8 replies to this topic

[Antennal_Scrobe]

The German vendor AntStore is selling a very interesting and useful product; the man in the description video is of course speaking in German, so I didn't understand a word he said, but the gist of it seems to be a slab of what looks like particle board that becomes a spongy digging medium when inserted into one of AntStore's upright glass formicaria and watered. The German guy's Messor colony seems to love it. I'm really not sure why I've never seen anything like this before, it seems like the logical conclusion to the problem of finding safe, appropriate soil for a dirt nest, as well as the issue of dirty glass. I might actually try this out someday, as I always like dirt nests but was previously put off by the aforementioned problems. Here is the link: https://www.antstore...0---S-5452.html

Edited by Antennal_Scrobe, August 30 2019 - 3:13 PM.

[TennesseeAnts]

I saw these! I wondered what they were made out of.

[Lazarus]

You talking about this video?:

https://www.youtube....h?v=flUX1--ZOlg

 

You can turn on Closed Captioning (CC) in 'auto-translate' mode for any Youtube video. In this case being a German video the captioning defaults to German, but if you chose "Other" language it will give a pop-up list of languages an you have to select English from there.

 

Not nearly as accurate human provided translation, but every now and then the translation actually makes sense.

[ANTdrew]

Europeans are light years ahead of us in terms of ant keeping.

[Antcube]

Hello,

I' am not quite sure if you can see the subtitles in english as well, but for Harvester ants, we have a new product with two nest's. One needs to be moisterd slightly in order to provide perfect conditions for the queen, the other is the popcorn nest for the grain ( we say corn chamber) which should not by any circumstances be watered at all, as grain get decay !!!

Please check out the attached video:

 

 

The product is also now availiable with our partner store in the US, Talis. Here is the link:

 

https://talis-us.com/products/antcube-starter-set-for-harvester-ants-l-popcorn

 

Other example video without the popcorn nest, for harvesting ants will be shown here:

 

 

also availiable at Talis:

 

https://talis-us.com...-harvester-ants

[martin_]

Hello,
a much cheaper alternative is the Floral Foam from Mosy. I have been keeping a Messor colony in such a block for two years, which cost me 1.60 euros. The blocks for a colony of several thousand animals will hardly cost more than 20 dollars.

I don't see the added value in Digfix, especially when comparing the prices.
Looks like this:
https://www.stecksch...engestecke.html

[cutchins]

Hello,
a much cheaper alternative is the Floral Foam from Mosy. I have been keeping a Messor colony in such a block for two years, which cost me 1.60 euros. The blocks for a colony of several thousand animals will hardly cost more than 20 dollars.

I don't see the added value in Digfix, especially when comparing the prices.
Looks like this:
https://www.stecksch...engestecke.html

 

Got any pics you could share of your setups that utilize the floral foam? Super curious to see

[martin_]

Hello, 

sorry, I forgot to answer you.

Here are a few pictures. The nest was actually external, but because the lid is only loose and has warped under heat and humidity, it is now internal for the time now. You can't see much of the colony. Just like with an earth nest. The big advantage is that the foam can't collapse and doesn't get moldy.

Attached Images

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[Ernteameise]

Here is a picture of my Antcube- at the back, there is a nest area with the DigFix material.

This is for my Messor barbarus colony.

I have offered a variety of nests to my Messor colony, but they never showed much interest in moving into the DigFix, even when I had the heat mat at the back of the DigFix.

They dig in there, and create tunnels and granaries.

They store their seed in there.

But it just does not appear to be as interesting as the other nests I had offered my ants, first the acylic nest, and now the fancy custom TarHeel ants nest.

Now with the Tarheel nest, they have even moved half of the seed that were in the DigFix into the new nest.

Sorry AntStore- I adore your products, I LOVE the AntCube, but I do not think I would buy the DigFix again (but I think the Popcorn nest would work well as a granary).