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"The Real Ant Farm" is the 6th episode of Season 6 of the PBS Kids show Wild Kratts. It is the 144th episode of the series overall. It premiered on November 6, 2019. On August 16, 2022, "The Real Ant Farm" was first released on DVD as part of PBS KIDS: Play Date Triple Feature!
Summary[]
Martin, Chris, and Aviva go on an adventure into the Amazon Rainforest, where they find a hidden world of busy leafcutter ants, farming for the colony. The team learns about agriculture in nature, and these ants must clip leaves to bring back food. But Zach has other ideas and wants to use them for robotic ants to take food from farms as means of harvest.
Plot[]
The episode opens with the Kratt brothers in the Amazon Rainforest, looking for a particular creature on the forest floor. That creature happens to be a leafcutter ant. And if you're looking leafcutter ants, you'll likely find a lot. Leafcutter ants are always hard at work. In fact, they even make paths from the nest to places with places lots of leaves. Everything about leafcutter ants is amazing from their strength to their social hierarchy. The bros then wonder what it would be like to have leafcutter ant powers and the show transitions into the cartoon segment.
In North America, Koki and Jimmy Z are helping Wild Kratts Kid Scarlett work on her family's farm. Right now, they're harvesting crops from carrots to tomatoes. However, Chris, Martin, and Aviva are in South America checking out a different kind of farm. But Jimmy claims that the three of them are just goofing off.
In the Amazon Rainforest, Chris Kratt is swinging through the forest canopy with Spider Monkey Power while Martin Kratt is miniaturized and flying in the Rocket Jet. They've brought Aviva with them to observe the leafcutter ant. The trio observe with fascination as the ants collect chunks of leaves from high up in the rainforest canopy. And a leaf chunk that an ant is carrying can be as heavy as she is. Ants are incredibly strong for their size. But a soldier ant grabs Martin when he gets to close to the worker ants. Thankfully, Chris is there to help his brother. Now, if the Wild Kratts want to figure where the ants are taking the leaves, they'll need to join the workers. So Aviva gets started on programming Leafcutter Ant Power, just as Chris deactivates his suit.
Meanwhile at Varmitech Industries, Zach Varmitech is spying on the Wild Kratts in the Amazon Rainforest and Scarlett's farm at the same time. He quickly gains interest in the hardworking leafcutter ants. And he plans to use them to robotic ant farmers to collect every vegetable from every farm around the world. With these robot ants, the evil inventor will be able to take over the farming industry. So, Zach and his Zachbots quickly head off to the Amazon Rainforest to collect leafcutter ants.
Back in the Amazon, Chris watches the ants through a magnifying glass. He can see that some ants have different body forms, each with a specific job. The worker ants are responsible for gathering the leaves while the bigger soldier ants protect the workers from harm. Aviva works to add the ants' different body shapes in the Leafcutter Ant Power programming. But Martin shows her another ant body form: extra small worker ants! Their job to clean the leaf chunks of parasites as the regular sized workers carry them. And the little guys even ward off parasitic flies from their bigger counterparts. As soon as the Leafcutter Ant Power Disc is finished, Aviva gives it to Chris to test it. He activates Leafcutter Ant Power and even tries all three forms. But right now, he just needs to be a standard worker to follow the ants. The younger Kratt Brother then senses a pheromone trail that workers are leaving with his antennae. And Martin is eager to join the workers. So, Aviva prints two discs for him and herself. Unbeknownst to the Wild Kratts, however, Zach and his robots arrive to steal as many leafcutter ants as they can. As Chris, Martin, and Aviva follow along, they eventually end up at the underground nest of the leafcutter ant. The trio heads inside to find out what three ants do with the leaves they collect.
Meanwhile, Zach needs to a way to collect the ants carefully. After all, there are fragile creatures. So, one Zachbot suggests setting up traps. And the evil inventor has his other robots go out to gather every last ant in the rainforest.
Back at the ant nest, the Wild Kratts take their leaf chunks to a chamber where they give the clippings to the tiny worker ants where they break them down into a goo like a farmer preparing soil. And in North America, Koki, Jimmy, and Scarlett are do something similar by mixing a fertilizer in with the soil on the farm.
Leafcutter ants have been practicing agriculture millions and millions of years before humans started doing it. So what do ants grow on the goo on they make? The answer is fungus! And that's what leafcutter ants eat, solely. Martin helps deliver some fungus to the ant larvae while Chris and Aviva plant a new garden. On the farm in North America, Koki and Scarlett dig trenches in the vegetable beds so that Jimmy can drop in tomato seeds. As Scarlett heads off to get more seeds, the computer programmer calls Aviva who shares what she has learned. But then, the creature inventor is shocked to discover that there isn't a single ant in sight outside the nest. All the leafcutter ants are gone!
