Designing my own formicarium newbie questions.

Questions from those who are just starting or considering getting into the ant keeping hobby. If you’re intimidated or confused by the in-depth posts of the other sections of this forum, feel free to post here, and we'll start from square one!

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JohnyDL

Designing my own formicarium newbie questions.

Post: # 13631Post JohnyDL
Tue Oct 11, 2016 9:47 pm

Okay I'm planning my own any set up, I've been moving towards the idea of getting 15m of tubing in a few sizes and some fittings to create the nest puely in pipes and outworld out of a few spare plastic boxes I have from moving house. I already know that climbing in smooth tubes can be difficult and I've watched most of AC's YT vids on set ups but I still have some questions, 4 for now more later

1 digging mediums: if I decided to create a section between two bits of glass or plastic and fill it with sand are there any binding agents I can use that ants can eat through so I can build an initial claustral chamber or chambers they can move into and build the rest later for themselves, I saw Mikey had ants move into and expand a nest area but I don't know how he did it what it was made from if it was suitable for all ant species etc. So any way to "glue" sand together so it's mouldable without it becoming too hard to dig through

2 ladders? I know that ants find walking steep smooth surfaces hard so I was wondering if I could add something to a tube to make it climbable, I don't know how useful it will be but is there anything that is ideally mould resistant, any destruction resistant and climbable for ants. I had the thought or twisted copper cabling inside steep sections but I don't know how raw metals might be able to poison ants or will it be okay?

3 any good guides to DIY pipe joining? again I know Mikey has one but it didn't come out brilliant, functional yes but if I go the non digging medium route I'd like to be able to always see every part of the nest clear connections is part of that.

4 ptfe: I know that there's bioquip in the U.S. but here in the UK that's less easy, buying as much as they sell is impractical for me for how much I'd use. There are car sprays containing ptfe, and other ptfe products like tapes, I doubt they'll provide a full barrier but I was wondering if anyone else has experience with them? Ill probably add a second barrier too but are such things worth it? Worth testing?

JohnyDL

Re: Designing my own formicarium newbie questions.

Post: # 13724Post JohnyDL
Thu Oct 13, 2016 5:14 pm

5 has anyone ever tried using hypodermic needles to feed ants honey while Claustral or otherwise? would this be useful maybe? Same for water. Anyone think this is a good or bad thing to include in a formacarium?

6 how much airflow do ant's need? I know they don't want or need a breeze but is the natural movement of workers enough to stir up the air so one opening is enough? should I aim for 2 or 3 openings or at least cotton wool seals throughout the nest to allow better airflow? or maybe one opening for every meter of pipe? or should I test it for myself?

Chewyrockafeller
Posts: 28
Joined: Sun Sep 18, 2016 1:30 pm
Location: Toronto, Canada

Re: Designing my own formicarium newbie questions.

Post: # 13753Post Chewyrockafeller
Thu Oct 13, 2016 9:32 pm

Undergoing the same planning but my Campo queen only has one worker so it'll be a while until the move into a formicarium.

1) No idea and also kinda no point. A digging medium lets the ants to make tunnels the way they want. I doubt any mounded tunnels will be up to the ants standards. They might simply block/fill them or redesign them as they see fit. If you do this I'd suggest using store bought sand. Dirt around your house may have pesticides, and dirt out in the woods or in a natural setting may contain a variety of things that could be bad for your ants.

2) Sticks? Again like above I'd use sticks/vines from the a craft store over natural twigs and sticks from outside. Also this doesn't sound like the best 'nest' for your ants. How will you control humidity in the tubes? How will you create chambers as oppose to endless tunnels? How does this work with idea #1? Are you going to put sand in the tubes? Sand in the tubes would be interesting and may actually provide a solution to question 1 and 2.

3) 3d print? But you should easily be able to get then at hardware stores or online. Ask/search for 'vinyl tubing fittings and connectors' $0.50 - $3ea depending on the place.

4) PTFE is generally the best I think. The GAN farmer I got my queen from uses motor oil. Not of lot of experience with other deterrents myself. No idea about the other products you listed, but without knowing what of other components of the product is, I wouldn't recommend it.

Chewyrockafeller
Posts: 28
Joined: Sun Sep 18, 2016 1:30 pm
Location: Toronto, Canada

Re: Designing my own formicarium newbie questions.

Post: # 13754Post Chewyrockafeller
Thu Oct 13, 2016 9:55 pm

5) Yes. My GAN farmer actually recommend me getting some. He keeps honey water in it and feeds his queen w/ workers that are still in test tubes. He does leave queens to fast until the first workers enclose. DON'T ASK FOR HYPODERMIC NEEDLES IN A STORE THOUGH!!! What you want are blunt tipped a.k.a dispensing needles. If you can't imagine why that's a bad thing be glad you don't.

6) Don't really know, but I don't think they need much at all. Though I'll admit that a 100% tubing nest is more airtight than most formicariums. I imagine that if an area of the nest is low on oxygen, the ants might just avoid the area.

Hope that helps. I'm still new at this too so some of my thoughts might be wrong.

JohnyDL

Re: Designing my own formicarium newbie questions.

Post: # 13768Post JohnyDL
Fri Oct 14, 2016 4:56 am

AntLove5Ever

Maybe my kindle autocorrecting formacarium to fornication is why I got no replies at first.

1 I have/had two different ideas in mind for it the first take some double glazed (possibly safety) glass and fill with sand something a foot or two wide 3 feet tall poke a hole in it etc etc... I'm going to abandon this idea, it would be a good world in some ways horrible in others like cleaning and probably prone to tunnel collapses

2 chambers and tunnels of different size tubes not all connected linearly, humidity by a test tube at the deepest part and I've been edging towards perferating the tube down its length. I am thinking though if I poke regular holes then the insides might get enough texture to be climbable over that line.

3 The reason for the guide is I want clear T and X connections and possibly a lot of them I could buy black or white connectors in a hardware store but given so much will be connectors and the connectors might make as likely chambers as the tubing I'd probably miss out on something.

4 I'm thinking my last resort barrier will be Vaseline, I may test the PTFE tape and other products if I end up with more than one colony collected.

5 yeah I know why I wouldn't walk into anywhere and ask for them it's just that's what I know them as. I don't know whether I mentioned this but Amazon has them for 23p without having to explain it all.

6 yeah but pin holes all the way along might solve this too :)

Thanks for the help and thoughts

JohnyDL

Re: Designing my own formicarium newbie questions.

Post: # 13885Post JohnyDL
Sat Oct 15, 2016 7:18 pm

1 Extra: I found AC's video on an old product,



the stuff he calls the chemical free adhesive at ~2:00 in this would be perfect for that idea if anyone has any ideas what it is? having seen the video I now know I could even include it as part of the pipe nest idea ^_^ maybe, more thoughts need to be had.

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