We cast 250 kg of ant nests and now we have to dig them out. Triple Bull Ant Nest Casting - Day 2

[@kathyhoskin8350]

I don't know why I find this so fascinating! Thanks for sharing your experiences and thank you so much for wearing your protective gear.

[@ZombieGrandpa]

Hey guys, rather than wear your two piece rain gear, getting wet feet and water in through your waist, consider chest high waders with just a poncho over the top. I use to fish mountain streams and ponds and never got cold or wet using them. The awesome thing is you wear your regular clothes and shoes and just "jump" into them. Take them off and you are totally dry- don't need to change clothes. Just do a search for chest high waders. Reply back and tell me what you think. You can get a pretty good pair for $60 US. (Really helped me fish places other people could not, looks like it will work great for you.)

[@locouk]

An ant lives for around 3 months, to an ant that nest is prehistoric, pre ant Jesus!

[@bruhbbawallace]

if you figure a human lifetime to be about 80 years, then Jesus came and went about 25 lifetimes ago. if an ant lifetime is about 3 months, then a 25 year old nest has been around for 100 lifetimes. that colony probably had ant hieroglyphics in it somewhere.

[@rainerproebstl]

​@@bruhbbawallaceand now they can start to decipher these hieroglyphics on the aluminium.

[@kamalionify]

LMAO PRE ANT JESUS

[@liam3104]

these ants can live for like 2 years

[@Era-Core]

Archeologists in the year 3000, when they excavate these aluminum ant nest sculptures: Ancient Aliens, has to be.

[@ronwilken5219]

Not quite sure how I view this but I guess Australia has plenty of ants to suffice a museum's curiosity and being vaporized by molten metal is probably preferable to slow suffocation and drowning by plaster of paris or liquid concrete. In Canada we have a truck mounted device called a "Vacuuvator" comprising a pressure water nozzle and a humongous vacuum cleaner. The utility companies use them for planting poles and in soil can dig a 12" hole 10' deep in about ten minutes with no mess left behind. I know you guys are aiming to preserve the casting but what if you used your pressure washer in conjunction with a large shop vac to suck out the dislodged sand and waste water. Be a lot less physical than shoveling and bailing like crazy. Thanks for the videos and taking us along for the ride.

[@uriahthehittite2148]

The pressure washer😂 Get a hydrovac truck. It has a high pressure that can be lessened. It takes 4 to 5 hours to load the truck of dirt of dirt removal.

[@19Dad84bod]

4-5 hours to load a truck holy shit how slow you digging. Shit I’d have that loaded in 1.5hr. And that’s loading 8m3

[@solarfinder]

Guys, I love the science of the art and the art of the science through your projects. Beautiful work!

[@davidkachel]

When the giant spaceship hovers over New York City, pouring molten aluminum all over it, we'll know exactly what they are up to. And eventually, the aliens' school children will marvel at all the tiny human corpses sticking out of the aluminum, as they tour the museum!

[@jenniferAdamek]

😂LIL YOU MADE MY SUNDAY!!!

[@Enishidono]

I'm so glad you all are back. Good on ya, mates! Edit - I love that you're showing the process of excavation, looks tiring!

[@australianantart1376]

They are long days

[@MiniGolfOnehungaAuckland]

Man, I'm tired and exhausted just watching, let alone cold wet and covered in mud dealing with hauling all your gear, firing up the furnaces, the wind, the grass fires, the bull ants and then making it all into an excellent video. You guys and gals are LEGENDS. Love from across the ditch 🤟

[@tonybenjamin4670]

My daughter loves watching your videos

[@theredrover3217]

Very interesting process to watch. Never heard of this before, glad to learn of it and looking forward to the next video. 👍

[@samsanderson224]

The 3rd one is so beautiful and intricate!

[@Patrick-me6pg]

Yeah I can't wait to see this nest that big one is going to be awesome looking

[@MacNewton]

Ant heaven must be busy registering all the Ants. Remember folks, Ants are gods creatures as will. Pray for them 🙏🏻

[@Clownmeati8]

I always thought this was cool but i never even imagined these colonies were that old.. Not so sure if i like it anymore.. Im not all upset at anyone but my son just turned 24 last month and to think of that colony being a year old when he was born is amazing. Amazing enough for me to leave them alone..

[@allanfarr]

Think of it this way. There are 1 million ant colonies in the vicinity. It’s like illegal immigrants. Maybe 500 is ok, but 5 million is not ok.

