It's been a long time! I'm back and bring some good and bad news... Lets start with the bad. The bad news is that I'm down to 4 queens and none got workers or pupa for that matter. I have a feeling that some Krockowi are semi claustral and some are fully claustral like Pogonomyrmex Occidentalis. So I decided to put all the queens together into one test tube and brood boost them with 2 Liometopum Apiculatum brood. They happily accepted them and immediately they started laying eggs like crazy! 1, 5, 13, 25! They started accumulating quickly and just yesterday I saw that one of the Liometopum pupae with the queens was starting to move around a little but still curled up!
They're getting close to inheriting their new home. And this is the good news! Yesterday I was in need of a nest and I saw that TarHeelAnts had a new nest called "Lair" so then I decided "Why don't I try making this nest?", and so I got to work. I grabbed my materials and started arranging the sand and after 1 hour and 30 minutes I had the sand arranged. Now it was time for the water caps! So I put on the water caps and put some weights on them and afterwards I slapped on some Neodynium magnets and all that was left to pour the hydrostone! I decided to dye they hydrostone Red Ocher since the sand I used was an orange brown sand color from sedona. I left it there to sit and came back today to see it was all done! I pryed it out of the mold and cleaned out the excess sand to reuse and it was done! I had a nest for my ants ready to be used! Except for 2 things... Plexi glass and latex paint, but besides that it was done. Here's the pictures of the ants and nest! I hope you like them and here's a link to the video I used to know how to make a horizontal nest!
DIY Top Down View Gypsum Formicarium - YouTube
Edited by NicholasP, November 30 2021 - 10:09 AM.
