1,000 Ants vs. Obstacles

Sarge's Tales

What would happen if you put 1,000 ants up against a series of obstacle courses? Well in this video, I put my ant colony through a series of obstacles to educate you guys about the insane abilities that ants have, and how they can work together as a team. And it was pretty insane!!!  If I used any of your copyrighted material in the video and you are not okay with it, please contact me on my business email found in my channel's description so we can reach an agreement.  Subscribe!!!!!!

Transcript

00:00I've seen videos of ants doing insane things to survive, like in this one where they built a boat

00:04out of their bodies to survive a flood, or in this one where they built a dangling bridge out

00:08of their bodies to attack a wasp nest. So I was wondering if I put my 1,000 ants into obstacle

00:14courses, will they do similar things to complete them, or are my ants just not that smart?

00:20Well, I just spent hours gathering 1,000 ants out my old ant nest, so I feel like this is the

00:25perfect opportunity to put these guys up against their first ant obstacle. Obstacle number one is

00:30this thing. Basically, what we do is put some massive dead insect food at the bottom, and then

00:35we fill it with a bunch of sand to turn it into one of those 2D ant nests. Basically, we'll be able to

00:40watch the ants dig out all sorts of tunnel systems in here, and if they actually find the insect food

00:45I hid at the bottom, then they'll pass the obstacle and move on to the next obstacles that get harder

00:50and harder as the video goes on. Now, of course, immediately, the ants all just started to try and

01:04climb the walls of the top area to try and escape, but surprisingly, many of the ants were already

01:09starting to dig down that center 2D part of the nest. Oh my gosh, this is happening so fast. Wait,

01:14is there already progress on the side of the tank? Oh, I just put these guys in literally 45 seconds

01:20ago, and they've already dug like half an inch down in. What? Yep, and if you check out this

01:25timelapse footage, you can see just how quickly they were getting work done. They literally work

01:29like mini drills to dig these tiny tunnels through the sand, but in reality, it's a tiring and grueling

01:35process where each individual grain of sand has to be picked up from a worker underground, brought all

01:40the way up to the surface through this little hole, and then dropped off at this pile of sand over

01:45here. Now, while I was recording this, it was actually getting pretty late in the day, so I decided to turn

01:49off the lights and came back the next day to see the progress made. And guys, the next day, I came

01:54back to the ant nest looking like this. Yeah, bro, what? It's been literally like eight hours. How did

02:02these ants build an entire intricate nest? And not only were all these intricate tunnel systems made,

02:09but remember those dead insects I placed at the bottom as food? Well, it's safe to say that ants

02:13found those too, and it looks like the whole colony had swarmed them and had already started to devour

02:18them. And since they got to the insects, that technically means they passed this first obstacle.

02:23Congratulations, guys. It happened so fast. I literally didn't even capture that on camera.

02:27Oh, but this next obstacle the ants are going up against will definitely be caught on camera because

02:33the next obstacle is the tightrope of doom. Yes, you heard that right. And if you're wondering what

02:39that is, well, it's this thing. Yup, the ants will have to walk across this extremely narrow tightrope

02:45over a pit filled with fire and flames. Oh, I got to put that out. Oh, yup, yup, put that out.

02:53Oh, get up. Are you going to go out? Um, no, I'm just kidding. That would be crazy. These are

02:57literally my pets. I would never do that. But I will be trapping the ants down here if they fall

03:01by lining the walls of this pit with this super slippery liquid stuff called fluon. I know you

03:06can't really see this stuff since it's invisible, but basically when an ant tries to walk up on here now,

03:11it'll just slip off completely. Yeah, this stuff is super slippery. And you guys are about to see

03:15why this challenge gets so interesting in a second. But if you look over at the 2D ant nest,

03:20you'll actually see I have a little hole here plugged up with some paper towels. And if you also

03:25like here, I got some tubing, meaning I can connect this to the obstacle. So yeah, let's just get this

03:30obstacle started. Come on ants, let's get in here. Immediately after plugging in the tubing,

03:34obviously ants noticed and started walking in. I mean, there's a thousand ants. You can't even get away

03:39from them for a second. So that's what makes these obstacles fun because it only took like 10

