33 replies to this topic

[ANTdrew]

Mikey Bustos keeps most if not all his big colonies in natural soil vivariums, not AC formicariums.

[TennesseeAnts]

You could give the ants substrate in an AC setup too. that would alleviate the formic acid thing. Grout could be spread over the bottom of the tunnels too. (as long as you didn't cover the moisture holes.)
 
I have a 500 worker (can't count the brood) C. chromaiodes colony in an AC setup and they seem to be doing ok so far. AC does recommend not using a nest area more than 2 years though.
 
I have a "Grand Plan" setup I wanna do but I'm gonna be awhile planning and implementing it.

AC is wrong in that respect. You don't need to change their nest every 2 years. Just connect a new nest for them to expand into. That is just them marketing. I have a 3 and a half year old Formica pacifica colony (that is over 3,000 strong and lots of alates!) that has spent over 2 and a half years of its life in THA setups. They span one Fortress, one Mini Hearth XL and one Discus. The fortress is their original nest. That is where they went from 15 workers and some brood, to over 150 workers with a mountain of brood in 3 months. I full on recommend Tarheelants.

[Acutus]

Unfortunately that won''t work for what I need. I need to be able to allow viewing of the essential parts of the nest!

 

Now I can see me doing stuff for my own use in a big soil and water vivarium. I used to build them for Frogs and Salamanders all the time. Unfortunately telling Children there really is a Queen in there and being able to show them makes all the difference!

 

I REALLY REALLY REALLY wanna do an Uncle Milton style nest with a Vivarium OutWorld but I'm working out the logistics for that!

[TennesseeAnts]

Tarheelants are artificial. They are either a cement mixture, or ytong. You fully customize them as well.

Edit: For Camponotus, I would recommend either Ytong as it is very natural felling, or wood.

Edited by Ant_Dude2908, June 10 2019 - 3:27 PM.

[MonsieurMaru]

Unfortunately that won''t work for what I need. I need to be able to allow viewing of the essential parts of the nest!

 

Now I can see me doing stuff for my own use in a big soil and water vivarium. I used to build them for Frogs and Salamanders all the time. Unfortunately telling Children there really is a Queen in there and being able to show them makes all the difference!

 

I REALLY REALLY REALLY wanna do an Uncle Milton style nest with a Vivarium OutWorld but I'm working out the logistics for that!

 

I am with you on this. i like being able to see inside the nest. gives you more of an idea how they are doing by being able to check what they need. Eg if there's a need for more protein food etc. 

 

Tarheelants are artificial. They are either a cement mixture, or ytong. You fully customize them as well.

Edit: For Camponotus, I would recommend either Ytong as it is very natural felling, or wood.

Tarheelants are very expensive and are also very expensive to ship to my location. (about $25-$35 shipping charges). They have really nice looking products and are more to my liking but sadly just don't want to shell out $100 for a a small mini-hearth set up. I could buy a 5-30 gallon tank with that and all other things like sand, and accessories. 

 

 

You could give the ants substrate in an AC setup too. that would alleviate the formic acid thing. Grout could be spread over the bottom of the tunnels too. (as long as you didn't cover the moisture holes.)
 
I have a 500 worker (can't count the brood) C. chromaiodes colony in an AC setup and they seem to be doing ok so far. AC does recommend not using a nest area more than 2 years though.
 
I have a "Grand Plan" setup I wanna do but I'm gonna be awhile planning and implementing it.

AC is wrong in that respect. You don't need to change their nest every 2 years. Just connect a new nest for them to expand into. That is just them marketing. I have a 3 and a half year old Formica pacifica colony (that is over 3,000 strong and lots of alates!) that has spent over 2 and a half years of its life in THA setups. They span one Fortress, one Mini Hearth XL and one Discus. The fortress is their original nest. That is where they went from 15 workers and some brood, to over 150 workers with a mountain of brood in 3 months. I full on recommend Tarheelants.

 

 

I can't afford it (cries)

 

Mikey Bustos keeps most if not all his big colonies in natural soil vivariums, not AC formicariums.

 

Yeah... You'd think he'd try to sell his products more but i do like it about him that he's not blatantly going "buy my products now!"

 

His set ups are a little too grand for me to create at the moment which is fine as i have alot of time before these queens create such a huge colony to really need something like that.

[Polyacanthus]

I made my first grout nest recently according to Crystal's guides and it turned out nicely. I bet you could find plenty of leftover grout from people's projects on Facebook marketplace or something like that. People will always buy more than they need.

Edited by Polyacanthus, June 11 2019 - 8:54 AM.

[MonsieurMaru]

caught another herculeanus queen! found her while waiting for church as i cam a bit too early.

something i am very excited for is that i caught my first camponotus nearticus queen! i injured her trying to capture her.. one of her leg is limp.. i hope she survives. i also heard they don't survive captivity very well. lets hope this goes well. she's very rare here in Canada so i was very happy.

[MonsieurMaru]

Here's their photos upon capture. 

 

Camponotus Nearticus

 

 

New Herculeanus Queen

 

[MonsieurMaru]

Sad to report that the Camponotus Nearticus and Herculeanus queens that were caught on the last post did not make it... the Herculeanus queen managed to lay 3 eggs before passing which makes me wonder how she died.. i also can't help but blame myself for the death of the Nearticus queen since i accidentally hurt her leg.

 

For some good news, 

 

i do believe that my original camponotus herculeanus has larvae now!! and I think some small cocoons too!!

 

 

My First Camponotus Novaboreacensis has also laid even more eggs and i think some are larvae now also!

