Nest using rigid PVC foam sheets

[JckCdt]

Hi guys,

I was thinking to carve a new nest for my lasius niger with a cnc in rigid white PVC foam sheets, like ******. In the same way as acrylic nests are made.
Do you see any problem that could occur using such a material ? Toxicity, robustness, cleaning ...

Thanks in advance for your advice

[Hawkeye]

Hi guys,

I was thinking to carve a new nest for my lasius niger with a cnc in rigid white PVC foam sheets, like ******. In the same way as acrylic nests are made.
Do you see any problem that could occur using such a material ? Toxicity, robustness, cleaning ...

Thanks in advance for your advice

Well if I understand it correctly those are pvc plates with hard sides and foam in between. The foam is the tricky part, as your ants will be likely to try and dig into it. Now I am unfamiliar with the process involved in making these plates, or which materials are used other than the pvc, but I can imagine there are industrial adhesives and or hardening agents involved? I am just guessing here of course, but I'd say that might cause some toxicity problems?

[JckCdt]

Hello Hawkeye,

Thank you for your feedback.

Actually, ****** is only composed by PVC foam (see link here under). So i think there shouldn't be any adhesives involved. Regarding the hardening agent, I have no idea.

The foam is quite dense (500 kg/m³) and hard (>50 Shore D). I hope it will be enough to contain the ants (it will also depend on the species I guess).

Link to ****** datasheet :
https://www.thyssenkrupp-plastics.be/fileadmin/media/initial_upload/Downloads/PDF%20NL/Reclame/FOREXclassic_nl_07.pdf