4 replies to this topic

[BleepingBleepers]

I'm planning on making my own outworld as I got a lot of plastic containers laying around. Was wondering though:

 

I notice most of the nest + outworlds have the ants traveling upwards to get to their outworlds, but my nest is slightly elevated for viewing purposes. Can the travel tube go downwards, is there a limit to how further down it travel, do the ants even care as long as they can travel to the outworld? I can do an L shape drop or a gradual decline like how my bank account savings look like.

 

Wanted to ask you guys before I start drilling.

Edited by BleepingBleepers, October 17 2023 - 9:26 AM.

[Full_Frontal_Yeti]

I'd bet it makes little difference over all for them if they are decent climbers.
If it did matter I imagine this could be relative to the ant. Like a tree dwelling ant has an up/down life style, but a ground dweller's POV on up/down would be fairly different.

As the relative POV on where "home" is and if going up or down is how you were programed to get there.

 

But i do not imagine it matters all that much in the long run, as the consistencies are what they have to work with ultimately.

 

My ants are all sideways movements with top down view nests, so they don't  drag items up or down in the nests, just in the outworlds where there are vertical surfaces to climb.

 

I put a set of shelves on my table so it'd all be at the same height. It's several short kitchen counter top risers togther to fill the space just right.

[ANTdrew]

I agree with FFA. Everything is already so unnatural for a captive ant colony, that I doubt they would even notice.

[Serafine]

I've seen quite a lot of setups with many different ants (especially the wall-mounted ones often have the nest above the outworlds) and this never came up as an issue.

 

Remember that many ants even in the wild don't necessarily have their nest in the ground.

Some species frequently nest inside tree wood, wooden poles or in the walls of wooden buildings, aboreal ants nest above ground anyway and opportunistic nesters like most Nylanderia and Tapinoma species will happily nest in fuse boxes, street lamps and whatever location is even remotely acceptable.

[BleepingBleepers]

Thanks for the info, guys.

 

What you guys say echos kind of what I thought as well, but I had to ask before I start drilling.

 

Appreciate the inputs, it does help me feel more confident in going forward.

 

Got my colored sand yesterday that I think and hope would contrast well with my ants and will be making two outworlds in the upcoming days. Something simple at first, I just want the ease to clean up, observe and not good enough where the ants would consider moving out of their nest for haha.