Formicarium change once a year?

[Leetheflea]

Hello,
Have a harvester ant colony in a 2n1 Ant tower large.
I read that the recommendation is to change out their nest area once a year. For natural ones not so often.
Is the 2n1 Ant Tower in the first category? Or is because it uses their natural dirt and they have an outworld I do not need to change it this year?
Or is that only for truly natural terriams?
Thank you, I tried searching the forums but no key words brought up any relevant topics.

[OBlock123]

I think it depends on your plans for the colony. Providing them more space should result in a surge in population; if this is your goal then I would also caution not moving them until they are at or close to capacity of their current setup. Theres certainly benefits to giving your setup a refresher, and its likely more necessary if your current setup isnt "bioactive" (where theres healthy populations of clean-up critters, like springtails).

Unless youre able to fully place the entire colony in the new setup, moving a colony can be very tricky. In my experience, sometimes its easier to extract the queen safely and place her in a test tube, and then dump the workers into the new setup, placing the queen in after about an hour or two. This method could also work if youre looking to just change the nesting/digging medium in the current formicarium, although it would be trickier; safely extract the queen, and dump the colony into a plastic container with a natural barrier or lid to prevent escape. Once youre done redesigning the formicarium you will have to have a tube thats connected to the formicarium enter the plastic container (put a baby powder barrier around the outside of the tube). Wait a few hours while the workers begin to explore the new home before reintroducing the queen to the new setup.

If you do decide to provide your ants with an updated living space, I highly recommend adding an acorn or tree nut with a small hole into the setup. 9/10 times this is where the colony will chose to house the queen because its the most fortified area of their world. It makes any future maintenance much easier, as you'll know likely know where the queen is before you begin disturbing the colony.

Hope this helps!

[Leetheflea]

Oblock123
Thanks for your reply,
right now I do not have any clean up creatures. I want to get some, but my current ant is a harvester ant that requires pretty dry setup.
I'm not sure how springtails would survive in such a dry area.
I'll give it some thought.