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[Kalidas]

Okay so I missed this year's nuptial flights entirely, but that's okay because I can use the time to prepare for next year.

Up on going for Acromyrmex Versicolor again, I really want to try to unlock the secret to make a colony of these lovely ladies work.

So today I bought two nice soft firebricks. I will be working to create my very own custom formicarium designed to house leafcutter ants. Most leaf cutter set ups are clear acrylic boxes with the fungus just placed in. I get the idea behind this, an empty box is easy to adjust the temp and humidity. But honestly I kind of hate that look, I much prefer the more natural looks of formicariums. So here's my plan.

So what I am going to try and do is take the two firebricks and epoxy them together and then begin carving. I want to carve out a kind of rounded cave like shape (think a hearth style formicarium). Then fill the inner cavity with grout and a layer of sand to give it that nice natural look. And stick the bricks in an acrylic box. If the box is too big I will fill in the spaces with hydrostone.

At each corner I want to drill a long thin hole and stick a long thin sponge inside that will actually stick out past the bricks on the bottom. In the center bottom I want to hollow out a round disk shape and again stick sponge in there. All this will be placed on top of a large water reservoir with holes drilled into the top and the sponges will hang down into the water(my inspiration for this comes from Drew and his starter formacaria).

Then a heat gauge and aquarium heater will be added to the water the idea is to heat the water a couple degrees above the desired levels I want the formicarium to be. The warm water will evaporate into the empty cooler space of the formicarium heating it up and humidifying the entire thing.

The desired result is a formicarium that will mimic how leaf cutter ants build their nests naturally, while still providing the heat and humidity they need.

Comments, ideas, suggestions are totally welcome.