03:43seconds till our first ant entered the tightrope of doom tank. Now to pass this obstacle, the ants

03:48quite literally just need to get one of these pieces of insect legs back across the tightrope,

03:53which I think might be impossible, but let's see how they do. Now I'm not going to lie. The ants

03:57started off with some pretty lackluster performance because our first ants that made it to this tightrope

04:03didn't actually walk onto it. They kind of just walked around it on the corner of this platform where

04:08they just ended up just slipping off. Uh, yeah, come on guys. What are you doing? But we got a

04:12thousand ants. So I was expecting at least one of these ants to eventually step onto this tightrope,

04:17but as tons more ants started to walk into this room, um, yeah, they kind of all just did the same

04:21exact thing. And the pits started to get absolutely filled up with tons of ants. Come on ants, what are

04:27you doing? No, I'm just kidding. I think this is actually my fault. And to make them walk across the

04:31tightrope, I just got to fix something. Let me show you how to fix it. Basically what I did was first of

04:35all taped two extra pieces of string to the tightrope to make it a bit thicker. So the ants

04:39would feel safer when they walked on it. And also I rubbed this insect jelly food on the tightrope to

04:44make the bridge smell like jelly. And, uh, yeah, hopefully this will make them want to walk on it.

04:49Now this worked exactly how I wanted it to, because within the first minute, our first workers actually

04:53started to walk onto the tightrope and explored it just very slowly. But over time, more and more ants

05:00started to walk onto it. And it was actually kind of funny because sometimes the ants would literally

05:04just be hanging from each other's legs because there would just be way too many on the tightrope

05:08at the same time. Dang, these ants aren't very good at saving their friends. But it didn't take

05:13long for our first brave ant to actually make it to the end of this tightrope. That wasn't even half

05:18of the challenge because now, if you remember, the ants actually got to pick up one of these insect legs

05:22and bring them back across the tightrope. And this ant clearly wasn't looking too interested in that

05:27because yeah, he was just completely ignoring them. So I kept waiting until some more ants made it to the

05:31side by crossing the tightrope. And surprisingly, one of the ants that made it actually did seem

05:36interested in the legs because he went up to one of them and actually started to bite it. But if you

05:40couldn't tell, this leg is kind of way too big for this worker to carry it all by himself. And for some

05:44reason, even after tons of ants made it onto this side, none of them came to help this poor worker move

05:50the leg. But this worker had a mission. He knew he needed to take a leg back to the colony. So what he did

05:55was he went up to one of the smaller insect legs that he could actually carry by himself. And he

06:00actually picked it up and started to walk. Yep. Yeah, it wasn't super efficient or anything, but

06:06theoretically, he could pass this obstacle for the entire colony if he played his cards right and played

06:11his cards right. He did because I'm not joking. He walked straight over to the tightrope and he might

06:16have had an extremely close call where he almost fell off, but somehow he managed to save himself. And

06:21then the ant actually started to walk across the tightrope with an insect leg in his mouth. Oh my gosh,

06:27guys, this is genuinely so insane. I am rooting for you, bro. I mean, you got a long way to go.

06:32But guys, the ants were doing so awful up to this point. You could see how many fell into the pit of

06:36doom. Bro, this dude, he's just an absolute killer. Yep. Literally none of the 1,000 ants decided to help

06:42this dude. He was doing this entirely solo. And so he kept on marching, completely ignoring any ants that

06:49were in his way. And this dude made it all the way to the end of the tightrope where he then

06:54walked onto the platform to complete the obstacle. Oh my gosh, this ant is insane. Seriously, I got

07:01to name this guy. I think I'm going to name him Antony. And we're probably never going to be able

07:04to find Antony again since all the ants look the same. But seriously, everyone spammed some Ws in

07:10the comments for Antony. That was so insane. Since these guys beat the obstacle, I'm going to give

07:14him the insect's legs as a prize. Thanks, Antony. Hopefully you guys enjoy. So I quickly moved all the

07:20fallen soldiers back to the 2D ant nest. And well, this colony is now ready for its third

07:25obstacle. And oh boy, am I excited for this one. Because guys, these ants are going to have to

