15 replies to this topic

[Hightlyze]

My mom has no idea what plaster is so I'm kinda out of luck...

[TennesseeAnts]

Cement will work, just add some perilite to it to make it lighter and more absorbent.

[Serafine]

If his mum doesn't know what plaster is I'm fairly sure she doesn't know what perlite is either...

[drtrmiller]

Cement is a material commonly found in commercial formicaries; Ytong/AAC is made from aerated cement.

[TennesseeAnts]

Cement is a material commonly found in commercial formicaries; Ytong/AAC is made from aerated cement.

Is aerated cement found in hardware stores? Or do you literally just aerate cement?

Edited by Ant_Dude2908, April 3 2019 - 6:55 AM.

[GeorgeK]

 

Is aerated cement found in hardware stores? Or do you literally just aerate cement?

 

It's sold as building material, in premade blocks. Usually stores sell at least a palette or more since its used for building houses but some companies sell them per piece ( ytong ).

[drtrmiller]

Is aerated cement found in hardware stores? Or do you literally just aerate cement?

Yes, the composition is in the name. Air + cement.

It's not used much in the United States, though. Very common building material elsewhere in the world.

Edited by drtrmiller, April 3 2019 - 7:38 AM.

[TennesseeAnts]

Is aerated cement found in hardware stores? Or do you literally just aerate cement?

Yes, the composition is in the name. Air + cement.

So I can just make AAC? Awesome. So how to aerate it properly?

[GeorgeK]

 

 

Is aerated cement found in hardware stores? Or do you literally just aerate cement?

Yes, the composition is in the name. Air + cement.

So I can just make AAC? Awesome. So how to aerate it properly?

 

They're mixture of sand and cement and water. As far as I've seen, once its poured, its mixed for 15 minutes with mixer that really just looks like big cake mixer. After that you'd have to dry it for few hours on 60*C after which you're supposed to put it in another chamber under 11 bars of pressure and 190*C for it to dry another 18-20 hours. After that it should be dried on room temperature for another 28 days.

Edited by GeorgeK, April 3 2019 - 8:08 AM.

[TennesseeAnts]

Oooook. Guess I'm not doing that lol.

[drtrmiller]

If you're making the autoclaved variety, that sounds about right.

 

But a suitable replacement can also be made without an autoclave, in which it would just become autoclaved aerated concrete.

[Barristan]

This is a nice tutorial how to build an ant nest out of concrete (concrete is cement + water + sand + gravel):

 

Even if you don't understand German you should be able to follow the tutorial by just the pictures.

 

A nest made out of concrete is very heavy but ants can't chew through it, despite nests made out of plaster and even ytong.

 

My Camponous nicobarensis colony lived some time in such a nest (the youtuber sent me one as present):

 

 

In the upper right chamber you can see canula through which water can be inserted. A version with a water tower would be even better I guess.

Edited by Barristan, April 3 2019 - 8:21 AM.

[Studio]

Keep in mind if you live in America, it's advised to stay away from most hardware store concrete mixes. Most of the ones we use here aren't aerated and doesn't hold or distribute moisture very well. Those who've used these cement in the past have had their colonies die out. The only cement that I know that works for ants are Ytong/AAC. If anybody knows if there are other types of cement that can be used for formicariums I would like to know as well. 

[dspdrew]

Cement would work great as long as you don't expect it to absorb water, and you don't care how heavy it is. No ant species will be chewing through that. I plan to make a very large nest from concrete one of these days.

[aznphenom]

Cement would work great as long as you don't expect it to absorb water, and you don't care how heavy it is. No ant species will be chewing through that. I plan to make a very large nest from concrete one of these days.

Have anyone made their cement formicarium? I just bought a formicarium made of portland cement and a fellow antkeeper said that cement can be toxic and from his personal experience and research. No one has successfully done it.

[ANTdrew]

Barristan posted pictures and video of a successful cement formicarium in this thread.