On Zach's jet, the evil inventor is overseeing the production of his robotic ant farmers. Each robot is powered by one leafcutter ant. Then, Zach uses his mind-control programming to sync up the ant brains with the robotic bodies. As soon as he has good amount of robots at his disposal, the villain lands at Scarlett's farm to take over the harvest.
In the rainforest, the situation is desperate. If there aren't worker ants, they'll be no one to bring leaves to the nest or maintain the fungus, and the gardens will eventually die. And if the fungus goes, the whole ant colony will perish. It's not abnormal for predators like tamanduas, birds, reptiles, and frogs to eat ants. What is abnormal is for every ant to disappear at once. What could've happened to them? Suddenly, Koki calls Aviva and the Kratt brothers and tells them Zach is using the leafcutter ants in one of his dastardly endeavors. So, Martin and Aviva take the Rocket Jet to Scarlett's farm to stop the villain while Chris stays behind to protect the remainder of the ant colony. In North America, two of Zach's ant-bots capture Koki and Jimmy in their mandibles. And the evil inventor sends the rest of his army to collect every veggie on the farm and take them to his jet.
Back at the nest, Chris alerts the ant queen of the situation and tells her to keep doing her job, which is to constantly lay eggs. Then, the green Kratt Brother has the princess ants, or ants with wings as a Plan B in case the colony can't be saved. Each one takes some fungus for the road to grow their gardens and start their own colonies.
After arriving in North America, Martin and Aviva enlarge to human size to tackle Zach's robot ants. But the villain didn't just capture worker ants. He also abducted soldier ants too. So the older Kratt brother switches to soldier ant mode to battle the ant-bots. Pretty soon, the robot ants are starting to get weak because the ants inside are hungry. The Zachbots try to feed them some vegetables, but that's not going to work. Leafcutter ants only eat specially cultivated fungus. The only way to save them was to get Zach's remote. So, Aviva switches to tiny worker ant mode while Martin keeps the villain distracted. The bio-engineer manages to snatch Zach's remote and disables the ant-bots, freeing Koki and Jimmy in the process. Angrily, the evil inventor abandons his plan and retreats with his Zachbots. But even with Zach gone, the leafcutter ants are still in trouble. Without any fungus to eat, they'll die. Luckily, Chris arrives in princess ant mode with a large helping of fungus just in time. And Aviva releases the ants from the robot bodies so they can chow down.
Later that evening, the Wild Kratts enjoy a healthy snack of vegetables, feeling satisfied after a job well done. The leafcutter ants are safe from Zach, and so is Scarlett's farm. And after snack time's, and the team plans to take the leafcutter ants back to the Amazon Rainforest so that they can keep doing what they do best. All while living free and in the wild.
Characters[]
Animals[]
Animation[]
Note: Featured animals are in bold.
Mentioned[]
Note: Mentioned animals are linked to Wikipedia.
Live Action Images[]
Note: Live action animals are linked to Wikipedia.
Live Action[]
Note: Live action animals are linked to Wikipedia.
- Smoky jungle frog (called smoky frog)
- Southern tamandua (called tamandua anteater)
Trivia[]
- This is the first ant adventure in the series.
- When Zach's ant-bots take over the farm and capture Koki and Jimmy with their pinchers, Jimmy shouts "Hey careful, man! I've got a beverage." This is a reference to the movie The Big Lebowski.
Key Facts and Creature Moments[]
- Leafcutter ants cut leaves up with their jaws and bring the leaves back to the nest in order to use them like fertilizer to grow a special type of fungus for food.
- Leafcutter ants only eat the special white fungi they cultivate in their nests.
- Leafcutter ants have different roles in their society: Workers collect leaves, taking care of the larvae and cultivating fungi farms. Soldiers have huge heads and jaws for defending the colony from predators. Small workers for defence against parasites. Queen ants are the mothers of the colony and mainly produce eggs. Princess ants are future queen ants that will fly to start new colonies elsewhere.
- Ants will leave pheromone trails for other ants to follow.
- Leafcutter ants cutting leaves and taking them back to the colony.
- Ant predators include tamanduas, some birds, and reptiles.
- Leafcutter ants farming white fungus.
Home Media[]
DVD[]
- PBS Kids Favorites Play Date Triple Feature
- PBS Kids: Barnyard Buddies