07:30break into a vault. Yeah, like a robbery, basically. Yep, you heard that right. A vault. For this

07:36obstacle, I literally built up a DIY bank vault from scratch out of paper that I knew the ants would

07:41probably be able to break into. You can see it's pretty good. Sort of looks like a real vault. And

07:46anyways, it's cool because the door actually opens. So I could fill this bank vault with an

07:51absolutely insane amount of seeds. Yeah, I put so many seeds in here. Because yeah, apparently seeds

07:56are this species of ants' favorite food. So they should absolutely swarm this thing. But I got this

08:01hot glue gun so I could seal this vault door shut because I got to make this actually a kind of hard

08:05obstacle. So let me just go and put some glue on here. Oh yeah, just like that. All right, the vault

08:11is completely sealed shut with glue now. So let's see if these ants can actually get the seeds out of

08:17it. This is going to be a very interesting to watch. So yeah, I just put it in. And as you can

08:22imagine, the 1000 ant colony immediately started to climb onto it. Especially when things are put into

08:27colonies nests, they need to investigate it to make sure it's not a threat. And with this, I think they

08:32pretty much immediately knew it wasn't a threat because none of them were biting it or anything. And

08:36actually, a lot of them were just using it as an opportunity to climb out of the enclosure. But

08:41that's not good. Um, but yeah, the vault right now is pretty sealed shut. And I don't even think

08:44the ants knew that there were seeds inside of here. So nothing really eventful happened, to be

08:49honest. Okay, this is not exactly going to plan. I'm just going to take this box and put it in there.

08:54Oh, I didn't crush any ants. Okay, and then let me scoop up all the ants that fell off. So yeah,

08:59I got all those fallen soldiers back into the nest, of course. Well, that didn't exactly work so well,

09:04but I kind of knew it wasn't going to work so well. So that's why I came equipped with this stuff.

09:08See, basically, it's a cup of water and a big cup of sugar, which I'm going to pour into the water.

09:13Then basically, I can mix the water and sugar around to make sugar water, which ants love the

09:19smell and taste of. And using this paintbrush, I actually just want to go and paint our vault with

09:24it. And basically, this will make the vault not only taste like sugar, but it will also just make

09:28it kind of soggy since it's made out of paper. And it should make it able so the ants can chew through

09:33it and stuff and get to the seeds. So yeah, I absolutely just soaked this vault in the sugar

09:37water. And without wasting any time, I got this thing in the nest. All right, ants, let's see

09:42how you do this time. And oh boy, were things a lot more interesting this time around, because

09:46right away, tons more ants were way more interested. You can see how after the ants would walk onto the

09:51vault, they would just completely stand still. That's because they were putting their mouth up to

09:56the paper and were just completely licking all the sugar off the paper. Um, yeah, this is not really

10:01what I had in mind. I thought this was going to make them want to completely chew through the paper,

10:05not lick it. But yeah, so many ants got their fair share of the sugar. However, I didn't see a single

10:11ant even trying to find or even acknowledge that there were seeds inside of here. Well, that was

10:16until this moment when you see this hole here. Well, just out of nowhere, an ant just came up to it

10:21and walked into the hole. And yeah, there was just an ant inside of this vault with the absolute

10:27jackpot of seeds. I don't know how this hole got here. I guess maybe the sogginess from the sugar

10:32water made it droop or something. But wow, that is crazy. Oh my gosh, wait, I think the ants just

10:37completed the obstacle. Let me get all the excess ants off this safe real quick. And yeah, once the

10:42extra ants had fallen off, I cut open the vault to see if that ant had actually made it inside. And as

10:47you can see, he absolutely had made it inside. Oh my gosh, bro, your colony has no clue how much you

10:53just clutched up for them. Wait, imagine if this is Anthony, that same ant that beat the obstacle

10:58course. That would be insane. But I mean, I don't know if this is the same ant. But anyways, W ant.

11:02So yeah, I just went and poured the entire vault to loot pile onto the 2D ant nest. And well,

11:07the ants have been rewarded with the absolute mother load of food up to this point. But I've

11:11been saving the craziest obstacle for last to really find out how smart my ant colony actually is.

