AntsCanada Habitat Nest ©
Here's a video describing how these formicaria work and their benefits.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6N9HMVWYsps[/youtube]
Here are photos of AntsCanada Habitat Outworlds © which are so naturalistic.
Essentially, it's built to resemble the outside terrain, stocked with plants/blossoms (artificial), rocks, sticks, etc. It is elevated to sit on a stand which comes with the outworld.
The Habitat Outworlds come with a removable guard which is optional to use. Essentially, you smear vaseline on this guard so they can't get out. The guard can be removed for cleaning (because we know how much ants like to stick garbage and dead bodies onto vaseline), or simply not used at all for miniature species of ants, e.g. Tetramorium which likely won't require a guard. If the guard isn't used Vasline can simply be smeared onto the rim of the outworld. The guard is there for the stubborn escape artists for that extra containment. I fancy the look of it with the guard.
The earth part of the outworld is not earth. It's completely solid which means the ants cannot dig and form nests in their outworld (a head ache I had to deal with last summer). Sand, plants, sticks, and stones are attached directly to the earth portion to make it look very natural, and the ants won't be able to mess around with the decor (unless you have Atta or other plant cutting species, for which we don't recommend this outworld!!! lol). The ground portion is covered with sand so one can choose to moisten the surface if desired.
There are two separate exits to which one can connect their formicarium, another outworld, or two separate formicaria, for those wanting to create the feel of a satelite nest. It's similar to the hamster world connections, where one is capable of creating a really impressive network of living spaces depending on the size of the colony and how elaborate they would like to get. The entire unit is oval in shape and is 19 inches long and 14 inches wide, which translates to a very good amount of foraging space.
(Just ignore the tubes in these pictures. This photo was taken when the outworld was brand new, and they were removed, but they mark where the holes are which run all the way to the bottom of the outworld where you can attach a connecting tube to. Again, the entire outworld sits on a stand which elevates the whole unit.)
With the guard...
Without the guard...
Bird's eye view
The landscape was based on photos of wild nests I took while anting last year. Here on the left is the Habitat Outworld and on the right is a wild Lasius alienus nest.
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