The AntsCanada Ant Forum's

Ok, So I would consider myself an intermediate ant keeper (I've been keeping ants for 2 years) and I'm thinking about making my hobby look prettier. I have a lasius hybrid nest housing a colony of tetramorium which I think is very beautiful in its own way, but lately I have been really drawn to the idea of a wooden formicarium, specifically a log one. I found a few designs i really like, but I have no idea how they are hydrated.

http://antclub.org/node/3171 (all in russian, but some really nice photos of the nest)

http://antclub.org/node/3171 (scroll down a bit to see the photo)

Also if anyone has ideas on how to sterilize the log or even if I need to sterilize the log.

Thnx!
Idahoantgirl

bump

you can't really hydrate wood formicariums directly without them swelling.

oh... so its not possible?

I keep my lepisiota colony in a log nest I haven't had swelling problems. Just use a very hard wood. To hydrate it just drill a 1 cm wide hole into the log then use a pipet or syringe to hydrate it.

AntsSA wrote: ↑

Fri Oct 13, 2017 4:12 am

I keep my lepisiota colony in a log nest I haven't had swelling problems. Just use a very hard wood. To hydrate it just drill a 1 cm wide hole into the log then use a pipet or syringe to hydrate it.

do you drill the hole into one of the chambers?

No, I’m the wood part NOT in the chambers otherwise the ants could escape

Will230145 wrote: ↑

Fri Oct 13, 2017 8:37 pm

No, I’m the wood part NOT in the chambers otherwise the ants could escape

So the hole would be horizontally alongside the chambers but not in? Or vertically.

You would leave a chunk of wood like a circle piece in a big chamber and drill a hole on the top of it and you can hydrate from there, you can also put a small sponge in the hole to keep moisture.

I have the hydration hole next to one chamber. I can post a picture later of you like