902 replies to this topic

[cooIboyJ]

Here is an outworld I made using hobby lobby perfect cast and a stepped drill bit.

[Ants_Dakota]

Here is an outworld I made using hobby lobby perfect cast and a stepped drill bit.

To elevate your tube ports to the next level, you may wish to purchase tube ports here from por amor art to streamline the connection of ants in the future.

[ANTdrew]

The PorAmor tube ports are worth every penny! 

[Ants_Dakota]

The PorAmor tube ports are worth every penny! 

Just bought 10

[Yusteponant]

All of your guys nests and outworlds look so nice!

All mine are 3d printed I might try out using plaster molds.

[Yusteponant]

What CNC machines do you guys use because I want to buy one.

[Full_Frontal_Yeti]

What CNC machines do you guys use because I want to buy one.

mine is all done in mold during the plaster pour. No CNC or handheld cutting with mine.

I use thin wood cut to size for the mold. Sand and modeling clay used to create the negative empty space where tunnels and chambers will be.
And holes drilled through the wood mold to run the watertower fill tubes and entrance/exit ports through.

Once a nest dries, it's done already. I just wash out the sand to reveal all the empty nest space. Then take it to the frame shop to get a glass cover cut to fit.

But i do all the work as part of the mold and pour process. There is no cutting/drilling to do later. Maybe sometimes just a little sanding to smooth out an edge somewhere.

here's a link to my most recent nest build earlier in this thread for an example:
https://www.formicul...orlds/?p=233844

 

[1tsm3jack]

I have made this formicarium for a founding Pogonomyrmex queen, I used a small plastic container and cut a hole out of the side with a pocket knife and made a lot of air holes on the lid ( lid is not pictured ). Substrate is a probably 1 to 2/3rds ratio of reptile coco substrate to sand as well as a splash of water, I have given her a piece of mealworm and a drop of honey water on the right side, and closer to the test tube entrance I have given her a bit of water as her tube is running pretty close to dry so I figured it couldn't hurt ( it isn't enough to drown her don't worry.) . Hopefully she will haul substrate into her tube instead of digging in the "outworld" area, but I can't really guarantee anything. Please let me know what you think.   

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[1tsm3jack]

I have made this formicarium for a founding Pogonomyrmex queen, I used a small plastic container and cut a hole out of the side with a pocket knife and made a lot of air holes on the lid ( lid is not pictured ). Substrate is a probably 1 to 2/3rds ratio of reptile coco substrate to sand as well as a splash of water, I have given her a piece of mealworm and a drop of honey water on the right side, and closer to the test tube entrance I have given her a bit of water as her tube is running pretty close to dry so I figured it couldn't hurt ( it isn't enough to drown her don't worry.) . Hopefully she will haul substrate into her tube instead of digging in the "outworld" area, but I can't really guarantee anything. Please let me know what you think.   IMG_1910.jpgIMG_1911.jpg

Well I am currently watching her do exactly what I hoped she wouldn't do, she is digging a nest instead of staying in the test tube. can't say I am surprised though. It is pretty fun watching her go in and out and in and out moving the soil though I will admit.

[AntsGodzilla]

Is this good to make a nest? 

Magnets mesh for water tower, and outworld?

Edited by AntsGodzilla, October 4 2024 - 6:26 PM.

[eea]

Is this good to make a nest? 

Magnets mesh for water tower, and outworld?

Yes

[AntsGodzilla]

Here is one of the first DIY I have made, I used perfect cast, neodymium magnets, and cork, so the ants could get rough texture in the nest.

 

[ANTdrew]

Looks nice. How will you cover the top?

[kiedeerk]

Overall it looks nice for your first few attempts. The 2 problems I see is lack of water tower or a method to increase humidity and the nest being round which makes it harder to get a round piece of glass. I would have put three magnets in a triangular formation to make it more secure

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[AntsGodzilla]

Looks nice. How will you cover the top?

I'm probably going to use a piece of square glass.

[ANTdrew]

A petri dish lid might work. You do need some hydration method, though.

[AntsGodzilla]

Would nest mates work? I'm waiting for my mesh to arrive. What do you guys use for the part of the water tower that holds the water?

[JenC]

 
https://youtu.be/Fzn...DqWgQvPGbUmWjKP
 
 
Dirt boxes I made along with me putting Camponotus inside the smaller one.

 

I was fine with big chambers.

Edited by JenC, October 14 2024 - 5:25 PM.

[Full_Frontal_Yeti]

Would nest mates work? I'm waiting for my mesh to arrive. What do you guys use for the part of the water tower that holds the water?

typically it's plastic tealight holders, with some screenmesh metled over the open top.

like these:

 

use an old pan you won't cook with anymore, use low heat on the stove and place a cut out of screen mesh just a little bigger than the tealight holder in the pan. When it is hot press the tealight holder down onto the mesh. It should only take a couple seconds. It will leave a little plastic in the pan, but if you do it right just a tiny bit that won't even smoke much.

The mesh will be sealed over the top.
 

Then i use a nail or other bit of small metal like a papaerclip heated up, to poke a hole in the side of the tealight dish(up high to be above the water level) for a bit of tube to allow water to be added once it is sealed into a nest.

 

Here's one in a nest, you can't see the fill tube here as it goes out the back of the nest.

[AntsGodzilla]

After I seal all the gaps, would this works as a lid and an out world?