[@Clownmeati8]

@@allanfarr I know, I get it.. I can appreciate the analogy, and like I said I'm not mad at anyone for it. Not trolling or going all karen or anything like that. At the end of the day they are ants and in no danger of hurting their population. I've destroyed plenty of them myself in my yard. Just speaking for myself though Im fascinated enough with the beauty of a colony building and surviving for that long that I can enjoy it just for that alone and let them continue doing their thing. I imagine myself at six watching this little ant hill develop until I was thirty one.. I would marvel at the thing being there basically my whole life. Kindergarten, high school, college, marriage and kids, and that darn ant hill is still there.. It wouldn't even occur to me in that case to destroy them to check out their tunneling work is all I'm saying. I would be cheering for them like an underdog sports team just for the heart they show.. It would be like cave explorers breaking off the stalagmites and stalactites for a souvenir to me.. just to say again, my feelings aren't hurt and I don't need a safe space to go cry for the ants 😉. Cheers!

[@MrThenry1988]

I get what your saying. They are in an area of thousands of them probably more.

[@jeff7.629]

I suspect the bull ant is Australia's version of fire ant in the United States.

[@hugsiebugsiestreamarchive]

Things come and go these ants are nothing compared to what goes on in the daily. Also, ants are like the most successful species on the planet. Misguided empathy toward the age of the nest than the ants themselves. Just because something is old doesn't mean it's more valuable.

[@mikeb5063]

Do ants ever undermine the ground to the point people can fall through? imagine being waste deep or worst in a bull ant nest

[@frysause934]

Doubt it, they evolved for millions of years, so that their dens would not collapse on them.

[@brj_han]

See if you can find a movie made back in the 50's called, "Them".

[@CatherineSTodd]

Fascinating... I had no idea. Thanks for posting!

[@kathybrandt6060]

I can’t wait to see what it looks like when you finally get it out. I’m sorry it’s so cold down there.

[@TommyTucker091]

You should get a small pump with a narrow hosepipe/suction pipe down in the bottom as you pressure wash to pump the excess water out and into a barrel.

[@furrymessiah]

Have you lads considered using an Air Spade to dig out the castings, instead of a pressure washer? It'd be quite a bit less mucky that way, and you wouldn't need a hose pipe at the site to connect to.

[@MilwaukeeF40C]

A hydro vac trailer is what they need.

[@lewisk2418]

​@MilwaukeeF40C yes mate, was just going to say similar thing. Get a vac truck out there, you would get the 3 out in less than a day with a lot less labour.

[@1crazypj]

110Kg is a hell of a lot of metal to pour into ground, it's as much as an average slightly overweight American (around 250lbs 🙄) I've used a pressure washer for 'digging', works fantastic in sandy soil but looks like you have a lot of clay there? Few years ago, we paid $1200 for 'plumbers' to find leaky underground pipe, they didn't even get close to finding it so I did a DIY following the line and fixed it myself. When supervisor came out to 'check problem' he was amazed I had gone under tree roots without cutting them and asked how long it took to go 40 feet. In central Florida there isn't much frost so pipes are less than 18" underground. Anyway, I told him I used pressure washer and we got $1100 back, they kept call out time and mileage. Personally, I think they should have paid me for giving them 'secret digging technique' 😁 Needless to say, we are never going to use that company again

[@alucarder]

Great video

[@douglasthomashayden2566]

Just a thought: would it be possible, after the casting, to use a metal detector / ground radar to determine the extent of the nest?

[@firefox5926]

9:14 lol what you need is a little garden fountain pump you can stick in the bottom to pump it out for you :)

[@rogerdudra178]

Greetings from the BIG SKY of Montana

[@bruceparker4820]

Why don't you insert 1 or 2 long, threaded steel rods before you pour so you get a nice, strong handle to move the end result?

[@rad7965]

Very interesting. Question, why do you have to record your filler/back ground music so loud. It terrible have to keep adjusting the volume.

[@lindalewis5066]

So looking forward to the full reveal! 👍❤️

[@michaelboyce7079]

OMFG! It's the New Leyland Brothers!

[@randomuser-tu2hj]

Im feeling a bit better about this one, whew...this is one rabbit hole I didnt want to go down good luck in 2024.

[@TrevorHeathPhotography]

Mate, you guys rock! Nice to see a family affair here. Bloody awesome stuff you guys. I viewed the one before this series so will now pop over to the next episode. Oh yeah, I forgot to say that explosion was freaky!!!, damn thankful for safety gear aye! Cheers from over the ditch. 👍

[@northerngal1009]

How long does it take for those to cool down before they can be dug up?

[@alanatkins4315]

A hydro excavation unit would be handy or not.

[@AndrewJohnYoung]

Love the video

[@kellwng]

when you finally got it so you can see it in full, its covered with link boxes so cant really see it.

