but his stuff is over priced in the in eu you can easily do stuff for cheap and it end up being better and more naturalistic. like i used 2 critter keepers due to high wall and drilled holes for tubing with the pluming connecters for a tight fit then silicon round it for extra security (be careful the plastics brittle). for the nest i put a mix of soil/sand fairly damp but not wet! depth about half the large critter keepers for the nest part suggest put putting glass over it as it sits flush to the rim of the critter keeper not need a ptfe or talc ect. the tube will run to the out world i used DRY sand so they dont nest in the out world with ramp to the tube i used a dead bonsai then a feeding stone of sorts.(was cool seeing them having to travel between both tubs). now with the outworld you want to keep that open at all times for a draft so the dont nest in the outworld and it being open make ptfe perfect to use id say 3 bands of it . with that set up was use for geminata ( escape artists). sorry for my punctuation and spelling.

[@hiiiiiiiiiiiiii1994]

also forgot to add only ever use DRY talcum powder on silicon talc and iso isn't as good on silicon.

[@lethalnl]

oof....rookie mistakes there petko, you should watch some youtube videos on antkeeping. you definetly can't use tarantula enclosures if you ever want to see them again. if you let the soil dry out completely and leave a alu foil covered test tube in the enclosure they *should* move back at some point. but that may take months

[@silasfoulon]

0:17 these are lasius emarginatus ants I think

[@elisabeteart]

I'm sorry the ants abandoned their queen and you lost them. 🐜 Yay bonus video on friday!

[@WilliamKShank]

Thanks for the video. Ants are interesting creatures. Safe Journey! CHOLULA!!!

[@Noob3rt123]

Ooooh!! What is that bug at 8:02?

[@teda512]

glass enclosures with corners typically don't go well with ants...

[@ericbeeman8717]

Seems like theirs alot of ants Canada fans here to haha sweet

[@cosmic.synergy]

I smell an Ants Canada/Dark Den Collab coming on.

[@dangerousbeans8067]

Ants Canada have some good products

[@cameronpoulter2546]

What species of ants are these?

[@gdelacerda]

Perfect! 👏🏻🔥

[@robertsivak8887]

Olive oil BELOW the powder instead of on top next time? I'm with the ANTS CANADA comments.

[@antsnetherlands20]

The ant queen which died was a Formica rufibarbis queen. Cause of death might have been insufficient humidity or even parasites. The other orange thorax queen you've shown is Lasius emarginatus. The dark one is Lasius niger. These setups are too large for such small colonies. What you really want to go after are small tub & tubes setups, which are perfect for small to medium sized colonies. You want to give them a nest when only 1/3rd of it cannot be filled up with ants/brood. Otherwise the ants might.. and oftenly will.. storage garbage in unused spaces, which leads to dangerous mould outbreaks.

[@denhambad]

This should be the top comment!!

[@VenomWhat]

YASSSSS BONUS VIDEO 🤩🕷️

[@nadiadonini3849]

They are too small colonies for an open arenas, just simply connect another testube prepared like the first one, with 3/4 full of water, with the old one, maybe try with scotch (to connect better), and than cover the new testube and use some light on the old one. Also, if you really want to do an open arenas now, give them some cotton and water it, also in the same way give them sugar water. For preventing the escape, use vaselina mixtured with some oil, like the one used for doors and so, in 1:1 part. If you can, try to watch the video of "italian ants" with subtitle, they explain well so much thing.

[@nadiadonini3849]

Also, for arenas try to use plastic box with round edges, and if they have the top part, cut it in the middle and use some very fine iron mesh mosquito net for the ventilation. You can also just cut the top part in the middle for ventilation and apply the vaselina oil mixture even on the top part of the box to have extra protection .

[@nadiadonini3849]

Sorry, one correction, if you want to use the vaselina mixture on the top of the box, just use vaselina, no need to add the oil

[@barneyburger2641]

Try sugar water to get a move to the other enclosure

[@RepvertYT]

They nest understones becuase it’s warm so the brood/eggs develop faster

[@vwvw4]

I wonder if you could start a honeypot ant colony they are so interesting.

