Feedback request for homemade vertical ant frame

Temporary placeholder

Moderators: ooper01, Trusted User

Locked
Phillip
Posts: 1
Joined: Thu Oct 03, 2019 5:01 pm

Feedback request for homemade vertical ant frame

Post: # 64591Post Phillip
Thu Oct 03, 2019 5:13 pm

Build 3' wide by 2' high by 1/2" deep glass frame. Would 3/8" be better? Leave 8" non-sand at top.
Thinking WHITE playground sand. Ants will dig their own tunnels.
Vented top.

Seen this type setup at State Park.

Share your thoughts!

User avatar
ooper01
Head Moderator
Posts: 842
Joined: Sun Jul 26, 2015 1:07 am
Location: Utah, USA
Contact:

Re: Feedback request for homemade vertical ant frame

Post: # 64617Post ooper01
Sat Oct 05, 2019 6:18 pm

Funny you should mention this idea. Just last week we started discussing the possibility of a glass, upright formicarium (ala Uncle Milton style, but much more classy). A couple of issues so far:

1. We want it fully enclosed except the top. So all surfaces would be glass. This creates a drainage problem. We are working on ideas to deal with drainage so that if someone accidentally adds too much water, it doesn't drown the colony.
2. Connecting tubing to the glass to allow for outworld and other connections. We've been told by our glass contacts that they need 3 inches of space between the holes and the nearest edge. That's alot of space. We were hoping to have holes drilled much closer to the top and side edges, like maybe 1 inch is all.

We were thinking much smaller though, maybe 12" x 12". We worry that with 2' or 3' sections of glass, we would run into problems during shipping - too many broken formicariums??

And glass is expensive!! We have only looked at clear annealed glass. We wanted to go with tempered glass for its added durability.

We'll keep thinking on this...
~ ooper

Forum Moderator
Image

LasiusSapien
Posts: 274
Joined: Tue Jul 16, 2019 2:37 pm
Location: Bristol

Re: Feedback request for homemade vertical ant frame

Post: # 64624Post LasiusSapien
Sun Oct 06, 2019 4:45 am

i don't think tempered glass will add anything but cost really i mean its good at resisting scratches and has really high compression value for glass but if you drop it it will still shatter just like the equivalent piece of soda glass
1x Lasius Niger - early forging stage - 60-100 workers
1x Messor Barbarus - founding stage - <20 workers
1x Camponotus Turkestanus - claustral stage - 1 nanitic + brood
1x Odontoponera Transversa - semi-claustral stage - no eggs

User avatar
ooper01
Head Moderator
Posts: 842
Joined: Sun Jul 26, 2015 1:07 am
Location: Utah, USA
Contact:

Re: Feedback request for homemade vertical ant frame

Post: # 64640Post ooper01
Mon Oct 07, 2019 9:11 am

LasiusSapien wrote:
Sun Oct 06, 2019 4:45 am
i don't think tempered glass will add anything but cost really i mean its good at resisting scratches and has really high compression value for glass but if you drop it it will still shatter just like the equivalent piece of soda glass
Good to know, thanks!
~ ooper

Forum Moderator
Image

Locked

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 3 guests