Ever wonder if there are ants at the beach?
Do ants take tropical beach vacation getaways like humans do?
The answer will surprise you.
This week, I had the opportunity to spend my Christmas on some secluded but tiny tropical
islands, and my main goal was to find out what the ants on secluded beach islands were
like, how they lived, or heck, find out if there even were ants on secluded beach islands
at all!
AC Family, let's make a quick escape from the on-going tales of our antiverse in my
ant room in Manila, Philippines and travel thousands of miles westward to a gorgeous
tropical country called Maldives, tucked far away out into the Indian Ocean, and find out
what beach ant colonies are like, in this episode of the AntsCanada ant channel.
Please SUBSCRIBE to my channel, and hit the bell icon.
Welcome to the AC Family.
Tired of nature channels not showing nature shows.
Just watch this channel.
Enjoy!
The Republic of Maldives is a South Asian country composed of over 1,000 coral islands
out in the Indian Ocean, situated in the Arabian Sea near the country of Sri Lanka.
Its crystal clear waters, amazing wild life, and luxurious beach resorts have made it a
growing tourist spot for beach enthusiasts around the world.
I knew nothing about the place before coming here, other than the fact that a few celebrities
I follow online have vacationed here and posted some pretty neat photos of the place.
But when I arrived I was shocked to see not only how beautiful it was, but also how rich
the Maldivian wildlife was, both in the sea and on land.
Allegedly friendly reef sharks and some really interesting marine fish swam all around us
just outside our rooms, we interacted with wild stingrays, which I had no idea was a
safe thing to do, massive fruit bats flew from tree to tree, huge solitary bees buzzed
around, shore birds and herons hung out at our pools, and super cute agamid lizards scurried
about waiting for insects to pick off, and oh, the plant life - man, that tropical, beach
plant life though!
But with such a lush and thriving ecosystem on these secluded islands, I was sure there
had to be ants here somewhere!
So I asked the locals about where I might be able to find ants and what type of ants
existed in Maldives.
Of course, if you're not an ant nerd like me, most ants might look the same, so the
general consensus was that there were pretty much only three types of ants in Maldives.
They were described as follows: The first type were described as being big and black,
and that to me screamed Camponotus, i.e. carpenter ants.
Ooohh Maldivian carpenter ants!
Super exciting.
Let's hope we see some today!
The second were described as some small red ones.
That sounded like a fire ant species, perhaps like our Fire Nation?
We'll find out!
And finally some harmless black ones that come in swarms, and of course, that to me
sounded like black crazy ants!
To think, our Dark Knights have a Maldivian counterpart?
So cool!
So according to local sources, there were these three ants and that was it.
Now although Maldives was pretty geographically secluded and each island was super small,
I still found it hard to accept that there were only three species of ants on these Maldivian
islands, so it was time to find out!
I booked some tours to go Maldives island hopping and broke away from my tour group
to shoot some ants!
By the way, AC Family, if you're excited about today's episode, please hit that 'LIKE' button
and let me know.
Alright so wandering off the tourist path a little bit, I instantly came across this
open sandy area with sparse vegetation, and it was full of little pits.
Ant holes!
Check it out AC Family, it looks like we've found our quote-unquote small, red ants!
But looking closer at them, you could tell right away that these red ants were NOT fire
ants.
These ants looked different from our Fire Nation, but they were just as energetic!
I loved watching them run about constructing their holes and small ant hills.
Have a look!
Now one thing you might notice about the ant hills of these ants is that they aren't really
huge nor too conspicuous.
I feel when you live on a beach where you don't have a whole lot of plant coverage,
you don't want to make your fortress too obvious and announce to predators that "Hey, this
is where we live."
Now I couldn't even pin a genus on these girls to identify them, until I spotted from the
corner of my eye this!
A Supermajor!
The supermajors were super shy and weren't plentiful.
Now these ants weren't our Titans, Asian Marauder ants, but were probably a smaller and similar
species belonging to the genus Pheidole.
Red ant mystery solved!
Let's move on!
My friend who was ant-hunting with me, called me over saying "Hey, I found a huge black
ant!"
Yes, perhaps it was our native Camponotus!
