Over the past few months, our quest to improve the quality of life for the millions of ants
hailing from the different beloved colonies on this channel, saw extravagant and beautiful
makeovers to the worlds in which the ant colonies live, breath, and die.
But there was still one important colony that patiently awaited its turn for a home and
lifestyle upgrade, and AC Family, this time, it wasn't a colony of ants.
No, today, we're going to be setting up the stage for a very big intrusion.
It's finally time to upgrade the home, of our ants' livestock, and if this channel has
successfully perked your intrigue for insects and the creepy crawlies, well, brace yourselves,
'cause things are about to get encroachingly interesting!
Please subscribe to my channel, and hit the bell icon, welcome to the AC Family.
Enjoy!
Now if you've made it this far into the video and you're totally put off by roaches but
haven't clicked off yet, don't leave!
Let me say this!
If you've watched this channel and have found ants surprisingly interesting, I think it's
amazing that you've given ants a chance into your hearts, but I assure you, if you stay
with us for this exclusive and intimate look at the secret lives of these equally amazing
insects, which just like ants, have gotten such bad reps among people all around the
world, you just might shock yourself by coming to at least appreciate them, or heck, possibly
even love them!
OK, I hear you.
Let's not push ourselves now right?
I completely understand the aversion.
I too get squeamish when I see huge roaches running close by.
In Canada, where I grew up most of my life, cockroaches in the home are a homeowner's
worst nightmare!
Roaches have simply become associated with a mal-kept place, being vectors for disease
and bacteria.
They are perhaps the world's most loathed vermin next to rats.
Here in tropical Manila where I currently live, massive roaches are seen pretty much
everywhere and it's not uncommon to see a roach the size of a tennis ball running or
even flying around!
But the cockroach species that you and I see that infest our human living spaces, only
make up less than 1% of all cockroach species we've ever discovered.
Of the 4,600 different types of cockroaches in existence, only 30 of them are domestic
pests.
This means that over 99% of all cockroach species live away from human homes and want
nothing to do with sharing your apartment or nibbling on your toothbrush.
Just kidding.
So today the charming colony of cockroaches we will be looking at belong to this greater
majority of roaches that don't live in human homes, well not naturally anyway.
These scuttling juggernauts, who live in an enclosure in my home, are known commonly in
the pet trade as Dubia roaches, scientifically Blaptica dubia.
These cockroaches are not domestic pests, but instead are native to the tropical rainforests
of Central and South America where they live in colonies along the rainforest floor, and
play an important role as decomposers of decaying and rotting vegetation.
A group or colony of cockroaches by the way is known as an intrusion.
You may have seen a previous video on this channel where I talked about this intrusion
of Dubias, but today's episode is going to be a bit different because I felt, in light
of all of these ant habitat upgrades and ant life improvements, the next step was to improve
the living space of our roaches, which yes may just be the ants' food, but see, all the
more reason to give the cockroach colony a home upgrade, too.
The happier and healthier the ants' prey is, the better food it is for our ants, kind of
like the how free-range and grain-fed livestock, nourishment and health-wise, is better for
us humans.
And since we here at AntsCanada love all living things, why not give the prey animals the
best possible paradise of a home they can live in for the days that they are alive,
right?
They may as well crossover happy cockroaches.
Which brings me to their current living conditions.
This intrusion of Dubias have been living in this plastic critter-crawler for years.
Dubias are a very popular prey-insect for keepers of reptiles, tarantulas, and other
insectivorous pets, not only because of their great nutrient content, but also because they
are easy to keep, and will tolerate some of the most basic living conditions.
We're taught in prey-insect-keeping that Dubias can survive well in setups kept as dry as
possible to minimize mold, maggots, and odour.
Moreover, the cockroaches can live on egg carton and toilet paper rolls, furnishings
which are readily available and easiest to change once they become soiled.
We're taught that the roaches could be gut-loaded on a steady diet of orange slices for water,
perhaps a carrot or other easy-to-obtain water-retaining veggie, and some dry dog kibble for good measure,
to gut-load the insects with a few vitamins.
But it wasn't until recently that I realized, "Hey, why am I settling for the bare minimum
for these cockroaches when I could go epic and natural, just like we've done for our
ants?"
I mean, these roaches are technically by default, also pets, so if we could upgrade our roaches'
setup and even upgrade their diet to something a bit more varied, I bet the resulting happier
and healthier cockroaches will be of greater benefit to the ants, as each cockroach will
be more nutrient-rich.
Healthier and happier cockroaches may breed more frequently and more abundantly, produce
healthier and more robust offspring, which therefore means more food for the ants.
Now before we get to designing their new epic setup, I wanted to quickly address feeding
ethics.
Many of you have expressed concerns that the cockroaches look alive in these videos when
fed to my ants.
This is definitely not the case, as I've tried that in the past, and it lead to a horrific
sight!
I personally prefer to freshly, pre-kill my roaches before offering them to my ants.
I usually split them with scissors at the neck, or somewhere along the thorax, and/or
down the abdomen.
The reason the cockroaches still move their legs even after dispatching them is because
of the insect nervous system, which is composed of masses of nerve cells called ganglia, which
run down the center of the body.