 

 

Second Camponotus Novaboreacensis is still doing well. her pile of eggs are nice and tucked away.

 

 

Now this made me extremely happy; my Camponotus Pennsylvanicus Queen has laid eggs again!!! look at her pile on the tube area on the right. she ran to the other tube to hide from me. I am so excited and i hope that they mature and help her begin her colony once again! Should i provide her with some more egg yolk (the yellow part) and some more honey water? 

 

[MonsieurMaru]

Time for an update!

 

So my Camponotus Herculeanus has had zero progress since we last saw her.. kinda making me worried.. but i will remain patient!

 

The first Camponotus Novaboreacensis - I am now officially calling it "The Wife" also has had no progress since we last saw her. I am actually worried she ate some of her eggs or she bundled them all up tighter. 

 

The second Camponotus Novaboreacensis - I am now officially calling "The Mistress" is the only one who has had a significant change. She has larvae now and they are HUGE. See below! I did't know the resolution is so big.. i need to make these smaller probably.. I will connect her testtube soon to a small outworld in preparation for her workers once they emerge.

[MonsieurMaru]

Been awhile since my last update but some news!

 

The wife is now full with cocoons and what i believe to be her first nanitic!!!! will add pics  next time.

 

The mistress seems to not be as active now and still only at eggs stage.

 

The camponotus Herculeanus is now on her first cocoon and is doing well.

 

I have made some changes to my plan for a formicarium. i might have a mold problem in the future with it but i honestly believe that nature can take its course and the ants will figure out how to de-mold their nest once they move into it. afterall, these ants are often found in rotten wood and i would assume that there's literal mold in these places.

 

so for reference, i bought a clear palstic container from ikea https://www.ikea.com...moked-50400270/

 

there will be a secondary plastic container which will house the wood slab(i cut into the size of this container) that i have carved a nest area into. over this i will place a black sheet to make the nest dark but removal so i can see inside every once inawhile.

 

in this i will put sand(if anyone has opinions on whether sand or maybe wood chips or even small gravel is better please let me know) 

 

i will be placing the testtube once the queen has 3-4 nanitics into this big container. i will not be forcing them to move into the wood slab if they don't want to as i want to avoid as much stress on the queen as possible. will post pics later once i finish making it. been too busy ...

[ANTdrew]

You could add in springtails to deal with mold. They are easy to find in rotting plant matter and easy to culture.

[MonsieurMaru]

Hello!

 

 So I've finally finished creating my first outworld/formicarium for one of my Campotonus ants namely, Camponotus Novaboeacensis (A.K.A. The Wife). 

Honestly didn't take as long as i thought it would. Would have definitely taken significantly less time if i had proper tools and would have been more cleaner but i simply don't have accessto that stuff...

 

Materials used:

 

1x slab of cottonwood

2x plastic container trays

1x ikea plastic container

sand

and misc rocks

 

Tools used:

chisel + hammer

drill

rotary blade saw thingy

glue gun

 

 

 

1.) So here i have used a Rotary saw thing and cut the wood to get the size of my plastic trays. my saw was not big enough so it didn't cut all the way...

 

 

2.) Here it is finally fitting in the tray after many... many shaving..

 

 

3.) Finally cut down to size. there was many imperfections.. but i figure no wood is perfect anyway and provides a more natural look in a rather unnatural place.

 

 

4.) so in all honestly you don't have to do this part. even better if you have the actual tool to carve into the wood which i didn't have. i only drilled this holes thinking it would make my life easier but it actually didn't LOL. 

 

 

5.) so what i did here is use a smaller circle blade saw and shaved off the size of the nest. it was alot easier but it left that brown color on the wood.. i don't think i'll do it this way again but i had no patience at this point. ( i was chiseling this prior).

 

 

6.) Here it is fit into the ikea container which i've drilled holes into for future expansions and other accesses.

 

 

7.) I used a glue gun to stick the rocks onto the container as to give the illusion that its a bit more natural.

 

 

8.) Sand is in!! this is just regular play sand. i bought it from my local hardware store and washed it in a bucket.

 

 

9.) Here it is with the accessories added for food and water. also a black piece of carton to block light once they decide to move in.

 

 

 

10.) Here they are exploring their new area! I highly doubt they will move into the formicarium anytime soon if at all(I'm hopeful). but this is okay. i don't want to disturb them as much as possible. 

 

It has definitely been a journey creating this. main delay was budget. i get like 3$ per month... lol. its not perfect but i'm happy with it and satisfied. 

The queen has laid a ton more eggs and alot of cocoons to hatch soon. she has 6 workers now. excited to share her stories to you guys ! 

Thank you for all your feedbacks and wouldn't mind some opinions regarding this creation.

[MonsieurMaru]

Small update.

 

The mistress now has cocoons and larvae... i don't think i'll be keeping her though... I'm hoping to get rid of all my queens except due to the upkeep that will eventually come once the wife explodes in population...

 

My Camponotus Herculeanus now has 1 worker and lots of cocoons that i think will hatch very soon. there seems to be one that is massive which might be a median. I wanna keep this one too but not sure yet. i don't have an outworld created yet so not sure where to put her for the time being. i'll have to act soon or i might have a problem.

 

pensylvanicus seems to have laid more eggs. no larvae yet but i'm just happy she's laying eggs. she has her own mini outworld already so i won't have to move her.

 

does anyone have tips to someone broke and no money to buy feeder insect from the store? I thought of cultivating some circkets.. but i just can't handle the upkeep of buying them food all the time.. i don't think they sell dubia roaches in Manitoba Canada...