Test tube setup

[lossanmu]

I’ve been keeping my ants in a basic test tube set up cotton and water! Problem I’m having is that the water is drying up! Not sure how to move the ants to a new setup without stressing them. Any advise?

[AntsLuxembourg]

Depending on how great the distance between the first and the second cotton ball is you could try to push a needle through so you can refill the water but therefor you will have to have a needle of that lenght. Second you could prepare a second testtube and connect it with tubing. This way the ants can switch from the dried up testtube to the fresh one. Perhaps you could do this. Prepare a box which you can connect to something else later which is also big enough to hold the testtubes. Then place the new testtube inside. If possible with a small fixation like patafix which can be removed easily later but I have no idea if the ants might try to eat it. But it would be good to have something in their to avoid the tube from rolling arround.

Next you place the second testtube inside and remove the cotton. Perhaps darken the new testube and expose the old one to a bright light which will drive the queen to move into a darker area. If you haven't got a box which can be connected easily later that's no problem but it will be harder to figure out a way on how to give them a new space to live without moving them with forces.

Perhaps you could show us a picture of the current situation so we can try to give some better advices.

[lossanmu]

https://postimg.cc/image/nsy0riblt/
There we have my current setup. I use tap water should I use bottled instead? And what creates that black mold anyway to make it not grow?

[AntsLuxembourg]

About what grows the molt I have no idea. Probably a mix between the Ants poop and the humidity inside the tube. So since this is actually not that much of a distance I would say try to get something like an injection/ a syringe from somewhere. Perhaps a drugstore or ****. Also tell them you need it to refill your ink or something so they don't think you need them for crack. (Laughing my bloody ass off about this haha)
Then you can put the needle through and at least make the cotton wet or even refill the testtube. But I must say that it is strange that all that water has dried up already. Like how is that even possible?

Anyway. You should be able to refill the water without any problem. You could use tapwater if it's safe to drink it yourself but if you want to make sure you should use bottled water. If you can't find any syringes btw you could try to find some of those applejuice packages or caprisuns and use the straw to make refilling path. Should also work somehow. ^^

Damn we are getting creative over here XD