ANTSTORE World of Ants

[talonatreyu]

I have already posted about trying to get antstore items sent to the united states. And with much help from very nice ppl in europe, i bought a classic starter kit and a 4+1 gypsum. But the 4+1 gypsum was out so antstore sent me a 6+1 gypsum at the same cost as the 4. My new friend then mailed it all to me and is getting paid in extra for the help lol. Anyway iam extremely happy with the quality of items.
I already have a Formica rufibarbis queen. and a Lasius something (cornfield ant, or moisture ant) queen as well as 2 Lasius niger queens each with about 12 workers a piece and 10 or so larva and eggs. One of the Lasius niger's were put in the basin setup and farm and have already explored the basin and are bringing in sand particles into the tube. the other Lasius niger is connected to a tube that is attached to a smaller tube to the gypsum.
But it is way to expensive to buy anymore antstore farms, so it looks like iam gonna get to work on making my own for the other queens. if anyone has any good sugestions on making one, i would be grateful to know. I will Try to get some pics up soon, once my camera is fixed. Also on a odd note, i have a small Golden scorpion (Scorpio maurus) in a 5 gallon tank. Well i added a piece of old wood because it had termites in it and that is a good food source.... Well turns out that I have a large black carpenter queen in the wood as well. Thinking of leavin her in there to start a colony but thats cruel since she would have to deal with termites and the scorpid. So gonna have to make her a home. What is a good material for carpenter ants? Ytong?
Anway thats alot of crap for you all to read so ill stop. wasnt sure if i should of put this in the beginners section or here... but w/e

Cheers

[Purifier]

Hmm....you could hold the most ants in y-tong. Dont know much about the carpenter ant
When she prefer wooden nests than you should use kork or wood Look in the ant wiki.....there should write down which nest they love

[Skippy]

I tought about selling ytong nests good quality (my work ) to EU and USA ,but it is able with normal local post only to EU... Slovak post cannot send big boxes to US ,ti can only DHL or some comp. like that. And it is very expensive posting ,paying so much dollars only for some ytong nest ... it is better to make it on your own. So we research ,I´ll selling nests only to EU in future ,to USA only for special orders . To all EU is cost of box with ytong nest ca 15-25 EUR ,max 30 (depends on size of nest). To US I dont know ,I must to look on prices today and make checklist. For more info send me PM

Ytong nest is very good for Camperter ants ,I have all my Camponotuses in Ytong nests.

Skippy

[Purifier]

I belive some one said a time ago that in USA you can not buy Y-Tong....but i can´t believe that?!

[Skippy]

yes ,it is able to buy ytong in USA ,but it is expensive what I know. For info ,posting ytong nest (3kg pack) to USA (for example colorado) ,protected , cost is about 100 EUR :( by DHL from me.

[JimmyVe]

they have y-tong in the USA but y-tong is a brand name so it called differed offer there.

[talonatreyu]

well iam gonna go check out some of 4mykids posts about his farms since he lives in the u.s. and he made some good home made ones.

[darradar]

yeah there are a few of us who have made our own, its usually trail and error, my first was not completely siutable, but the one i have now works very well, all you need is a glass tank, some sand, finishing plaster and some plastacine....and a little imagination....
good luck Talon

[Purifier]

Okay....or i understand something wrong. I was thinking that i read anywhere Y-Tong is not available in USA ^^

[mpir]

As I was told from a few American ant keepers. Ytong or airated concrete is available in US. The problem is that it is being sold only in few places in the whole USA. And none of this stores will sell you only 1 block. You have to bulk buy it. Like a whole palete. Of course nobody needs it in such quantites.
You must understand that houses in USA are built from different material like the houses in Europe. Over there the main building component is wood and plaster boards. I bet you´ve all seen on TV what a tornado does to houses of this kind. A site you wouln´t see in Europe. Of course houses would be shatered by the wind and flying debree but at least they would still stand there.

[JimmyVe]

@mpir: that is true but i do not think we have such big tornados here in Europe.

In deed, it nice to build your own farms, my first farm was bad to, but you learn buy doing it. Now i find my farms good, not pretty but easy to clean and to keep wet and heated.