Tetramorium omni nest question

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AntsBC

Tetramorium omni nest question

Post: # 29787Post AntsBC
Mon Aug 21, 2017 11:51 am

Hi,
I am keeping a growing tetramorium test tube colony and I have an omni nest. This video - https://youtu.be/Kng0lrxgvr4 says that with the omni nest for tetramorium you should put a digging medium and have the moisture level of 30-40% I don't know what a digging medium or what the moistsure persentage means so could anyone tell me?

megaxoplasma

Re: Tetramorium omni nest question

Post: # 29840Post megaxoplasma
Mon Aug 21, 2017 10:15 pm

Digging medium is just soil, for Camponotus (carpenter ant) wood would count as a digging medium too cause they can tunnel in wood.

moisture percentage is exactly what you would think it is lol, it is how much of the nest is moist/humid. meaning how wet you make the blue sponge if you are using omni-nest. some ants prefer dry nest.......like Camponotus, some prefer super wet nest.

To estimate 30-40% just make sure its a bit less than half moist, should be fine. Or if you just follow the "hydration gradient" rule where you make 1 side moist and other side dry, your ants should be able to regulate themselves fine, just don't go water happy and pour water like crazy and don't let them completely dry up.

good luck

P.S be sure to boil your soil if you are adding, make sure it is clean and safe of mites and parasites etc before adding.

AntsBC

Re: Tetramorium omni nest question

Post: # 29841Post AntsBC
Mon Aug 21, 2017 10:44 pm

Thanks,

I knew that the moisture percentage means how much you water it I just wanted to know how much thirty to forty percent would be. I don't want the tetra to bury into the soil though so I assume I just put in enough that they can bring back to the chambers to make it more comfortable; correct?

Thanks for responding so fast btw

-ANTSBC

megaxoplasma

Re: Tetramorium omni nest question

Post: # 29846Post megaxoplasma
Tue Aug 22, 2017 12:11 am

Yea you can give them a bit,that works. Or you can try doing what andrew does from California and place a rectangular prism block in the center of one of the rooms, and fill that room with soil, forcing the ants to dig near the walls of that room, and you can still see them. You can control everything.you can elevate the floor of one of the rooms with some object and put soil on top,so that even when they dig you can still see them from above, basically limit the places they can dig.

worth a shot, a lot of it is experimenting and seeing what your ants like, if your colony is a decent size minor experiments shouldn't effect their well being all that much, if you redesign a room or 2 here and there. if they like it they will move in,if not they won't

AntsBC

Re: Tetramorium omni nest question

Post: # 29968Post AntsBC
Wed Aug 23, 2017 11:35 am

Hi,

Do you know how I can boil dirt?

Any videos I could watch

AntsMaryland
Posts: 12
Joined: Tue Jul 18, 2017 11:12 am
Location: Maryland

Re: Tetramorium omni nest question

Post: # 29980Post AntsMaryland
Wed Aug 23, 2017 1:28 pm

put dirt in a bowl or bucket. Take boiled water a pour it in the bucket filled with soil. Do that until all of the soil is wet. Then mix the soil around adding more boiling water so the dirt soaks it all up. Once you finish doing that, let it dry for a couple of days. And then you have sterilized dirt. :)

JackieB
Posts: 10
Joined: Fri Jun 15, 2018 8:20 pm
Location: Aurora, Colorado

Re: Tetramorium omni nest question

Post: # 39048Post JackieB
Wed Jun 27, 2018 1:35 pm

I realize this is an old post but if you happen upon it, if you boil the sand it should work. Also, the dishwasher is sorta an almost-autoclave. It's because if the heat. Dont put detergent in!
Autoclaves are the machines used to sterilize medical supply. If you sterilize something, understand that microbes are everywhere. So nothing that is exposed to the world is ever truly sterile. Bleach will also kill most things but I'd rinse it off after with water because bleach also kills ants.

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