[@captianmorgan7627]

They need to make friends with a company that has a vac truck. That'd make this so much easier.

[@quantumslasher]

Love the project, the music volumes were really high in this edit.

[@Bobal27]

8:48 Y’all scooping out the water with buckets? If you have the cords, you should just bring along a no-filter shop-vac (aka wet mode), and just suck the water/mud out, like plumbers do. Then dump the mud and water, and keep sucking it out. Much faster and easier than buckets.

[@DaddyWarCrimes78]

Would sinking a threaded hook into the top of the nest as the aluminum cools be an issue? If you added an attachment point, you could use a confined space retrieval tripod or something similar to support the hive as you use the pressure washer to dig it out.

[@lynhewlett1941]

Australia seems to have bigger everything lol

[@AmaroqStarwind]

ZA-12 alloy (which is mostly zinc) melts at a significantly lower temperature, so you can get a higher fidelity casting, and there's a lower explosion risk. You should consider using this alloy for future castings.

[@AmaroqStarwind]

Also, replacing your pressure washer and other such devices with electric versions and using a gas turbine generator might get you more economical fuel usage overall. Just a thought.

[@jamesscott6917]

Would it work to mix a little ferrous material in with your aluminum and use a magnetic detector to accurately map where the nest limits are?

[@justsomeguywashwd_jbm821]

Towards the end you guys were discussing the idea of heated pressure washers due to the cold weather, & combine that with thinking about what a hassle the wet mud must be, I remembered something I've seen on other YT vids - would an air spade be any use to you guys? It's basically a pressure washer, but with air instead of water. I've seen it used to uncover the roots of trees without harming them, so shouldn't damage the casting. Something else I thought of, for when the weather is more stereotypically Australian 🥵, instead of water I've seen a type of pressure washer that uses dry ice pellets. That would also reduce the mud issue, but you'd maybe only want to try it for the uncovering part, & go back to water to finish cleaning it off.

[@jaredkennedy6576]

I have to wonder if the excavation would be easier with an air spade. No water runoff to worry about, although a respirator would likely be needed.

[@dunkermitcell83]

I kinda like this job 😎

[@Atvsrawsome]

I know they are very expensive but it seems like you cpuld put a vac truck to good use with these.

[@australianantart1376]

See next video 😃

[@neilwootton2691]

I wonder if there's some sort of expanding foam you could pour in when you have partially excavated post pour. It could support the structure until excavated, you could add to it as you excavate more, then it could be dissolved post extraction with acetone??

[@griswald322]

Have you ever thought to cast a hook into the top so you could lift it out maybe using sheerlegs

[@KenzosGoldProspecting]

Instead of trying to gravity drain the water, have you considered a 12v bilge pump?

[@TTTTJJJJJJJJJJ]

No ants were harmed in the making of this video

[@mokajones74]

These are like the exact inverse of bonsai

[@robertmannel4446]

Exactly. What remains will be a 3d picture of the living quarters of a nest. Amazing.

[@seth-bullock]

-5 C? That's not very cold. :)

[@spawnod]

This is the first video I'm watching and I'm asking myself why you do not stick a steel post into the pouring hole where a hook can get attached?

[@watchthe1369]

You might have more luck supporting those by making a 50mm by 50mm square (3 leg) tubing pyramid frame tp lift/ support (10mm wall?). Then put a 15mm hole in the top with a drill, Tap it and put in a lifting eye. Support the nest with the frame then lift t the whole blivet out with an excavator and chain when you get down low enough. Closet I could guess in milimeter stuff. (2 x2 inch square tube with 3/8 wall is what I would use in USA) drill and tap to take a 3/4 shank threaded lifting eye....)

[@bensonmathison]

What about a trash pump to pull the water out while you hydro-excavate?

[@bearvassar6690]

Any genetic engineering people out there cross the giant velvet ant,giant Japanese murder hornet and giant ants together. Man just imagine the nest casting from that.

[@COM70]

You guys ever seen the air trenchers they use in America Canada ?

[@Reallytallsocks]

Why is your pressure washer rated in psi instead of ksc?

[@bird_b0nezz]

For you Americans, I’m 6ft and I only weigh about 70kg, the average person weighs anywhere between 50kg to 90kg

[@noelhutchins7366]

Engineering a better extraction method: squirt a pressure-washer down to reach into the voids and loosen debris, plumb around, make a big mess while using the shop-vac to void the slurry.

[@14gage14]

Man a hydrovac would be perfect for that process

[@Delibro]

Did I heard that right? You have 15 °C and call it cold with all that gear on? I would walk outside in tshirts and would like it :DD

[@SlowrideSteve]

Always wondered how you got those out

[@Mukphly]

It's the ant version of Pompeii.

