Casting an Ant Colony in a Stump with Molten Aluminum (Anthill Art Cast #121)

An amazing aluminum cast is made of an ant colony built on the side of a large tree stump. This is the possibly the craziest cast I’ve ever attempted and definitely the most challenging. This is a field ant colony (species Formica pallidefulva) with a single entrance tunnel right up against a large oak stump. Around 22 lb of aluminum was melted and it ended up taking around 10 lb to fill the colony. I didn’t know how exactly how to go about getting the cast out but I knew 1) I can cut wood and 2) I can dig dirt. So, how hard can it be? Turns out, it can be really hard.

I started to dig and cut initially, before deciding that doing that was going to be too difficult. Then I tried burning for two days and that seemed way too slow. I was posting my progress to my Facebook page and someone suggested drilling holes to make vents in the wood to target certain pieces, which I tried. Then it occurred to me that if I drilled into a section of wood from two angles, I could be fairly sure I wasn’t cutting into the cast if I cut down the line of the drill holes. These ants don’t tunnel in wood and the colony is only in the dirt pockets, so if I’m drilling and I hit dirt then I know not to cut to that depth. I don’t show the drilling much in the video but I’m doing that before most cuts. That’s why you see so many holes in the wood.

I actually didn’t plan on keeping the cast in the wood until the very end, which is why I wasn’t worrying too much about the damage I was doing to it. All for the better though because it would have taken much longer and probably wouldn’t have turned out as cool if I had planned to keep it in the wood. Toward the end, when I’m cutting on the back side of the cast, I still didn’t know if there would be a piece of cast sticking out on that side, once I saw that it was all contained well within the wood, I decided to keep it in the wood.

The cast has two main sections: the piece that comes out of the front and a more hidden piece that runs straight down in a vertical void in the wood. I only discovered that second piece after washing it.

It took ten days from the pour for the cast to be removed from the ground, around 40 hours worth of work. Some of that time was setting up cameras and even more of it was me scratching my head though.

Figuring out the mounting was a major task for me. I settled on drilling 3/4” holes on three sides of the wood and inserting oak dowels, as close to horizontal as I could. Then I built the base so that it catches those oak dowels and the cast can sit upright and be stable.

The colony is around 20” deep and the weight of the aluminum is around 10 lb. The total weight of the wood and the cast was 38 lb last I checked (it’s still drying and getting lighter).

I wasn’t quite sure to what extent I should clean up the wood but I sanded it a little bit and tried to remove any splinters. I started to plug some of the holes but didn’t like how that was working so I just left them. I may do more work on it as it dries. I’m not too sure what’s going to happen as the wood dries and splits but I used Pentacryl to help preserve the wood and have taken other measures. We’ll see!

0:00 Intro: Stump and Colony View
0:09 Aluminum Pour
0:39 Starting to Dig
1:09 First Piece of Cast Uncovered
1:29 Starting to Vacuum
1:55 More Cast Uncovered
3:23 Cutting into the Top
4:31 Cutting Around the Upper Tunnel
5:56 Pulling with the Truck
6:38 Removing the Cast
7:11 Washing
7:42 Final View of the Cast/Display
7:58 Display and Stats

[IsaacC]

Every ant was harmed during the production of this video.

[maskiert]

If you watch this video backwards it's about a man assembling a tree stump before sucking the life out of it

[TexasTimelapse]

I'll bet that's the last time you pour a cast around a tree. That was a ton of work, but it came out looking cool.

[PlacestobeVG]

And the ants thought the huge tree base would provide them a safe haven

[Benita]

Imagine seeing a huge wave of silver metallic lava rushing through your nest

[Cypher]

Boss says this is a pretty good spot for our anthill… and it’s under a giant tree stump so there’s no way anybody can get to us down there… 🐜

[murloc_rampage]

Did you hear it? The beauty of it? Millions of voices, screaming in shock only to be silenced. Forever.

[crashgray]

This cast would cost $1, 000, 000 just because. Great work!

[stonegardner]

I know this must have been super hard and annoying, but the whole process and the final product were absolutely stunning and fascinating.

[darkglass]

The hatred for that ant colony must run _very_ deep if this much effort is put into recovering the proof of their destruction as a trophy.

[gathrus]

I got to say that tree is a wood workers dream. Dense old oak, you can tell that its good wood by how much of a fight ita giving you there. Great cast and extraction!

[PP-wpbx]

It would have been so much easier not to make the cast right next to a tree stump

[peepeepoopoovdbhxvbcc]

This video highlights:
- how awesome trees can get
- how awesome anthills can get
- how awesome committed artists can get

[redarrowsmk]

This is OUTRAGEOUSLY insanely cool. Your skill and the end product. Dude, make this video a short version so it at least goes viral. You deserve some time in the spotlight 😂

[tcon]

Remember kids this man does not upload often because he is lazy. But because he is the boogie man of all ants in his area. The ants everywhere fear him, and when one colony doubts his existence. They are never seen again!

[TheCenteroftheUniverse]

Man. I am 69. I have done everything from file clerk to hefting trash to pest control to rehab equipment repair in the field, including custom stuff. And I don't know whether to:

congratulate Mr. Art on having the stones to BEGIN this, given the odds of experience, or
compliment him on switching tactics, or
admire the steady hand/execution

commiserate with him at that point wherever he said, "OH spit, maybe I bit off ...", or

applaud his foresight in having the right tool no matter how weird the cut or chop or hole or ...

bow to the sheer determination it took to conceive of the cast in a continual 3-D view, for 359.9 degrees (kidding) so as to not chop/cut/wedge/drill the piece in such a way as to make it worthless, and all the effort wasted. or ...

complain because IMHO, the cluster of drill holes, at a minimum, should be all roughed out, ditto for some of the projections, etc. Though I can see, also, how after a time you're "too deep in the forest to see any trees" with a freehand project like this. It's beautiful.

[pogoJDF]

I think the beauty of this project for me is that the art (the cast) is done in a matter of minutes, but the true test, the real art is in the patience, the time and dedication, the painstaking detail, to chip away and carefully EXTRACT the piece from its casting media, hour by hour, day by d— is that a truck?

[kjjk]

Came for the ant colony cast, stayed for the never-before-seen view of a tree stump. 6:44

Hey, you got some firewood atleast outta that stump that otherwise was berift of useful materials.

Ya know, somehow, the dismantling of that stump feels personal...

[captainfury]

No one has to explain to me the nightmare of ripping out a stump. All the tools make it to the yard. It becomes a test of mental endurance not to give up after 3 chainsaw blades, blower needs servicing, hose springs a leak, the pick axe gets stuck in the roots. At some point a hair dryer is laying in the pile of tools (wtf, no idea). Combining all that with casting an anthill…kudos to you man. Nice work. ❤

[GothicPoet]

You know this can be a good way to educate people about invasive species. Fire ants can be very bad for the environment because they are easily transported to areas that are not meant for them. Fire ants are good at thriving too. They build deep colonies into the earth and even inside wood. They use the wood to farm fungus for their colony to eat. The ant queen lay's lots of eggs too. My community has had issues with fire ants going inside electrical outlets causing the electricity to stop working because they chewed the wires. We have a pest control spray and bring everyone bait traps. I buy my own bait traps now and I don't have anymore fire ants. 👍