Seen a lot of people struggling with constructing/integrating/using a "moisturising" tube - thought occurred to me that you could actually construct one built in to the ant-farms in the next "generation" of them? Just needs 3 very fine pieces of the plastic to form a square "tube" down the centre inside the colony area (not on either side as this gets in the way of the 10mm "extension" holes) - it need take up no more than half of the "thickness" of the inside colony area, and it would want to extend all the way down to the bottom leaving perhaps a 1-2mm gap, and wants to go all the way to the top, so the "lid" also covers the moisturising tube to stop ants climbing in to it. That way people can use a pipette to dribble water in to it and the water will go straight in to the clay, without worrying about anything else and without anything getting in the way of the two 10mm holes at either side of the colonies.
I've also noticed that most people use soft tubing, i erradicated that problem by using solid plastic or glass tubing to carry out this job!
makes work a lot easier
I've decided a better way of doing it if it was built in to the design of the unit - at one side (or both sides) of the colony unit, at the bottom have a built in mesh-gap - too small for ants to get through. Just a square gap right at the very bottom-side (as in the side where the 10mm holes would be). On the outside of the colony unit have a small "cup-shape" - basically a small cube shape of the hard-plastic with an open-top. If you pour water in to this, it will automatically feed through the mesh in to the main colony unit - straight in at the bottom where the clay is. Should ants ever dig down to this, the mesh would prevent them escaping. This method wouldn't even require you to open the colony unit to moisturise it, and it should be fairly simple to build.
Hope my explanation makes sense? :)
Yes, it does make sense,
it sounds like a very good idea!
I've also noticed that most people use soft tubing, i erradicated that problem by using solid plastic or glass tubing to carry out this job!
makes work a lot easier
Do you mind telling me where you pruchased the solid plastic or glass tubing as I have checked every where (pet stores, craft centres, DIY) with no luck.
The only thing I could do was buy the aeration tubes for aquariums but these are way too expensive due to all the other items that come with it.
Do you have any direct links?