Help with a beginner setup.

[Funhouse42]

Long time lurker, recently registered. Ready to start my ant adventure. This is going to be a long post, so bear with me. Looking for advise and tips on the setup I have planned.

I wanted to keep a slightly larger species, easier to see. I was thinking camponotus pennsylvanicus. But I know that tetramorium are considered one of the easiest to keep. So I'm hoping to build something good for multiple species.

I'm in central PA. Carlisle area. USA.

Outworld
Pretty basic. I have a 10 gallon aquarium that I am going to use as long as I can drill a hole in it. If not, going to use a plastic carrier. Going to put sloped grout and some fake plants.
Question : Would about a 1 and a half inch strip of Vaseline be a good barrier? Or is there something else that works better, isn't too expensive (insectaslip) and isn't dangerous?

Habitat
I was going to use the tackle box method with holes drilled between compartments. Since the tackle boxes I have are a bit deeper than I would like, I was also thinking about putting about 3/4 of an inch of grout in each compartment also. Would this be a good idea? Any problems with doing this?

The boxes I have are the fairly large ones, and didn't want to give too much space to begin with so that they don't use compartments as the dump. One thought I had was to fill all but a couple compartments with sand and let them dig it out themselves. Would they be able to find there way through the different compartments even though there is only a small hole between them? Is there a better way to restrict access?

If anyone has any suggestions or tips it would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

[Odontomachus]

You outworld sounds pretty good, and based on the species you mentioned, vaseline should work just fine. Ordering a nest from AntsCanada may lower chances of escape, but if you want something that looks a bit more natural, then you can use something called autoclaved aerated concrete to create a formicarium of your own. i hope this helps.

P.S. If you are looking for an interesting species to keep, technomyrmex is my bet. If them or maybe iridomyrmex/brachymyrmex live in your area, consider them!(Of course odontomachus is great, but more difficult to keep.)

Ant love forever!

[AntsMclama]

The 2nd post in this thread will help you with your escape prevention for your outworldhttp://www.formiculture.com/index.php/topic/646-list-of-species-that-can-cross-a-specified-barrier-contributed-to-by-members/
And 1 1/2 inch area i think is about the recommended.

Tackle box with grout in the bottom? may i ask why the grout specifically? If you are thinking that for hydration, then i think a cotton ball in one of the sections and watering it is enough.

For your sand issue with the holes... fill each section one at a time, then use something to poke a starter hole, but in this case it would be the exit hole for better guidance. Start near the "entrance", fill, then from the next square, poke a exit hole through which will help the ants find where the next section is when digging.

[Odontomachus]

You should be pretty good to go as far as your questions go. If you have any more, feel free to ask!