11:17And this final one is the floor is lava. Yup, the floor is lava. And thankfully,

11:22I already have it built right here. This is the final obstacle. And you may be wondering,

11:27bruh, Derek, where is the lava? Well, the lava is these strips of red on the floor right here. You

11:32see, these are actually extremely sticky pieces of tape. And if the ants try to walk on them, well,

11:37they're going to get stuck, of course. So if the ants want to get to the strawberries that I put at the

11:41end of the obstacle, they're going to have to use one of the three tools I provided for them to figure

11:46out how they can maybe cross this lava. Or maybe they'll make a crazy bridge out of their bodies to

11:50cross it. Who knows? Anyways, I wanted to make sure most of these guys actually participated.

11:55So I spent the past few hours individually picking up each of the ants from the ant nest and

12:00transporting them into this container. Or at least as many as I can get. The rest are kind of under

12:04there. That way, they could be easily transported. But before pouring these guys in, I just want to

12:10tell you guys that the Terror Green merch is actually, um, really awesome. I know I always say

12:15it, but seriously, we got some pretty cool animal plushies. Anyways, I just wanted to remind you,

12:19if you wanted to get this stuff before Christmas or before the end of the year, make sure to buy

12:22it ASAP so we can make sure we ship it to you just in time for that. But anyways, seriously guys,

12:27thanks for the support so much. And let's get back to doing this crazy final obstacle. Anyways,

12:31I wasted no time and I just dumped the ant straight in. If you can't tell, I actually changed the design

12:36of the obstacle a little bit. Cause if you remember that red tape, well, I actually replaced it with an

12:41even stickier and thicker kind of tape to make sure these ants wouldn't be able to just walk across.

12:45Anyways, let's see how they do. As you can probably guess, lots of the ants immediately went up to the

12:50tape and partially got stuck in the front. But don't worry guys, I'll be watching the ants throughout

12:55this obstacle and any of the ants that looks like they get super stuck in the middle, I'll be picking

13:00up with these tweezers and moving back at the start so they don't get stuck in here permanently

13:04and hurts. Anyways, to actually cross this tape, like I said earlier, I gave these ants different

13:09tools. Like a pile of dirt, some pieces of string, and even some wood chips to see if they'd be

13:15smart enough to actually use these things to their advantage to cross the piece of tape. And while it

13:20may look like the ants are not using the tools here, if you look very closely down here near the

13:25dirt, they've actually already started to push this pile of dirt onto the tape to make a little bridge

13:30that they can walk onto. If they keep building up this bridge, they would actually be able to cross

13:34this with no problem whatsoever. But right when I was filming this, I actually noticed that an ant

13:41had actually been walking across the tape and somehow had made it extremely close to the end.

13:46Um, yeah, I have no clue how this ant just managed to ignore the stickiness of this tape. I guess his

13:51legs were just extremely strong or something because he got all the way to the end where he had a bit

13:56of trouble pulling himself off the tape, but eventually he was able to do it. And wow, well,

14:01this ant just technically passed the obstacle. Oh my gosh, bro. I didn't even see this ant,

14:07but I mean, he just passed the obstacle. I guess that's fair and square. Good job, bro. Why is it

14:12to pass three obstacles? It's been a single ant that's clutched it up for the entire colony. But

14:17anyways, I got to get all these guys off the tape so they aren't hurt at all. So yeah, I got them all

14:22picked up into a container and transported them back to their nest safely. All right, because you guys

14:26beat it, I'm going to give you this piece of the strawberry. And because the ants beat all of the

14:30obstacles I gave them, I'm going to be giving them this brand new ant nest. Basically, it's just a bit more

14:36compact and it has a cool outworld on the top. And I think it's just a bit more optimal for them.

14:40So I'm going to go and move them in there. Anyways, hopefully you guys were entertained

14:43and learned something new about ants in this video. Remember guys, the tarot green merch,

14:47you got to get it soon if you want to get it before Christmas or before the end of the year. But yeah,

14:51other than that, I think this video was pretty cool. And hopefully you guys saw that too.

14:55And yeah, have a good day. Jet says goodbye to everybody. Huh, Jet? Say bye, Jet.

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