[@hunterw4332]

Check out Nordic ants if your looking for a more naturalistic way of keeping ant colonies

[@UncleBurntApostrophe]

Dam, sorry it didn’t fulfil too much, BUT, interesting to witness the attempt, regardless!

[@waynecfc1888]

ants canada used the web from a GBB to keep his ants from escaping some of thier homes

[@MC-tl7mj]

Bro, if you really want an ant colony on this chanel, you should collaborate with Ants Canada. He will hook you up with a rad set up. Best way to go, check him out.

[@MC-tl7mj]

Nvm, lots of people suggesting ants Canada, disregard the comment.

[@cakemike]

Love you petko!!!

[@ChantalsCritters]

Great video

[@alexanderrestaino1921]

idk if you follow their channel but antscanada (AC) is an amazing source of knowledge and if you want to go totally natural for keeping them inside AC had said to use spider webbing which you already have PLENTY of 😊

[@ericbeeman8717]

And they need moist dirt to live in not desert dry dirt

[@tracybowling1156]

I knew ants were harder than they seemed. Mikey from AntsCanada makes it look so easy, maybe bc he's an expert!

[@NC-wm6hz]

Some ants are easy, every antkeeper will say that. Besides AC had some major trouble with certain species of ant

[@tracybowling1156]

@@NC-wm6hz You know, you are exactly right. He has and will again, I'm sure. 😀

[@muzikmuzik3693]

I think u u should tlk to ants Canada see what he does to keep them happy

[@meatbag1341]

Buy specialist ant equipment, its a very rewarding hobby !

[@laranjos5505]

Couple of things done wrong and how to fix them to start red film does not work, following this ants don't actually care about light and you can keep them in direct light that nest was way to big a good tip is that ants should occupy at least 50% of the new nest, too big of a nest is problem because the ants can use it as a trash site, that will most likely cause bad mold that mold is harmless black mold is extremely common and harmless, you should only worry about mold on food scraps and hairy mold the test tubes they have have way to much space a good amount would be 2/3 of the test tube water and the 1/3 space for the ants for the barrier: in my experience only dry talcum works best ( rounded corners are much better) but the most important part is you used to much barrier, to the point that when it dried there was talcum "islands" that the ants managed to walk on, personally i think cotton is better than brushes are applying the barrier too to get them moving: dumping is much better just tap and flick the tube until they all fall may sound bad but it's the least amount of stress for the shortest time compared to other methods that stress them for much longer the colony that escaped will most likely die they are too small to cause any real damage and will most likely die of thirst also the naturalist setup is not good for small colonies besides that you need to water the dirt to keep it moist preferably with a moisture gradient( one dry side one humid side) and a drainage layer at the bottom is also very good for the remaining colonies id recommend tubs and tubes setup( put the test tube inside a container with barrier on top) as the colony grows add more tubes ( or just when the water runs out) until they are big enough for a nest id love to see you keeping ants, wish you best of luck

[@LuanViero]

Mold is important to ants, is what they actually eat.

[@daemeonx]

You are my tarantula/spider guy, Ants Canada is my Ants guy and he knows a ton about Ants keeping.

[@Pwnr145]

MORE ANT CONTENT MORE ANT CONTENT MORE ANT CONTENT. That is all.

[@dahgman3225]

??? I think the ants will expand their numbers too fast for a small enclosure like these, maybe something more Mike the big one behind you, Their numbers can grow fast

[@plo3700]

Petko I’m going to need you to reach out to your fellow KZbinr Antscanada about your setup bro.

[@DavidFoo93]

Cut the silicone away then only apply the anti escape.

[@greyjaggy1]

Check out the Ants Canada channel. There’s a lot of tips there on how to keep and raise ants successfully from queens

[@return_to_monke3747]

Seems every ant based video has a comment section full of ants Canada comments

[@davidjbiscoe957]

You need to check all your enclosures. They can kill tarantulas.

[@constantinyanicostas4664]

Small bugs, big problems !

[@wayneunderwood3886]

I could see that was going to happen soon as I seen you was putting them inside your glass T enclosures I knew they would escape ants Canada has got some preeti cool ant set ups. 😊

[@ismewhat1234]

How is Felix doing missing him in your videos

[@satriawibawa1628]

Dude you should watch antscanada video