Soil Nest for my Solenopsis colony.

[MadVampy]

Ok after seeing ooper01 post his video and I've been wanting to do one for a long time he more or less lit the fire that needed to be lit!

I'm taking a little different approach to it then he did, I'm going to go vertical like he did but instead of a separate water area I'm going to incorporate it into the base of the nest. Going to lay a 2" layer of perlite and then a layer of sand on top of that then soil from there to about 5" below the top of the nest. Solenopsis are big on digging and making mounds so I'm going to give them a little room to make a mound. I'm not going to separate them from the water area except with a 3/4" layer of sand, if they dig that far and into it I'm not really worried. When they get that far and by that time I'll most likely make a much larger nest. This ones going to be 12" X 18". I've always wanted one that hung on the wall and was like 6' X 4'!

So the dimensions on this one is 18" X 12" X 1/2". I went with 1/2" so it wasn't too thick as not to see the ants going thru their little daily ant lives . I've attached some pics and will add more as I go along.

BTW ooper01 it's all your fault! LOL

[ooper01]

Woo hoo! I lit the fire!! Excited to see it completed and then inhabited!

[MadVampy]

Yes you did Sir!

Ok so I had to get some more 3/8" tubing before I could continue yesterday. Got that in for the access ports and I started with the layering of the Perlite and sand. I'm going fishing so this is as far as it's got today.

[MadVampy]

Ok so I added Alabama red soil (fire ants love it) and tamped it then pulled front piece of plex. Sealed the cover and then put the legs on and poked a starter hole for them. Once the silicon (yes aquarium grade) dries I'll then attach it to the out world and make them move out of the AntsCanada Hybrid nest into it. It really needs to be cleaned the cotton is molding. I think they will love it!

[ooper01]

Turned out very nice! I have noticed on some of my previous soil nests that they will bury one of the tube entrances with extracted soil, possibly forever. Once they have all exited the Hybrid, you should attach an outworld of some sort to give them an incentive to leave the passage open.

[MadVampy]

Yea my hybrid nest is hooked to an out world already and it has dual entrances to it, I have one blocked off and the other goes to the nest. I'm going to attach the new soil nest to the side that has been blocked off on the out world and then that will allow them to migrate from the hybrid thru the out world to the other nest.

Yea they do like blocking off entrances and I have figured out one reason why, they reduce the opening size to only allow controlled entry into the nest and at least with Solenopsis they place a guard ant just inside the entrance for early warning of an unauthorized entry or attack.

My hybrid nest and the out world both have loose sand in them and they have done just that for the entrance to the nest from the out world.

[MadVampy]

Ok so I moved them into the soil nest today. Was quite surprised how quickly they moved in! This video is of the final main step of the move.... The Queen making the journey!

[ooper01]

Congrats on a successful move!

[MadVampy]

Congrats on a successful move!

Tanks! They gave it their all!