293 replies to this topic

[UtahAnts]

If you are interested in a custom-made formicarium of almost any design, please contact me via personal messenger. I'd love to work something out with you, and make a nest for your ants that will not only look good, but will allow your ants to thrive.

 

I don't want to overload the "Pictures of formicariums and outworlds" thread, so I am starting this one for all my past, present and future formicariums.

 

I finally got some Hobby Lobby Perfect Cast, and I decided to make some mini hearth type formicarium's. I used a base layer over the water tower, and coated it with sand. Then I used some wet sand to form the mold for the future chambers. One of the formicarium's had stalactites and the other had some red lava rock I found. Finally I took them out and washed them and then drilled the entrance and nestmate holes. One of the formicariums cracked along the layer line, where the two sets of Perfect cast met, as it was weakened by the loose sand. I had to epoxy it together and it still functions fine, but it's aesthetically less pleasing. Overall I'm pleased with how these turned out and I will be making some more of these with the following exceptions: applying the second layer of perfect cast sooner to allow it to fully adhere to the base layer, and use larger sand grains for a more rugged look.

 

Sorry about the pictures and lighting, using my iPhone.

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Edited by UtahAnts, January 2 2023 - 10:08 AM.

[ANTdrew]

Perfect Cast is where it’s at!

[Ants_Dakota]

i love that lighting system. i would literally buy the formicarium for just that. it lets you see your ants much better.

[FSTP]

looks great! if you cast them in one pour, you won't get that demarcation between the two separate pours.  You can see how I did it in one pour in my mini hearth style building journal. 

[UtahAnts]

Yeah, I was just trying to have a flat bottom for the chambers - nice job on your formicariums.

 

looks great! if you cast them in one pour, you won't get that demarcation between the two separate pours.  You can see how I did it in one pour in my mini hearth style building journal. 

Edited by UtahAnts, January 28 2023 - 2:23 PM.

[UtahAnts]

Here's some more I made a while back, I still have the crematogaster colony shown and I sold the tetramorium colony.

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[UtahAnts]

I made this "all in one" several months ago with Plaster of Paris, I like to call it "The Arch":

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[ANTdrew]

I really like the all in one and the wood one. Crematogaster would love the wood. Nice work!

[UtahAnts]

Some more perfect cast nests:

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[antsandmore]

i love that lighting system. i would literally buy the formicarium for just that. it lets you see your ants much better.

its basically THA, but with its own lighting system. looks like it, must be as good as it.

[ANTdrew]

Ants would love those. I assume they have water towers? Why does the second one have that outcropping up above?

[UtahAnts]

Ants would love those. I assume they have water towers? Why does the second one have that outcropping up above?

Yeah those darker sections are water towers in the floor, I've put them in their containers and I'll show them again when they have ants. On the second one I was experimenting with 2 layers. albeit a small one.

 

 

i love that lighting system. i would literally buy the formicarium for just that. it lets you see your ants much better.

its basically THA, but with its own lighting system. looks like it, must be as good as it.

 

The 'lighting system' is just an iPhone under the water tower, which you can already do with normal THA. But thanks anyways

 

Here's some more images at different angles, you can see the second level on the second nest broke when I was smashing taking it out.I have some more wood nests that I have been working on, but my Dremel lost its cord so I'll need to figure something out.

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Edited by AntsUtah, February 1 2021 - 7:21 PM.

[antsandmore]

for some reason the broken nest looks more naturalistic and cooler, i would probably choose that over others if they were for sale. Keep at it! i hope I can build formicariums myself.

[UtahAnts]

for some reason the broken nest looks more naturalistic and cooler, i would probably choose that over others if they were for sale. Keep at it! i hope I can build formicariums myself.

Thanks for the kind words, I find that making formicariums is kind of an art form. I'm not very good but then you look at things like foranto and THA and it's amazing. I find making these just for fun and to be aesthetically pleasing is quite satisfying. 

[ANTdrew]

I agree completely. Did you mold with sand or clay?

Edited by ANTdrew, February 1 2021 - 7:47 PM.

[Ants_Dakota]

have you tested any of these yet with ants?

[UtahAnts]

I agree completely. Did you mold with sand or clay?

I usually use clay but lately I've found sand as another viable option with these nests.

have you tested any of these yet with ants?

Not the new perfect cast nests. The others I have, I'm waiting to take my colonies out of hibernation still...

[UtahAnts]

Here's a followup to some the nests on this thread:

 

The petri nests:

 

Monomorium:

 

 

 

Formica:

It's hard to see but you can make out the queen and a few pupae

 

 

 

The arch nest 

Crematogaster:

 

 

 

The perfect cast nest

Crematogaster:

 

 

 

 

And here's some foranto stlye nests I was working on last year, they still need some work:

 

[UtahAnts]

I finished this hobby lobby perfect cast formicarium today. I made it specifically for Pogonomyrmex and Formica species. Unfortunately I did not get many images of the construction process, but you can still see the end result:

 

 

 

 

 

 

This was the one image I took of the nest before the last layer of perfect cast was applied:

 

[UtahAnts]

Recently I made a natural setup for my large Tapinoma sessile colony. These ants are often underrated in my opinion, not just due to their bad rep as a house pest, but also because these ants are often considered to be on par with Tetramorium for how boring they are as a species. Well I decided to see for myself whether or not Tapinoma make a keepable and interesting species, and if it's worth it in the long run, we'll just have to see. 

 

The natural setup has a standard terrarium drainage layer, sand and gravel with a barrier, in this case window screen, on top. I don't really care if the ants venture in to the drainage layer, it should'nt harm them, as it should never be full. I placed two stones into the terrarium to force the ants to build at least somewhat close to the glass, I'm also heating one side, so we will see if the queens chambers are ever visible. On top of the drainage layer I placed some horticultural charcoal. I used 3 parts clay/natural soil (bio-active), to one part sterile sand, to one part bio-earth to create the main substrate, and topped it off with granulated sand and gravel. I purposely kept this setup pretty stark to allow the ants to be the main point of interest. Any plants or decorations I put in will probably all be buried eventually anyways. Finnaly, I placed a large amount of vaseline to the rim of the glass bowl.

 

Here's the completed setup, and after a few days of quarantine, I moved the ants in:

 

 

 

 

 

This was when I placed their test tubes in:

 

 

 

And just a few day later, you can see all the material being dug up:

 

Edited by AntsUtah, October 29 2021 - 3:46 PM.