ANTSTORE World of Ants

[ollieaaron]

Hi all,

Im just about to start to build a farm for new set up.
I've had a formicarium from antstore with lasius niger for about 4 years successfully, and now i fancy building my own design.

Im just wondering where people get there perspex or glass to cover their ytongs with and what is used to fix them together.

I'll stick a little design up once i've had a further research into how to keep it moist the easiest, choosing between resting a leg of it in water or pouring water in through a pipe. Any experience as to whats best?

Thanks

[ollieaaron]

So I've had a poke about, managed to find a place to get different sizes of perspex and I think the best choice for me would be to get a glue-type stuff from the antstore or a similar one from a local shop (postage is much less that way )

I am gonna try a set up for messor barbarus, a friend of mine has given me a queen with no brood, its now in a test tube with water and given insect parts every now and then.

I've had a long look about on the forums and the debate seems to be whether to go with acrylic or ytong, as they sometimes eat, or chew, the ytong. I was thinking of making a smallish design in ytong for when i get a decent amount of workers with two basins, one for foraging, one for trash. The ytong could be added to in the future to hopefully stop them 'chewing' on it. This material seems the best to keep moist and heated well too.

I did however come across a few setups on other websites & forums that use a plaster formed nest for messor species as they dont chew it. Has anyone had any experience with this? I would assume this is a little harder to keep humidity?

[insanebe]

i use plaster for my Camponotus ligniperdus, had them for 3 years now and they are still growing and happy :p

[ollieaaron]

I managed to make the nest out of plaster, but the sealant i used hasn't stuck, so the glass on the top moves about a bit, luckily my Messor queen still lives in the test tube and only have a couple workers that don't want to move out just yet.

My other ants didn't like their plaster set ups and set up camp in the basins, so I made a standard fornicarium with dirt/loam for them.

The other Messors are doing very well in the plaster at the mo I'm hopefully going to make a couple more sections for them in the next few weeks!