14 replies to this topic

[Kalidas]

So I would like some advice about something, what are some alternative methods to heating your ant setups? Day time is fine in SoCal were keeping a good way 75-78f where I'm at. But nights get as cold as 55.

Money is a little tight right now till I get paid next week so shouldn't really be spending money on heating pads or heat lamps(and I'm not sure those should be on all night anyways). Currently I am just throwing some towels in the dryer to heat up and wrapping the ants in that. What are some other things I could be doing?

Maybe rocks in the oven? Maybe the towels are fine? Any ideas you all have would be awesome.

[DaveJay]

The towels are an interesting idea. My grandmother used to give us heated bricks wrapped in towels as hot water bottles for bed, I guess it would work for ants but a problem with towels or bricks might be that it's an uneven heat, it might be too many ups and downs. Also rocks and to some extent bricks can "explode" or more accurately shatter violently when heated, this can happen just from boiling them so I would be hesitant to take them up to 100c.
I have seen videos where people use the power adapters (black boxes) for their appliances as heaters for ants, that is a great idea I think although I wonder about the electrical fields interfering with them but there's no evidence to show that it does.

[Kalidas]

I struck luck tonight! Found our heating pad(for sore muscles) that had been missing for a while. I can lay the contianers on it on the lowest heat setting and cover them with a towel still to keep the heat in and slow the escape of heat.

[CoolColJ]

hot water bottle

[Kalidas]

hot water bottle

Do you think that's possible then the heating pad I found? Honestly my new concern is that maybe the heating pad(again this one is made for human muscle pain) may get too hot. I don't want to cook the ants esspecialy since lately they have been doing very well actually

[CoolColJ]

hot water bottle

Do you think that's possible then the heating pad I found? Honestly my new concern is that maybe the heating pad(again this one is made for human muscle pain) may get too hot. I don't want to cook the ants esspecialy since lately they have been doing very well actually

well just put something between the heat pad and the ants, like a towel etc
Or use a thermostat

You can just put your ants inside a box and use the pad to just heat the air up inside the box, without touching their setups

[ANTdrew]

This gave me an idea: cable TV boxes put out a lot of heat (and waste a lot of power). Maybe laying test tubes on that could work?

[CoolColJ]

You'll get mass amounts of condensation

Edited by CoolColJ, November 2 2018 - 2:00 PM.

[DaveJay]

This gave me an idea: cable TV boxes put out a lot of heat (and waste a lot of power). Maybe laying test tubes on that could work?

I wouldn't put them on top, you'll get no temperature gradient and the ants can't escape the heat, next to the box would work better. That's the idea I mentioned though, all those black boxes put out heat to some degree so why not use it? I thought it was a good idea when I saw it in a video, I think it might have been Ants Australia showing it.

[Kalidas]

Yeah ants Australia did mention it.

Well I got two heating pads today! So we're good, but we can keep this thread going for general ideas

[DaveJay]

I have heat mats but without a thermostat I'm reluctant to use them. An accidental bumping of the control knob resulted in one becoming so hot it cracked the glass in our water dragon tank, luckily the lizard wasn't burnt, that can be fatal, they just don't seem to notice their scales are melting. If you don't have a thermostat I'd recommend taping the controls so they can't move even if they are up out of the way as mine was.

[Kalidas]

These mats don't have controls at all, it's weird. But I do have thermostats. Got two that do temp and humidity

[DaveJay]

Mats without controls are made to plug into a thermostat, the thermostat turns the power to them on and off to control the temperature. Those mats usually do not get hot enough to burn but it still pays to carefully test them before using for an animal.

[Kalidas]

I actually set an alarm to check on them. Yeah they did great and it kept their heat up all night. And you're right it's not very hot at all, which is good. Got new thermomiter/hydromiters that check temp and humidity too, also the pads are attached to a plug that I can set to only turn on during certain hours, which is what I did

Edited by Kalidas, November 3 2018 - 9:06 PM.

[ANTdrew]

I actually haven’t used any supplemental heating for my ants. They stayed really warm all summer mainly because I keep our AC to a minimum in our house for a number of reasons. I also have them up on top of a 6’ wine rack furniture in my kitchen. The minute we cook anything, all the heat rises up to where they’re kept, so an elevated spot in a kitchen could be a simple “poor man’s” heating hack.