ANTSTORE World of Ants

[Mikey_Bustos]

Hello guys,

This is just a short beginner's-friendly video of the story over one month of my Myrmica ant colony. Hope you enjoy it!

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[Koi_22]

Hi Mikey_Bustos

Hello and in the forum.
You maked a really nice little "Ant-Film".
Super!!!

Koi_22

[SteveUK28]

Dude that is one awesome video.. like it a lot.

[klasi]

Wow, very nice. What do you think how many worker do you habe now and how many queens?

,
Klasi

[Mikey_Bustos]

Thank you, guys!

I probably have over 800 ants (they've set up 2 sattelite nests in the feeding chamber under a rock but still where I can observe them from underneath the tank. The tank is longer than the shelf it's on so I can simply peak underneath at them lol) and over ten queens all laying eggs. This species produces pretty rapidly here in Canada.

I have posted photos here if you're interested in taking a look:

viewtopic.php?f=199&t=11986

Thanks again, guys! I will definitely try to post updating videos in time.

Mikey

[xqu]

very nice! good work and nice video

Xqu

[Mikey_Bustos]

Thank you!

I created another video which gives a longer, more detailed look at the different chambers of the nest, as well as other things... Hope you guys enjoy!

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Mikey

[MrNixy]

Brilliant video, gave me some real good ideas on how to setup my next colony, never used a Y-tong style nest before but it looks great (better than natural tanks where you cannot easily observe!).

Just one question, how in the world do you keep the "steam room" steamy? heatmat + water?

Regards.

[Mikey_Bustos]

Well, first of all, we here in Canada don't have Ytong, so I actually had to make it out of a cement type of material called "grout" which is a product which fastens floor tiles together. I bought plexiglass, formed some plasticine over it for the chambers and tunnels, put a layer of celophane over it and then simply layered the grout all over it. That's what created the grooves and wrinkles you see in the nest. These grooves actually coincidentally help with distributing water throughout the nest, which I keep rested on a slant horizontally.

In terms of the steam room, there are five larger chambers in which I have drilled a small hole into the plexiglass, so there are now five steam rooms. I simply inject luke warm water with a siringe in these holes (not too much water) every few days and the ants LOVE IT so much! Unfortunately the grout is not as absorbent as Ytong, but so long as I keep the inside of the nest moist by injecting water every week or so the ant colony remains happy and they continue to proliferate!

I once tried putting a heat pad on the nest and the ants were very visibly stressed so I never did it again. I keep the colony in my bedroom which never drops below room temperature in the night and below 24 degrees C in the day. I have a heat lamp that shines on one side of the hunting ground incase they want to be around heat.

Mikey

Hope this helped!

[SteveUK28]

Hello Mikey,

Ytong is used in building all around the world so im sure if you looked about in local DIY stores and builder merchants you would find it. However im sure its called something else like Aerated Concrete, Flulon, Celeron.. there is lots of names for it.. I did a bit of searching and in canada i come up with Autoclaved aerated concrete AAC.. so go try that one bud

[Mikey_Bustos]

Awesome thank you, Steve! I will most definitely check it out! Thank you!