This is why, they say that even if you cut the head off a roach, it still survives for
a few days.
This may not be so true, but without a head, the roaches indeed can still move due to the
ganglia which are still in tact.
And the reason why I offer freshly pre-killed prey, instead of dried insects or already
dead insects, is because the ants can consume wet insect guts much more easily than dried
insect guts.
It also has better nutrients.
Think of fresh beef verses beef jerky!
Alright, and now to do we what we love!
As creators of worlds, it was time to create a proper roach kingdom!
And here lays our empty shell of field, an empty tank, the venue from which shall spring
forth a new world of natural art, the kingdom which will be the new habitat of our Dubia
roaches.
I went straight to work.
I had a few goals for this soon to be roach home.
I wanted to offer a territory that best duplicated their natural habitat, but also offer a venue
for the cockroaches to do what they do best, the role which nature has chosen for them:
Enablers of decomposition!
You see, people often ask me, why should one want to keep ants.
It's not like bee keeping where you have a product like honey that humans could consume?
And to that, I say, aside from the inspiration and education ant-keeping brings, I love that
ants can in some cases be used for their decomposition capabilities.
Why keep a vermiculture composter when you could use ants to further decompose your discarded
food scraps like these chicken bones?
But even more effective at decomposing organic waste than ants, are the amazing cockroaches!
During an environmental studies course I took in college, I did a project on how forest
roaches could be used to speed up the decomposition process of organic waste.
They would even eat newspaper soaked in fruit juice.
Turns out, forest roaches like these Dubias can be just as effective if not more effective
at breaking down organic trash than worms.
So I wanted this roach terrarium to also be a mini-composter.
Let's coin the term now!
A Blattocomposter, from Blattodea the order of roaches!
And then, the new roach territories were done!
Behold, the new, soon-to-be home of our Dubia intrusion.
It was an organic playground of soil, driftwood, and leaf cuttings from my tropical house plants,
set to mimic the leaf-litter and groundscape of a typical jungle floor.
I wanted there to be various places for the roaches to hide, which the winding driftwood
certainly offered, but also, I wanted to install what I call the Dubian Dome.
A darkened rock hide with open chambers and two floors for the roaches to occupy, but
one that we could access if we wanted to take a peek inside.
You may notice that the earth towards the back and side forms a slope.
This was perfect, because I wanted to form a sort of feeding pit for the cockroaches.
In this section, I wanted to place all the roaches food, so that if the roaches wanted
to feed, they would need to come out of hiding.
Speaking of which, let's add a few goodies now before we proceed with the grand release
of the Dubias, shall we?
Some fish pellets, and slices of apple.
Alright, and finally, it's time to add the roaches!
Here we go AC Family!
Releasing the intrusion into these virgin lands!
I carefully shook the cockroaches from the egg cartons.
It was the last time they were going to have to live on some man-made material used to
insulate chicken eggs, and instead inhabit a more natural setup, a forest floor!
I dropped in some two to three hundred cockroaches of different sizes into the terrarium.
They instantly scurried about in attempts to find some cover.
They wedged themselves into crevices within the driftwood, and a lot of them surprisingly
were able to conceal themselves by burrowing into the soil.
I was surprised by this.
I never knew these roaches were capable of burrowing, but then again, of course they
could!
Soil was what they were meant to live in, not egg cartons!
Some of the roaches immediately began to feed from our goodies.
Look at them just munching away at the apple!
What's neat is, these roaches can acquire all the hydration they need from the food
they eat.
I was happy to see that they were settling in nicely.
Although, most of the roaches had disappeared into the shadows of their new home land, I
decided to leave them for a bit, to give them a chance to warm up and explore the territories
in the dark.
Now watch what I saw one hour later, flicking on the lights.
Woah!
Roaches were everywhere, but the sudden illumination of the territories startled our nyctophilic
friends.
Nyctophilia is the preference for dark or night, and it seems our roaches are ultimate
shadow-lovers.
It was hilarious to see that some of the roaches were not so good at hiding, but still quite
neat to know the roaches had begun to explore their new home.
But, it was time to see where the bulk of them were hiding.
I looked towards the entrance of the Dubian Dome.
I just knew they had to be in there!
Removing the rock cover, and wow!
There they were, a big community of them huddling in the darkened areas of the rock hide.
It was amazing to see them all snug in there.
Let's leave them in the dark.
But I knew there were still many more roaches hiding somewhere in these lands, and I had
a small inkling as to where.
I peeked behind this wall of driftwood and voila, we found another big gathering of roaches!
Roaches of different ages huddled together in the comfort of each other's presence behind
this great wall of wood.
It was great and satisfying to see the Dubias in a more natural state like this.
Some of them felt comfortable enough, poking their half concealed bodies out from below
some leaf cover, to continued to feast on our apples.
I loved watching the different ages coming together to feed.
Look at how cute that little baby roach is!
Adorable.
I left the colony to allow them to spend their first night in their new home in peace.
Lights off!
By morning, I peeked into the habitat.
The roaches had all retired into their darkened spaces, and were out of sight.
And AC Family, check this out!