[@LiquidD34th]

would it work with resin ? lot of resin as that would be seethouth and have all the ants encased in it

[@kamalionify]

Resin is very expensive, toxic and needs air to dry well Plus, mixing it all would be awful, and the margin of error would be inevitable

[@mmi16]

Humans build UP, ants build DOWN - what sort of 'foundation' do they use?

[@danielstevens6864]

What happens tonthe bodies of the ants can u see them in the mold

[@brownbrown9554]

Hi guys , I am a new subscriber. You guys are awesome ! Your work is amazing ! Just wondering how much would it cost for a small casting model? I can't afford it 😢but still would like to know. Maybe one day I'll be able to actually afford one 😊 . The music is awesome too !! Had me dancing as yall dug 😅😂 Can't wait for the reveal of ALL that hard work yall are doing ❤

[@tawnihaynie1065]

❤❤❤👍👍👍😎😎😎

[@debmiskiw1839]

Were their antics living in those nests when the hot aluminum was poured? If so, it seems like a stupid reason to kill ants. Were they causing problems for people in that area?

[@Phat_Plants]

wow

[@mattbiggs1992]

How many days do you leave the cast before you're sure it's cooled sufficiently?

[@australianantart1376]

A casting that size... you can start digging after lunch.

[@aneaglesnest]

I’m honestly a little surprised that I don’t see metal detectors being used when digging these nests out. I would think with nests on this scale that a detector would be essential! Anyone have insight into this?

[@gfunk4014]

Why don’t you embed a steel rod hook at the top of the nests so you can raise them out of the ground with a tripod easier without breaking them

[@molouder9061]

7:35 Maybe you should have use that face shield you had for pouring the meta. Safety first.

[@WPAPi3.14]

Site won’t let me thumbs up

[@punkinhaidmartin]

AIR SPADE! Look it up! It will be a lot faster, easier, and less potential for damage.

[@natasha3984]

You need a machine that will suck up all that 2ater and soil sludge. Like a vax but industrial scale. Make it much easier for you.

[@novagate22]

You really need a hydrovac for this type of excavation.

[@Yogenh]

How much do you sell them for

[@kimberlydunn954]

Poor ants probably not over 8 or 10 trillion of the pest left😂😂

[@JonKemp-d1q]

ONLY in Australia! Hope this is profitable for the risk.

[@dzymslizzy3641]

That bird at the beginning sounds like R2D2! I wonder if that was the inspiration?? 😀 Hmmmm...I can't help but feel sorry for the ants: what a horrible way to die!

[@Garth-ho3yd]

The sound of the crucible was overwhelming. chose to let them stay. but a powerwasher you overwelm with meaning less music.

[@stuartcreevy9720]

Have you ever watched "War Of The Worlds"?

[@resinheavenstudiossueashwo387]

OMG!!!!

[@firefox5926]

7:41 lol might wanna wear that full face visor next time lol mate you look like you put your head under the chocolate fountain lol

[@nickshapowal2067]

Now be really clever and restore the life that was there before.

[@dianee7778]

You don’t show the final piece cleaned up and out of the ground??? Bummer.

[@australianantart1376]

There is a really nice video for that... keep watching :)

[@AuGoldBars]

I’ve heard people give you guys kudos for the work you did to get this done… not even .01% of the amount of work and time it took to create. I don’t feel any sense of remorse. Then we justify our actions because the bite from them hurts… great job guys… I guess

[@Kafj302]

I am like number 876

[@mikeomalley9511]

hey, the two that really exploded had a large live root running through them.... hum.

[@ryanbaker-dm7mx]

Yall should invest in a hydrovac

[@Pattylove73]

Where are the ants now? 🤔

[@tmasson]

They are toast

[@Keith-tz2jy]

Poor footage. All you see the guys f,n around and don't show much of the final nest casting 😢😢😢😢

[@i_spy5902]

I'd be impressed if they were doing this to invasive species of ants, not our natives and not with such an old colony 😢

[@bdshort]

Seems like the property owner wanted them removed anyway, so why not create something out of it if you can.

[@joshualaplante-f5j]

That was painfully slow even sped up maybe try a vacuum

[@jurgenungerer2475]

Und die ganze Ameisen Kolonien 🧐

[@gabrielc6252]

The fact that you are using water makes this more difficult and messy

[@majordude83]

They can't just use shovels because they could break the casting.

[@xuejiaoxu6778]

Need a mate with a vacuum truck to drop around and give you a hand.

[@australianantart1376]

Yes... that may have happened...