ANTSTORE World of Ants

[mikemeritus]

i´m new here. hi.

ok i found this picture today - escapeproof leafcutter-ant home i had been thinking about how to build and escapeproof home for about a week now, (i dont have any ants yet, this needed to be solved first) and came to the conclusion that i should build a "moat" Hyperlinks sind nur für registrierte Nutzer sichtbar around the base of the ants terrarium, however this solution i found is a bit better, but one doesnt have to exclude the other i think. checkitout Hyperlinks sind nur für registrierte Nutzer sichtbar
hope i dont violate TOU by linking to this site or anything like that, but it has good pictures which i think should be seen. if it violates TOU please someone, just post the pics from that site here.

[JimmyVe]

Hi mikemeritus and welcome,

I have seen that link before, it is a nice setup. Have you any experience with keeping ants, Leafcutters are very hard to keep as you know.

[mikemeritus]

no i don´t have any experience with ants yet, i´ve had tropical large snakes and rats before. i probably won´t be getting any weaver/cutter/carpenter-ants, i´ve looked at some larger species (diacamma, pachycondyla and harpegenathos).

OffTopic: harpegenathos looks most interesting so far, these 3 species all live underground (which i prefer, would´nt know where to get suitable rotten wood). diacamma also eats seeds and thats a plus to me.

i just got hold of 2 fishtanks but the height is only 40cm. how deep nests does these species build/like/require? i would like to give them a habitat which resembles nature as much as possible. maybe i´ll build a new formicarium from scratch, that probably the best solution. it would be a fun project.

btw: found some xl formica rufa or sanguinea nest yesterday its about 20m3 (not joke) they have a complete hillside.

[JimmyVe]

In nature they live in wood but you can keep them in a y-tong ore a plaster nest if you like.

Hard to say, is the tank 40*40*40 ?

In deed they build very large nests. That is way you can not keep these species.

[mikemeritus]

the biggest tank is 70long and 35wide and the height is 35cm, the other one is much smaller but same height. judging from the pictures here in the store @ "Pachycondyla spec. aus Malaysia" it sure looks like they would like 30-40cm underground depth or similar/more. anyway i´ve been thinking about formicarium construction, it would be really nice to build a really stylish one. i´m thinking 90-100cm height, 90-100cm width, and around 45-50cm depth. i think that would make a suitable formicarium for any of these 3 species for years, something they wont outgrow. (well relatively speaking). the species i´m considering is Pachycondyla spec. aus Malaysia and Harpegnathos venator and maybe maybe Camponotus ligniperda (will probably use smaller formicarium for this one) or Cataglyphis rosenhaueri/velox, however i saw a video about Cataglyphis on google and they move extremely fast, so it might become a problem, they run like crazy.

and species from the other site: Diacamma spec. (really like this one, big and beautiful) and possibly [s]Formica (Raptiformica) sanguinea (how large are these compared to F. Rufa? are they bigger?)[/s] probably impossible i found out

the layout of the formicarium. i´m thinking: 40cm or so underground area for nest and the rest above with plants and stuff the ants can explore. most of these species being tropical i assume they spend alot of time in trees and plants and similar, not only hanging around at the ground all the time. the underground areas would be designed as cassettes (for ease of eventual whole colony removal/transplant) each cassette being maybe 10cm wide 45cm deep and 40cm hígh, the cassettes will form the underground areas, there will be no space between the cassettes. and a few cm of media over the top edges.

i think it could work, maybe more space in each cassette?
the thing is, good thick glass is expensive, this idea would probably cost over 400€. stainless steel sheets are cheaper, much cheaper (for me at least), so i will probably only have the front side made of glass, the area above ground, and a smaller window at another side and of course the top, to keep cost down, yet getting a really robust and sturdy formicarium.

been thinking about what kind of glue to use, would´nt want the ants to die from it, i´m thinking epoxy or polyurethane and just glue it together with a piece of 90° bent steel with the large sheets, thats probably the easiest way.

well thats about as far as i have come so far, idea-wise. what do you guys think of this idea? this will probably take some time and cost some money (probably well spent tho) but the biggest "cost" will surely be my spent time i guess.

[JimmyVe]

Hi mike,

Looks like a really nice idea, but like you said, you need to spend much free time on it to complete it.
Can't wait until you finished and take a look at the completed farm.
If you have the time and money you could give it a try.