All the apples and fish pellets were fully consumed.
Checking the Dubian Dome, and yup!
They were in there, enjoying all that cozy darkness and humidity.
Behind the wood wall, more roaches just snoozing away.
I even noticed this, a female cockroach giving birth to an ootheca.
An ootheca is the term for this egg sac, which this roach is laying now but will after be
reabsorbed into her body where the babies will further develop until she is ready to
give birth to them.
Dubia birth is certainly an interesting thing.
I sat and watched her in amazement, take in her ootheca to completion.
Soon the developed roach nymphs will be ready to hatch, and she'll be giving birth to up
to 40 tiny white roach babies.
And speaking of which, AC Family, I wasn't prepared to see what I saw next.
A movement on the forest floor caught my eye.
Upon further inspection, I was surprised to discover that it was a nymph caught on its
back, seemingly trying to right itself.
Oh.
How odd.
Let's help it out, AC Family.
I used a barbique skewer to help the little one onto its legs.
It managed to eventually get right way up, but as it began to walk around, I noticed
something wasn't right.
The nymph had some kind of deformity on its back half of its body, and it caused the nymph
to struggle as it crawled around.
It wasn't long before it ended up once again on its back, flailing its legs helplessly
in the air.
I was extremely saddened when I saw this because I knew this newborn, still white from birth,
was likely not going to make it.
Its survival depended on its ability to walk around, search for food, defend itself from
the big boys of the intrusion, and just generally carry its own within the hustle and bustle
of normal cockroach life, but this deformity meant, it would not be able to do this.
Sadly, this nymph would not last the day.
It made me wonder if this deformity and birth defect was the result of roach malnutrition,
or perhaps improper humidity from the old home in the dry and mundane critter-crawler.
I wondered if the mother of this little one was truly healthy during her pregnancy within
the old home.
I wondered how many roach babies per batch, born from this intrusion, end up being born
with such lethal, debilitating complications.
It made me feel so bad for housing my roaches in such a bare-bones setup for so long.
I feared I may have been keeping them in an unsuitable prison all these years, forcing
them to just get by on orange slices, the random carrot, and cheap dog food.
As I watched the little nymph slowly weaken, I made a promise to myself, to never again
allow my prey insects to just get by.
From now on, I was going to be committed at providing my roaches, even if they were technically
just ant food, with the best, most fruitful life possible, before they would go on to
provide nourishment to my ant colonies.
I continued to develop this roach habitat into a working Blattocomposter, dumping organic
waste like my leftover apple peels and cores, and even last night's cold french fries, into
the feeding pit for the roaches to feed on.
I continued to water this setup to keep the soils moist, and to support the growth of
essential bacteria, molds, fungi, and springtails to assist at further breaking down the organics
I placed inside.
Turning on the lights in the middle of the night, it was assuring to see the roaches
doing what they do best, the job nature had intended, and the very reason they were put
here on this Earth.
No, not to merely be prey insects for other animals, nor to nibble on your tooth brush,
but rather, to decompose.
This ameliorated lifestyle would go on to benefit my ants in the end.
I wonder if the ants will be able to taste the difference in these roaches from here
on in.
Whatever the case, it was an important lesson for me to learn through this entire experience.
In being the main provider of nourishment for the millions of ant lives under my care,
I realized how important it was to invest in farming quality food, and not simply settling
with rearing bulk food at minimal parameters, because after all, you are what you eat, and
what your food eats.
Alright AC Family, what do you think?
Did this video help you appreciate roaches a little more?
Alright!
It's OK if it didn't.
But this new roach kingdom needs a name.
Leave your name suggestions for this roach palace in the comments and I will choose my
top 5 favourites for us to vote on in a future video!
But hey, AC Family, listen up, next week I have a very important update on one of my
other ant colonies that you won't want to miss, so hit that SUBSCRIBE button and bell
icon now so you don't miss out on this continuing ant story within our Antiverse, and hit the
LIKE button every single time, including now!
AC Inner Colony, I have left a hidden cookie for you here, if you would just like to watch
extended play footage of our cockroaches having feast!
You won't want to miss them munching down!
Before we continue to AC Question of the week, I wanted to plug my daily vlogging channel!
That's daily vlogs of my travels around the world, which often includes lots of nature
stuff!
Alright and now it's time for the AC Question of the Week!
In last week's video, which by the way trended at #6 in US, AC Family you did that!
Thank you!
We asked:
Which was your favourite Ant World created in the video and why?
This question had no real right answer, but congratulations to Hannah Fire who answered:
My favourite is the Zen Jardim!
The muted pinks contrast appealingly with the dark stems and
little ants, and it is very relaxing to look at.
Congratulations, Hannah Fire, you just won a free AC Outworld 2.0 from our shop!
In this week's AC Question of the Week, we ask:
What is the term used to describe a preference for dark or night?
Leave your answer in the comments section and you could win a free ebook handbook from
our shop!
Hope you can subscribe to the channel as we upload every Saturday at 8AM EST.
Please remember to LIKE, COMMENT, SHARE, & SUBSCRIBE if you enjoyed this video to help us keep
making more.
It's ant love forever!
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