 Let's get fired up AC Family. We've got some action for you today. When you own and care for an ant colony, over time you develop a sort of understanding. Eventually, it gets to the point where you almost know what your colony needs, when they need it, and how much of it they need. It's almost like you form a second connection with your ants. For weeks now, my massive fire ant colony, a colony you guys have named the Fire Nation, has been demanding that I add new living space to their setup. The Fire Nation is now bigger and more voracious than ever, and has been needing some new living space. Some fresh territory added to their lands. So finally today, something amazing has arrived for them. Behold, their new state of the art ant farm. For newest, baddest, larger and most advanced ant farm yet, the AC Hybrid Nest 2.0. Today we're moving them in and learn about what happens when an ant colony picks up and moves into fresh territory. You won't want to miss all the awesome fire ant action ahead, so keep on watching until the end. How will our Fire Nation take to this new specially designed home? Find out here in this episode of the ants Canada and China. And hit the bell icon. Welcome to the AC Family. Enjoy. Let's cut right to it, AC Family. Look at these fire ants. Solonopsis Gemanata. They're ready to move into some fresh new space, and they've been ready for a long time now. Adding new living space and removing old living space is important for the health of an ant colony, because in the wild, the elements, creatures, and microbes help keep ant nests fresh and clean. New soils are moved into an ants nest by way of rains and other things like winds or animal or plant activity. Alternatively, ant colonies will literally pick up and move their entire colony to a new location or dig their nests into new soils, abandoning old tunnels that may have become too soiled or too lived in. In a captive ant farm setup, ant colonies don't have this luxury and are forced to deal with the living space you give them for as long as you hold them in. So it is important to cyclically remove old parts of an ant setup, especially if they're not natural nests, and replace them with new living space so the ants can benefit from fresh and clean nesting media. I'm actually in the process of drying out the fire nations out worlds and removing them from the network just to clean them out and allow them to breathe, free of ant activity for several months. So let's look at the fire nations new home, shall we? I'm so excited. A lot of you have been writing to us for years now asking us when our new improved hybrid nests would release. Well, the wait is finally over AC Family, proudly presenting our newest flagship for McAriom, the AntsCanada Hybrid Nest 2.0. I've been waiting for so long for these to finally launch at AntsCanada.com, as they have taken two years for the AC team to develop, test, tweak, and improve. Let's go over its exciting features for us ant keepers. When you first receive your hybrid nest box, you immediately notice its size. This is a huge for McAriom. It is 10 inches long with a living space of 8 inches by 8 inches. This houses thousands and thousands of ants. You may notice this is our Formica Hybrid Nest version. This is the first of our series of genus inspired for McArioms, and we will roll the other versions out gradually in the coming months. Though this design is inspired by nests belonging to the genus Formica, almost every species can live in any of the designs. Our Fire Nation will love this hybrid nest. Hopefully, if we compare its size to our old hybrid nests, you will see that these new hybrid nests are much bigger by many times, and in case you are wondering about price, I'm happy to say these new hybrid nests will cost a few dollars less than our previous hybrid nests. So if you look at the cover, you will see the name of the version of Hybrid Nest, as well as an indented area. I wanted this here for people like me who like to name their ant colonies or label them by species, like they do in museums. A sticker or label can be placed here in this area for that, or you can simply write in this area with permanent marker, completely up to you. Lifting the cover, we see the beautiful interior of our Fire Nation's new luxurious home. Look at all those rooms and corridors. I cannot wait to see how the Fire Nation makes use of them. You will also notice several openings on the sides. There are two openings here and here, which act as exits and entrances. Our AC TestTube adapters fit perfectly inside, so you can attach a new TestTube colony directly to the Hybrid Nest. And by the way, if this is your first time seeing these new TestTube adapters, we have two sizes, one for smaller ants to keep their TestTube's humid and a larger AC TestTube adapter for your larger species like Campanades and Pogonomimax. You can also use these to accommodate water TestTube's for the colony to drink, which is what I'll be doing for the Fire Nation. Of course, these exits also accommodate our large size of tubing. You'll also notice this smaller hole, which runs to the other side of the Hybrid Nest. And that is to fixate a heating cable if you're the type that likes to heat your ant colony for quicker growth. It is placed on one side, so there's a good heating gradient for your ants to thermal regulate and choose where to position the colony according to their desired temperature preference. These smaller peg holes above the heating cables are there for some plant features which we will introduce sometime in the future. You'll notice that there are multiple levels and that the floor is slightly granulated. This helps with foot traction as well as holding any digging medium in place in case you choose to add some, or in case your ants decide to drag some in from your outworld. Now lifting the upper portion of the Hybrid Nest, you'll notice the hydration tray in which you place your hydration medium of choice. Water poured into this tub here flows freely underneath the living area of the ants and humidifies the ant colony from below via these tiny micro holes. This is the Formica design, so about 30% of the floor space is micro hold, perfect for most ants. Other Hybrid designs, which we'll be releasing over time over the next few months, will have slightly different