ANTSTORE World of Ants

[stankenhar]

Thought you might like to see my second farm being made.


Picture 1: I startred by channeling out and drilling the top for adding water to keep it wet / damp.

Picture 2: I smoothed the front with sandpaper and then drilled / carved out the ant runs and nest cave, then thoroughly washed it to get rid of the dust from drilling, and there was plenty of it.

Picture 3: Once dry I completely surrounded the ytong with perspex to keep the moisture from escaping, I sealed all joins with aquarium sealant and added gaffer tape to the joins for extra protection and strength, I just left the top uncovered so I could add water as wanted.

Picture 4: As this was going to sit in the dining room I thought I'd better make it look a bit less like a building brick, so I surrounded it with fancy wood. The cave is lined with a "friendly" filler to keep it from getting too wet, and I will be putting a small square of red acetate over the cave once the Ants are in, Myrmica Rubra. I've also put some sand in so the ants can move it around if they wish. The two tubes at the side are for connecting a foraging dish

[SteveUK28]

Stankenhar, that is really really good.. you could sell em lol.. Great idea i think i might have to be building something like that myself

[stankenhar]

Hi SteveUK28, only problem with making to sell would be postage lol. I used photobucket again to download / upload photos, thanks for the advice, should I have put descriptions between each IMG file to get it below each photo rather than adding at the end?
Stan.

[SteveUK28]

yep that would work i can change it if you cant edit it.. or you can just do it next time lol
BTW.. where are you too in the UK?

[stankenhar]

I'm in North Staffordshire, Leek

[JimmyVe]

I like your setup, only one point, it seems like you only have tunnels and no acctually rooms. If you know what i mean. It would be better if you have a few rooms.
Also i think it would be better if you connect this nest to a out world.

(btw: i edit it )

[stankenhar]

Hi JimmyVe, I did wonder about more rooms, there is a cave centre bottom which goes back quite a bit, and though you can't see it in the pic there is a "room / cave" where each tube enters the ytong, the problem I have with the one I'm using at the moment is the ants want to stay where the tubes pass through the wood and block as it is dark there, so I made this one with slightly smaller caves in the hope that they will use the centre one.