15 replies to this topic

[DDD101DDD]

Hi guys, I've been keeping ants for a decent amount of time by now but how the heck do you get cotton out of test tubes, especially when the cotton is far into the tube? I've yet to find a reliable method to doing this.

[ZTYguy]

Well you could get thin long tweezers but I just put water in the tube to fill it up then I cover it either with the palm of my hand or a finger that gets stuck in the end of the tube and then shake shake shake.

[Manitobant]

I use long tweezers and then twist both the cotton and the tube.

[cocdeshijie]

dental tools

 

[ANTdrew]

I have these long metal skewers for making shish kebabs that work great. Any long, sharp implement you can get in there and kind of grab the cotton will do.

[B_rad0806]

What I do is I get the cotton wet if it already isn't. Then i get like a wood skewer stick and twist until the cotton get stuck and attached onto it. After that I just pull the stick out and the cotton comes with it

[Kaelwizard]

I'm not sure if this is normal, but I figured I would share. I use my metal reptile tongs, and one type I messed up making a test tube setup, so I was pulling out the wet cotton. The pressure (I think) from pulling out the cotton literally broke the glass. So be careful.

[AleeGuy]

I use dental sraper which is a life saver when it comes to taking out the cotton or pva sponge out of the test tube. Link(for reference) https://www.amazon.c...32MKN8057?psc=1

[AntBoi3030]

I like to wet the cotton then pull it out with some tweezers

[Chickalo]

I use a screwdriver with a screw taped aggressively to the end (duct tape is my best friend), since it's a screw, the cotton will go up the edges of the screw and attach itself so you can just pull it out, then bang it over a trashcan to throw it away if you don't want to pull it out.

[Barristan]

When AntsCanada's videos still were useful to ant keepers:

 

This works really good.

[NPLT]

I use something like this

 

credit for the photo: AntKeeper.pl

[Antkeeper01]

I use a pencil it actually works

[Canadant]

I use a chopstick, pierce the cotton on one side and using pressure pull the cotton out. Works best if you wet the cotton first if it's completely dry.

[Antcatcherpro3]

I use long tweezers or I try to shake it out. It works most of the time.

[AleeGuy]

I use something like this


credit for the photo: AntKeeper.pl

That's the dental scraper that I have. If you are going to get that then make sure it's at least 17cm long(if you are not using it for test tubes over 15cm).