Hey im currently keeping a small messor barbarus colony in a ytong nest and i was wondering how i can keep the ytong at a warmer temperature. as it's winter and cold in my house they need to be abit warmer. I was thinking of a heating matt but i want to raise the temperature of the air in the ytong aswell. Cheers for any help you might have :)
Edit Antstore
--> Forum Discussion general
Lowth01. If you raise the temperature of the ytong, you will raise the air temperature as well. Think about radiators (they are really badly named convection heaters).
heat mats can be dodgy things if they are not positioned and controlled properly, in a confined space, a heat mat will produce ALLOT of heat, even low wattage versions can easily make the inside of a ytong reach 30C+ in just a few hours, the structure of the concrete means that heat is lost very slowly from a ytong, so if you are going to heat the ytong, attach it to a thermostat and keep it at a steady temp, 25-26C, you will need to get a thermostat with a wire that you can push into the ytong at the point closest to where the heat mat is situated
I use a heat mat for my Messor barbarus but like miszt said, you need to control it with a thermostat. Ore if you have a big nest only warm up a small part from it so the ants can move to a cooler place if it gets to hot.