Three Fire Ant Colony Casting Session, Part 1: Big Colonies Hidden Under Small Hills

In this video I cast a cluster of three fire ant colonies with aluminum. This is the first cast of the three. I had expected these to be fairly small and was surprised by the size of all of them, especially this first one. To dig their colonies, the ants remove dirt while digging underground tunnels and use that dirt to build the surface mound. In general, larger fire ant colonies have larger surface mounds but this can be deceiving. Rain can wash away the dirt of the mound leaving a large colony with a smaller-than-expected mound.

This is Anthill Art Cast #117 and reached a depth of 14.5” (37 cm) and weighed 9.9 lb (4.5 kg). More pictures can be seen here: https://www.anthillart.com/castings/117/