When I finally saw it, I was shocked and filmed it with my eyes and mouth wide open the whole
time.
AC Family, check it out and see if you can tell why!
Do you see something funny about this big black ant?
Well, AC Family, this actually is not an ant.
Believe it or not, this here is a spider!
A jumping spider, to be exact, probably belonging to the genus Myrmarachne.
This spider was an ant mimic!
Don't believe me?
That right there is its web den!
Not only is its body shaped like that of an ant, but it also moves its front legs in the
same way an ant moves its antennae!
Isn't that just amazing, AC Family?
Now you might be asking, why would a spider want to mimic an ant?
What evolutionary purpose?
Well, there could be several reasons.
First, many animals actually dislike or fear ants, having learned to stay away from them
due to their bites or their foul taste.
A predator may choose to eat this jumping spider before this apparent ant.
Second, this spider may actually look like her favourite prey, and so looking like an
ant may help her get close enough to pounce.
Whatever it is, these ant-mimicking spiders of which there are hundreds of described species
are super cool!
Don't you think?
Ok, so this wasn't our big, black carpenter ant!
Let's move on!
Plus, we still needed to find some wild Dark Knights, Maldives chapter!
Speaking of which, AC Family want to hear something cool?
Alright, so it made total sense that the Dark Knights, commonly known as black crazy ants
would be found here in Maldives.
If you were ever wondering if ants take tropical beach vacation getaways the answer is yes,
they do, only they end up staying at these tropical destinations, and black crazy ants
happen to be the ultimate world vacationers.
You see at one point these Maldivian islands had their native set of ants species like
the Pheidole ants, but as soon as the islands began to develop and later turn into a tourist
destination, it opened its borders to immigrant ants.
With human tourists, come the need for the importation of supplies, including food items,
building materials, decorative plants and trees, and pretty much everything and anything
that people can't readily acquire on these tiny islands.
During a chat with the general manager of the resort I was staying at, I was surprised
to know that twice a week, huge barges of supplies are shipped into the island to stock
the resort with everything they need.
And of course, with these supplies, can come tiny ant vacationers traveling for free.
All it takes is one pregnant queen ant, or even whole colonies inhabiting any of the
goods coming in, for a colony of immigrant ants to establish themselves on a small island.
They can even be hiding in something as simple as a garbage can on a boat.
And low and behold, near a school in one of the local communities, I saw some naturalized
Maldivian citizens of Dark Knights.
As was described to me by the locals they moved in huge swarms with such vigor and power!
Having whole armies of immigrant ants like these black crazy ants move in to a new place
can be problematic for the local ecosystem especially for a small island, because they
can displace, kill, or out-compete native ants, which already have stable relationships
with the plants and animals around them.
Imagine if these black crazy ants wipe out a native species of ant that a certain species
of plant depends on to disperse its seeds or pollinate to bear fruit?
Or what if these black crazy ants have a taste for creatures that native ants typically leave
alone?
Black Crazy Ants, though we love our Dark Knights, actually pose dangers to ecosystems
especially on small islands around the world, because of the fact that they are such avid
world travelers.
And so are these ants, ghost ants!
Tapinoma melanocephalum.
These tiny bundles of energy are called ghost ants because of their semi-transparent gasters
which make them look like floating heads.
Ghost ants are also notorious world travelers having established themselves in subtropical
and tropical regions around the world.
I spotted them forming a massive trail running up and down this tree and towards the beach!
And here is exactly what I was talking about!
AC Family, look!
It looks like these ghost ants have stolen the bounty of some larger Maldivian native
ant, and have formic acid sprayed it to immobilization.
I watched as it kicked and struggled in pain, as the ghost ants feasted on what was supposed
to be a meal for the native ant's colony.
Scenes like this are heart-breaking, but it's part of the natural world where the survival
of the fittest rule reigns supreme.
So what are people doing now to try to stop ant tourism?
Surely, for islands like Maldives, human tourism is an important industry, bringing the nation
a steady amount of income, but how do we protect the native ecosystems from falling apart due
to invasive, tourist ants to these small islands like those of Maldives.
