My Fire Ants Escaped

Nooooo!!! Please help, guys! I honestly don't know what to do... This is Ants vs. Creator of Worlds!🔥🐜

I think the only long term solution will be to adapt the existing enclosure with clear glass and make it a closed off environment. Otherwise you will encounter escape problems when you are away from home for a few days (or longer) and not reapplying the chalk every day. If you use glass you will still see the open enclosure inside but it will stop them escaping so easily. Good luck AC in whatever you decide to do.

Lower the water output of the waterfall to reduce humidity and put a new slippy barrier on, in a way the water stays healthy and the ants can still drink enough. Just an idea you might be able to put to reality. Edit: wow! I appreciate the likes!

Given that it took 6 years of planning and 2 colonies for them to finally escape, I'd say you did well keeping them.

Put a no trespassing sign

When you designed this setup, I said to myself, that it was an awfully bold move to keep fire ants in an open setup, and as I recall, you even had your doubts. They need a closed system, and one that can expanded to meet their needs, IMHO. Perhaps its time to give them a new space to safely explore, a more contained space off the main terrarium.

The ants are harder to contain than SCP’s during a breach

I mean personally, I think you had a very genius idea with one of the Golden Empire setups. You had a very efficient setup with a Paludarium, where the terrestrial part would be surrounded by water, and you can put in some more sea creatures, and it becomes a thriving ecosystem in a way. The aquatic area, and inhabitants could feed off fallen members of the fire ant colony, and that would also be a plus in being at least a subtle population control for the fire ant colony. That still has to be one of my favorite designs even to this day.

I always thought you were crazy keeping that particular colony in an open tank! - It makes for a stunning visual, but you know full well they are escape artists and I knew full well it'd only be a matter of time before they found some weakness in the barrier to exploit! The only safe, secure and long term solution is to either mover them into a sealed unit or somehow adapt the current set up to put on full height sided and a mesh top. It really was only a matter of time...! Luckily you caught them when you did!

You could always try installing an additional pane of something just far enough in from the existing external pane that ant's can't just cross the gap, and coat both sides of the new pane and also the original pane so you've effectively tripled the width of your barrier at the weak point. The gap between the panes would also serve as an advance warning alert well before a full escape, since if you find any ants have fallen into that gap (which they'd then struggle to get out of) you'd know that the initial part of the barrier has a breach.

Hello, I have been raising a colony of Atta mexicana for several years. It is 9 mushroom chambers, three harvesting areas for about 250,000 ants minimum. The only two effective barriers I found: close everything or parafine oil. Parafine oil is all the more effective when it is brushed on a horizontal rim that forces ants to be upside down. But it also works on vertical edge (beware of the deposit of material on it). Only problem brush every week or 15 days. Otherwise flamethrower with invasives....😇

I remember that you had a similar problem back with the fire nation, that they got around most of your normal barriers too. If I remember, you needed silk from the nest of one of your tarantulas to stop them properly. Could that kind of silk be obtained, and applied to the new setup? Otherwise, adding a population controlling element to the barriers may just be necessary, the explosive growth of this colony means they will probably always be on the lookout for new space to expand into if nothing limits their numbers.

and nobody’s talking about how muscular antscanada is

Can you build a terrarium around the terrarium? So they escaped, but didn't escape.. and we can see what they plan to do next? How big this could get.

I saw the notification and my brain was immediately "oo yay AntsCanada!" And then it saw the title and was like (sigh) "of course they did." And now here we are Thank you for making amazing videos all these years, you inspired me to start keeping ant farm thingy ❤ (Edit: spelling error, I fixed it)

Dude you need a talcum painted moat around your enclosures. Now hear me out: You have your inner wall that encompasses the ant colony and it is coated with talcum to avoid escape. after the inner wall you put a second wall about 1 inch further as a moat (it doesn't need to be too deep) and line both sides(the outer side of the inner wall and the inner side of the outer wall) with talcum and optionally paint the floor with chalk. That way IF someone manages to poke a hole in your inner wall, it will inevitably slip inside the moat and die there. This will hold off even a huge breakout off for ages and you can EASILY spot if the inner wall is breached and start measures to strengthen the inner wall

That one Ant-“Life behind the walls, isn’t what you thought.”

I think the controlled culling is advantageous. you turned a potential disaster into a learning opportunity. You showed how we do not need poison to control ants and really any other insect. I use Diamoatous Earth myself when dealing with insect issues, it really is the best solution. So I think continued controlled culling is in order with consideration on how to improve the barrier in the future. Maybe even a barrier that has the option to allow escape once in a while to cull the colony occasionally.

My first thought when I saw the title was that the fire ants had a nuptial flight in your ant room and you had no idea where the new queens were hiding in your ant room. You definitely need to either put them in another enclosure or build an exterior enclosure around their setup so they can't escape and you can prevent them from flying around your room when the virgin queens and drones decide to mate.

As difficult as enclosing the tank is, I think that is probably the realistic choice. Think about it. If the fire ants escape from their enclosure and into the wild, would you ever be able to forgive yourself? I know I wouldn't. And seeing your love and respect for the wild ant species in your backyard, I know that you couldn't.