202 replies to this topic

[nurbs]

Another 50 down.

 

[StopSpazzing]

Jeez man. Yeah, trying to reduce the total quantity of owned ants, can't see myself buying one of those sets of those containers. Are they working well for you?

Edited by StopSpazzing, September 24 2018 - 2:40 PM.

[nurbs]

Yeah, they rock. Takes time to make, but makes maintenance such as feeding and cleaning so much less painful.

 

Had a hard time keeping up with demand, but should have enough for all my colonies for this season now.

 

 

 

 

 

Jeez man. Yeah, trying to reduce the total quantity of owned ants, can't see myself buying one of those sets of those containers. Are they working well for you?

 

[anttics]

Damn. that's a lot. I saw your circular formicarium. I like it simple and effective. I tried to copy drews formicarium. Lol. Not gonna happen. I came up with this. Which has potential.


The sponge touches the brick. I test it. They can drink from it. Have not tested humidity yet. I plan to use flat fire brick.

[CamponotusLover]

This is so awesome! I can't believe I have not seen this thread until now. Definitely gonna buy some of these. Now time to argue with myself if I should buy some now or come spring.

[DaveJay]

I've been doing something similar only when I first made 2 up it was because I was waiting for grout to cure in some formicariums I made so I used sand in the container instead of grout or similar. I ordered more ants and had time to add grout to make them like nurbs has but decided that it would be better to use sand again because I can just tip it out and wash/sterilise the container whereas grout would be harder to clean between uses. You do get the problem of them putting sand on the food though if they're so inclined.

[nurbs]

Right, the basic concept remains the same. Any stackable nest where you have material that wicks water up from the bottom stack needs a barrier so it does not 100% saturate the top part of the nest with whatever substrate you are using (plaster/hydrostone/sand/etc). 

 

I use cotton inside vinyl tubing, which partitions it away from the hydrostone and sand. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Damn. that's a lot. I saw your circular formicarium. I like it simple and effective. I tried to copy drews formicarium. Lol. Not gonna happen. I came up with this. Which has potential.


The sponge touches the brick. I test it. They can drink from it. Have not tested humidity yet. I plan to use flat fire brick.

 

 

On another note, I have consistently found the sand/hydrostone combo to be effective and desirable to ants.

 

Here are 10 nests I just made, ready for colonies. Like any antkeeper, we sometimes have loose workers running around. Woke up this morning to find one of the workers had crawled herself into the nest. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[YsTheAnt]

I found in the old pencil cases workers could escape through the hinges. I caught an M. navajo sneaking out for cookies when I was taking them home.

[nurbs]

I found in the old pencil cases workers could escape through the hinges. I caught an M. navajo sneaking out for cookies when I was taking them home.

 

Yeah, I used to tape the sides of the hinges horizontally. 

 

One of the many reasons I went to the Version 2.0 design.

[anttics]

Lol escapes are too common. I have a few test tubes around the garage. With seeds inside. Sometimes i find workers surviving inside.

Edited by anttics, September 28 2018 - 8:32 PM.

[nurbs]

Version 2.0 Large!

 

Will hold 5 test tubes.

 

[nurbs]

FYI - the Daiso pen cases are back in stock. Ordered a few for next season, and they have shipped.

 

If any of you want to raid Daiso and saturate their stock, I won't give you a hard time. SOUL. 

 

[nurbs]

Sneak peak at what I've been working on. More info in a week.

 

 

 

Edited by nurbs, October 9 2018 - 3:02 PM.

[YsTheAnt]

Oh that's cool. Ants can travel between tubes without going outside.

[nurbs]

Yeah, more info in two weeks.

 

These are 25mm x 200mm test tubes, the largest I could find. It gives the ants one entrance instead of multiple, and you can control the humidity better. Have alternating test tubes without a cotton, or have two test tubes without cotton followed by another two or three with.

 

Oh that's cool. Ants can travel between tubes without going outside.

[T.C.]

Your gonna make us wait? C'mon Nurbs!

[anttics]

Your gonna make us wait? C'mon Nurbs!

Building some suspense.

[antsandus]

selling ant farms

[JenC]

Just found about 20 of these at Daiso. How would I make a neat hole in the lid?

[nurbs]

Just found about 20 of these at Daiso. How would I make a neat hole in the lid?

 

Use a step bit drill