8 replies to this topic

[Foogoo]

Has this ever been tried? Carving a nest out of it won't be easy since you'll need access to a kiln and the product will be heavy, but I imagine it would hold humidity wonderfully and I'm guessing relatively mold resistant.

 

Or what about using terracotta pieces as humidifiers? For example, using a piece of unglazed tile instead of hydrostone beneath the substrate. Would be easier and cheaper than having to buy and mix hydrostone or grout and can be removed or replaced.

 

Looks like some Italians have considered it.

That btw, looks like an interesting forum. I should've taken Italian...

 

My mind is just wandering now, what about pumice? I've seen it mentioned as a substitute for Ytong, but what about using it as a humidifying substrate/subbase?

[Crystals]

Firebrick - K-23 refractory brick - is fired clay brick used to build kilns.  I have used it occasionally, and have a tutorial on making a nest out of one. 

 

I had a friend at a local pottery club make me a slab of fired clay.  I was ablet o carve it, but our local variety is VERY hard.  Absorbed water beautifully.

It would have to be stuck in the kiln otherwise it would just soften up.

 

I never tried pumice, but have seen some pumice nests out there.  Not really available in my location to even try.

[Ants4fun]

Antscanada used to have pumice nests a while ago.

[dspdrew]

This is actually something I plan to explore. I did quite a bit of reading on this not too long ago. Clay slip can be poured into a mold and fired. Ceramic, when low-fired, is the most absorbent (if it is unglazed), and has the lowest shrinkage. Ceramic is very hard; even low-fire ceramic. It's hard enough, that I can't see how it would be possible for any species of ant to chew through it. Another great thing about ceramic is once it's fired, it doesn't dissolve the way Hydrostone or plaster slowly do.

 

Some of the problems with using ceramics would be the shrinkage and distortion when being fired, and also the cost of having them fired; especially if it's a large nest.

 

For now, I'm actually using unglazed low-fire ceramic tiles in the nests I've been designing.

[Crystals]

It's hard enough, that I can't see how it would be possible for any species of ant to chew through it.

Put your Pogonomyrmex on that.    If it can hold them long term, you are doing good. 

[Silvak]

I almost posted a topic on this a couple of days ago myself. I've got a kiln on order that would be sufficient to fire low-fire ceramics. It's small with an internal chamber of only 8" x 8" x 6" so it wouldn't work for larger nests. I had been wondering about the ceramics properties and had only found a blog showing how it's done, but nothing else.

[dspdrew]

Did you originally order it for this reason, or was it for making something else? Those things are expensive.

[Silvak]

I've been learning to work metal clay and purchased it for that purpose. As you mentioned they are expensive, so I've been looking at as many ways to use it as possible......formicariums being one of them. I was thinking ceramic might work well for founding chambers or really small nests similar to THA's MiniHearth and Ray Mendez's honey pot caves.

[dspdrew]

I think it would definitely work good for that.