ANTSTORE World of Ants

[irishantman]

I am wondering if most ant keepers use organic cotton balls only in test tube setups or is it safe to use the standard supermarket bought brands? I see on some ant keeper supplies sites that there may be pesticides in store bought cotton but how many ant keepers have used it without any ill effects?

[jbc]

I am using the cotton, which can be bought at pharmacies (drug stores). Most cotton has Cl in it, because it is being washed with it but I don't have any problems so far with cotton in test tubes.

[baumarkthammer]

I always use the normal cotton you get in supermarkets. It says "natural" on it so I trust it won't do any harm and at least until now hasn't until now. Just don't buy anything that is perfumed and look for the stuff that says "natural" on the label and you should be fine.

If you don't trust the labels at all (afterall nowadays it may just as well contain horsemeat) you could try using paper towels (like the ones that you would use in the kitchen). They don't contain any harmfull chemicals as far as I know but have the huge disadvantage that they get black faster and the testing tube gets dry faster (or at least at seems so to me).

[irishantman]

Thanks for response guys. I managed to find organic cotton balls for a reasonable price here in Ireland so for peace of mind I have bought a few bags of those. Good to hear the natural cotton doesn't seem to have any bad effects too because I have been using them up to now. Great helpful forum by the way.