humidity offerings. No matter what species of ant you're keeping, you want to maintain a humidity gradient with some dryer parts and some more moist parts so the ants can hydroregulate. Super important for the proper rearing of the young. Every species has their moisture preference so it's always best to give them a very choice and this Hybrid Nest does exactly that. But enough talking theory. It's time to see what the Fire Nation thinks of this custom designed craft of ant technology. Let's move the Fire Nation into their new home. To set up, I first had to secure the glass onto the Hybrid Nest. I always like to use Elmer's school glue because it is non-toxic and easy to use. I allowed it to dry over 12 hours. Also, I had to add my hydration medium. For the Fire Nation, I'm going to use cotton and toilet paper. But you can also use soil, white tong, sponge, water gels, perlite, sand, or whatever medium you know your ants like. I also only put it in the areas under the micro holes. But you can fill the entire tray if you so choose. This will hold moisture longer if you're the type that doesn't want to have to water every two or three days. So my plan was to add pieces of large tubing into the two exits and cut this highly traveled small tubing, which we call the Geminada Pass that connects the Fire Palace, the rubber may bin, with the surrounding outweighs and attach the ends here and here. On the other holes, I was going to place water test tubes for the colony to drink. All Hybrid Nests also come with perforated plugs in case you want to plug any of the exits up. But for the Fire Nation, I wanted this new home to have a function. I wanted it to be a drinking station. Just so it gave the ants a greater reason to move into this space and call it home. So here we go AC Family. First, I had to put on some gloves because as we saw a couple of videos back, these girls pack a good sting. Alright, one, two, three. I cut the Geminada Pass and quickly attached the ends to the two exits. All escapees were snatched up and thrown back into the Fire Palace. Instantly the ants were alarmed at the sudden shifting of their trail, which prior to this moment remained untouched for many months and they became weary and curious at the new smell of the Hybrid Nests. They stammered above. Rather confused that first. But then they began to wander into the Hybrid Nests. More and more ants came and began to snoop around. I knew it wouldn't be long before the ants on both ends would find each other and meet and establish a new trail running through their new Hybrid Nests. No ant had wandered yet towards the water test tubes. I covered the nest and allowed the ants to move in. Let's see their progress one hour later. Lifting the lid? Wow! Looks like the move is well underway. Ants are drinking from the water test tubes and the ants are moving about excitedly inside. They've also established a trail within the Hybrid Nests. Let's come back later. Two hours later, the fire and trails running through the Hybrid Nests were now solidified and very apparent. Every time I came back to check up on the ants, the trails became more obvious and the ants more excited about their new home. I loved watching the ants establishing their trails. It was like watching ant highways. Don't they look just mesmerizing? I could seriously watch this all day every day. How about you guys? So the fire nation will take a few more days still before they elect this Hybrid Nests, a suitable nesting location. I will know they will truly start to call this home when they start moving the brood into here. I will be sure to keep you guys updated on their progress. For now, the ants will continue to leave their pheromones on the surface of the Hybrid Nests and mark their territory. Though I do like natural nests involving dirt, I do also love keeping ants in dirtless formicariums like this because you can actually see the interior nest activities of the ant colony uninhibited. Hopefully soon, we'll even catch a glimpse of the queen whom we haven't seen for over a year. Let's hope AC Family. And by the way, what should we name this new ant territory? Leave your name suggestions in the comments and I will choose my top 5 favorites for the AC Family to vote on in a future video. So if you would like to get yourself one of these cool Hybrid Nests, I have placed links to this item at our shop in the description box of this video. The new Hybrid Nests now ship out in less than a week from purchase date and just a reminder that we do ship worldwide. Thanks for watching another episode of the AntsCanada Ant Channel. This is AntsCanada Signing out. It's Ant Love Forever. Alright AC Family, so what did you think? Do you like the Fire Nation's new nest edition? Don't forget to leave your name suggestions in the comments for this new section of the Fire Nation's territory. I hope you and lovers out there get a chance to own one of these Hybrid Nests one day and see how cool it is to watch Ants living in it. AC Intercolony, I have left a hidden cookie for you here. If you would just like to watch extended play footage of the ants moving in to their new Hybrid Nests. And now it's time for the AC Question of the Week. Two weeks ago, we asked. List one reason why the praying mantis was an ideal creditor to control the Golden Empire's population. Congratulations, too! Animals and stuff, who correctly answered. The reason why the praying mantis is an ideal creditor is because they are smart, have great eyesight, move with slow motion, but also move quickly if needed to get to safe ground. She can also fend for herself with no issues, can move without the ants noticing her, and also kick ants off. Very thorough answer. Congratulations, animals and stuff, you just won a free ebook handbook from our shop. In this week's AC Question of the Week, we ask. What does an ant colony do when their current nest gets too dirty or too lived in? Leave your answer in the comment section and you could win one of these brand new Hybrid Nests from our shop. Hope you can subscribe to the channel as we upload every Saturday at 8 a.m. Eastern Standard Time. Please remember to like, comment, share and subscribe if you enjoyed this video to help us keep making more. It's ant love forever. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.