Been finally fixing up my 3D printer and thinking I may print out some of the nest parts while my Camponotus Americanus colony is still very small. I've seen that Ants Canada (as I have some of their stuff) and others use 3d printing for sure for their new Hybrid nests (really good print quality I must say as looks like .1mm on the AC stuff.) Trying to figure out which materials to print with and not having great success on my Google searches. My usual default filament to use is ABS as it's pretty resilient and handles high temperatures really well; it will dissolve in acetone however. I've seen posts where people are like "well it *could* be toxic to ants so I don't use it" which is sort of anecdotal, as well as chemists saying it's all hog wash about the toxicity once it's cooled.
Another popular option is PLA, which is starts out from starchy grains (http://www.makerbot.com/what-is-pla), a bit more enviromentally friendly, but much lower melting point (i.e. if you put one in your car, will melt/warp on a warm summer day, even here in New England.) Also concerned that PLA, especially with Camponotus may be more apt to be nibbled on/thru?
Has anyone on here 3D printed their formicariums? If so any experience and what are you using for print material? There are TONS of others too including PET+, etc too. Thanks!
