ANTSTORE World of Ants

[joona2134]

That is great, leaf cutters are the reason I got into ants in the first place. It's a ambition of mine to have a colony of these one day sadly the other half is still a bit "unconvinced" so my new messor colony will have to do until I can persuade her to let me rearrange the living, room and part with a fair few 100's of pound.

So glad your colony is doing so well! Great pics and vids too!

[adam james]

Why thank you Joona , good luck with your ants

[veeder]

Where did you buy leaf cutter ants? You gave a link but it doesnt work .

[adam james]

Hello Mate , yes think that site has closed down now , heres another link

Hyperlinks sind nur für registrierte Nutzer sichtbar

[madlan]

Any update? Have you added any more garden pods?

[adam james]

Hello Madlan, there are 8 sphere seven of which are all full of a garden each. As soon as the 8 begins to fill I shall add two more spheres on. For
Now it is just being used as trash and dump area.

Will be doing a another proper update sometime this week : )

Regards

Adam

[madlan]

Oh good! Looking forward to the update.

I noticed that they no longer sell the 19\13mm tube you linked too, do you think 16\12 will be wide enough for them?

[adam james]

It should be ok it you are only using if for the the odd bit here and there , I wouldn't build the whole nest out of that diameter tube as the ants will have problems bringing leaf cuttings through.

[madlan]

Thanks Adam,

This was for all tubes, to connect the spheres - what size would you suggest for the internal diameter as a minimum?

[adam james]

Hello Madlan , I have just checked my own tube on the Atta setup and the connecting tubes are indeed 12-13mm inside diameter, the ants of my colony still bring leaves through to all the gardens so should be ok. I wouldn't go any smaller though.

Regards

Adam

[joona2134]

Hey Adam, I've started my build now and I just saved myself a pm to you. Was about to ask what size tubes you used I was gonna go 15 or 16 ID with hopefully 18OD the the tube to connect that. Look forward to the update and thanks for you help
Mark

[madlan]

I ordered 20\14 in the end - that should be enough space to let then through.

I also ordered one large (16cm) sphere and 5 smaller (12cm) spheres. I've also ordered some acrylic cement so the joins should look nice and clean, plus the they will be strong enough to take the weight of having the spheres raised.

Could I ask how you cut a hole in the spheres Adam?
I was thinking of making a hole, pushing the tube in and marking the curve of the sphere on the tube so I can cut it - resulting it a nice fit between the two.

[madlan]

Hi Mark, we should both start threads once the build is under way - looks like Adam has inspired a few

[joona2134]

Lol I will just really really nervous now, I drilled my spheres and have the basic set up complete just need to get the tubes and glue the lot together then check heat and humidity differences, it's set at 25'c now and 90% humidity but that's just one sphere having 3 and a foraging area is surely going to change that. Hoping to have it finished by the end of the month to try and get the ants in september to get a good fungus for winter. But after reading a few journals on here I'm worried about killing them and just failing.

Although my wife is now pleased she has a nice selection of roses in the conservatory and brambles in the back yard lol never knew I could be a gardener!

[adam james]

Hey guys . glad I've inspired a few The holes were simple to cut , first the acrylic collars for connecting the tubes together were cut at a angle to make attaching to the curved sphere easier. Once cut I used a hot glue gun to attached them to the sphere. Once dried a few seconds later ( the glue takes seconds to cool down and harden ) I then used a pair of heat resistant gloves and a small thin flat ended screwdriver, I then put the flat end over a flame until hot and on the inside of the sphere slowly melted a thin circular cut around the inside diameter of the tube.