The AntsCanada Ant Forum's

hi, im trying to think of a good screen for a formicarium im building (my first) and i was wondering if a reusable stainless steel coffee filter could work for ventilation? or is it too fine to be strong enough?

also, i know a lot of people use vasaline as a barrier, and i was planning on using it around the coffee filter as extra protection, but i was concerned that too much vasaline around ventilation the size of a coffee filter may make for too strong of fumes inside the enclosure.

A coffee filter should work depending on the species of ant. But, if that is your only barrier, you will likely run into issues as the colony gets larger and you need to get in there more often.

I would test out all of your barriers on you species first. Some species climb up Vaseline while others don't.