So, to deal with that, prior to landing in Maldives, I was surprised to see that the
Maldivian government required all planes coming in to be sprayed with a pesticide.
If you find it weird that they would do that, check out this huge spider that flew with
me sandwiched between the two panes of glass making up my plane window.
The flight staff told me, they had watched that spider grow, which means, beyond the
mystery of how it got in there in the first place, it was actually feeding on a regular
supply of insects!
Fact is, insects can be anywhere and travel thousands of miles with people more often
than one would think.
Also, thankfully, most countries are strict with what fauna enter and leave its borders.
Our GAN Project, which has supplied thousands of ant keepers with ants for their ant farms
also aims at reducing the black market trade of ant colonies as pets to private owners,
to help stop the migration of foreign ants to new places, by connecting local ant keepers.
But no other sight spoke the message of the need for preservation of native ants and ecosystems
as clearly and beautifully as this next scene you are about to see, AC Family.
At the base of one of the trees, near the ocean, I spotted something totally magical!
It was a huge, black ant!
We found our native Camponotus ant.
Wow!
Look at how gorgeous it was!
But then I noticed something even cooler!
It was attending to some small tiny pink creatures, and that's when I realized, AC Family, that
OMG, this carpenter ant was milking a mealy bug.
What we are witnessing here was a carpenter ant milking an ant cow!
You see the mealy bugs feed from the juices within this tree root and if you look carefully,
you will see the ant gently stroking the mealy bug with its antennae.
This stroking eventually causes the mealy big to release a sweet secretion called honeydew,
a bi-product, which the ant drinks up cum gusto!
I have never been able to film this beautiful act of symbiosis this close.
You can almost see the small appendage of the mealy bug running through the ants' mouth
parts.
Is that like an ant cow teat?
I watched for a long time as the carpenter ant milked the mealy bug then left to visit
other mealy bug sites that it knew, including this one which was a mealy bug with baby mealy
bug calves around her!
Isn't this all just unbelievable.
An ant farmer with her ant cows, AC Family.
In order to preserve these beautiful and important moments of nature, as has been the common
message these days, we humans do need to be mindful of our activities as key players in
the natural world.
The final ants I saw as I left Maldives a few days ago, were some native black ants
of which I didn't know the species, relocating a dead Maldivian native carpenter ant to an
area not blocking one of their foraging trails.
They were cleaning up!
This made me think, hey if tiny ants can work together at cleaning up a mess that isn't
theirs, why do we people have such problems working together to clean up our own?
It's ant love forever.
Yes!
AC Family, thanks for watching another week of ant discovery!
Hope you guys are enjoying your holidays!
What types of ants have you guys seen while on vacation?
Let me know in the comments!
AC Inner Colony, I have left a hidden cookie for you here, if you would just like to watch
a super cool video of ants and other creatures I shot in the wilderness and oceans of Maldives!
And before we proceed to the AC Question of the Week, in case you haven't heard yet, our
annual Christmas Sale at AntsCanada.com is still in full effect but there are only two
days left!
This year we have a great sale on our brand new Hybrid Nest 2.0 and our All You Need Formica
Hybrid Nest Gear Pack!
So if you've always wanted to get into ant keeping, I have left links in the description
box to these sale items so you can pick one up for yourself or someone you love.
We ship worldwide, but this sale ends this weekend, so do place your order in, and we
also have gift cards in case you would like to get your special loved one an ant setup
but are not sure what they would like.
I would love for you guys to keep ants with me and discover these amazing creatures that
live in your neighbourood!
Alright, and now it's time for the AC Question of the week!
Last week we asked:
Which of our ant colonies was the first to receive their
Christmas gift?
Now this was a trick question because a lot of you answered the Fire Nation which indeed
was the first recipient of their Christmas gift in the video, but congratulations to
MobileChampion 21 who correctly answered:
The Golden Empire
It was mentioned in the video that the Gold Play Button was considered the Golden Empire's
early Christmas gift, hence they technically were the first.
Congratulations MobileChampion 21, you just won a free ebook handbook from our shop!
In this week's AC Question of the Week, we ask:
Name any of the two species of ants in this video that are not
native to Maldives Islands.
Leave your answer in the comments section and you could also 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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