My Frameicarium Project
Posted: Tue Jan 02, 2018 6:12 pm
Hello! When I started ant keeping i thought uncle Milton style (traditional) nests were lame and I only wanted to keep ants in products like the hybrid/ omni nest. Now I am seeing the coolness of keeping a real colony (one with a queen) In a sand formicarium. While i love my hybrid, I think it would be fun to let my growing tetramorium colony who needs a satellite nest have something fun to play around with. I love the idea of having a nest mounted on my wall so I can stare at them easily throughout the day. I am wanting to make this style of nest:
https://www.etsy.com/listing/508856938/ant-farm-designer-hardwood-ant-farm
So my nest will be that design with one major difference: It will have an open top. So basically that nest but imagine the top part of the frame missing. I will just use a barrier of baby powder to keep my ants inside. This is so that I can connect the nest to an outworld without any drilling involved.
The plan is to plant a stick in the sand that touches neither side of glass, that somehow connects to tubing that runs down to my outworld and the colony's other nest. I know its really hard to envision, but it should work.
I will be using an old plastic 8 by 10 picture frame. I will be using the glass that came with the frame (I will glue it in) Then I will get a sheet of glass or acrylic that is a bit larger (1/2 an inch on each side) and glue that to the back of the frame. there should be a 1/2 inch space between the two panes to put sand in. I figure that is a good width so that I can have a queen in it and she can turn around comfortably in her chamber, but also thin enough to encourage digging against the side of the glass. Like I said, it will be open topped so I can hydrate them easily. Hopefully I will figure out how to post pics when I begin working on it soon.
anyhow,
Does anyone know what type of sand I should use? Aquarium ? play sand? Sand that says its for antfarms?
Thanks, Idahoantgirl
https://www.etsy.com/listing/508856938/ant-farm-designer-hardwood-ant-farm
So my nest will be that design with one major difference: It will have an open top. So basically that nest but imagine the top part of the frame missing. I will just use a barrier of baby powder to keep my ants inside. This is so that I can connect the nest to an outworld without any drilling involved.
The plan is to plant a stick in the sand that touches neither side of glass, that somehow connects to tubing that runs down to my outworld and the colony's other nest. I know its really hard to envision, but it should work.
I will be using an old plastic 8 by 10 picture frame. I will be using the glass that came with the frame (I will glue it in) Then I will get a sheet of glass or acrylic that is a bit larger (1/2 an inch on each side) and glue that to the back of the frame. there should be a 1/2 inch space between the two panes to put sand in. I figure that is a good width so that I can have a queen in it and she can turn around comfortably in her chamber, but also thin enough to encourage digging against the side of the glass. Like I said, it will be open topped so I can hydrate them easily. Hopefully I will figure out how to post pics when I begin working on it soon.
anyhow,
Does anyone know what type of sand I should use? Aquarium ? play sand? Sand that says its for antfarms?
Thanks, Idahoantgirl