ANTSTORE World of Ants

[miszt]

I've been working on this for the last few weeks, its farm designed to look like a picture frame and hang on the wall i'm also making a feeding version aswell which will be attached by a clear tube, i've made it specifically so that it can be easily expanded and will hopefully have 4 farms and 4 feeding areas around the room to hold an expanding Lasius Niger colony, as they like to make satilite nests

The back of the farm is Silver Foil, and there are also UV LED's, so that the tunnels can be lit up at night i'll take another pic in a few months once the colony has settled in and started digging, having said that, its nearly hibernation time, so maybe i'll have to keep them up an extra month, sorry ladies!


This farm can be anything from 1cm wide, like this one, which has the UV lights, to 3.5cm, so culd hold larger ants aswell, although without the lighting, am gonna build a similar one for my c.hercs

[JimmyVe]

Looks very nice, only one question.

How are you going to keep it moist ? Will the wood not bend if it gets wet ?

[miszt]

No, i've sealed it all up inside the farm with Glass, Plastic and Silicon you can see the moisture setup in the 3rd picture, i've attached a syringe to the tube to keep the pressure, then when the water needs topping up the tube goes into a bowl of water I'm gona build a water bottle into the frame aswell so it can be topped up without faffing about with tubes and syringes

[Necturus]

Hey, a different Keeper tried doing that too, the plastic parts deformed because of the temperature and humidity, and it all fell apart... for the next design, i would advise the use of glas only.
Greetings,
Necturus

[miszt]

the most important parts are glass, i havent used the plastic anywhere critical

[mpir]

Nice job! I´m looking forward to the night shots!

[miszt]

Unfortunetly I have currently lost the adapter for the LED's in my house move, doh!

But I've got a colony of Lasius niger in the frame at the moment, with I recon at least 200 workers, lots of tunnels and chambers

Only problem I have had was with the section where I installed the LED's, there was a TINY hole, and I woke this morning to find about 50 ants wondering about on my wall lol have spent the last hour picking up straglers

Soon as I find the adapter I'll post some pics if i dont find one by sunday i'll get a new one

[JimmyVe]

Still like this setup, can't wait for some new pictures off it.

[badman]

cool idea. You should go into business making custom farms

[Kale^^]

Hehe, it's for sure that if there is only the tiniest hole u can get, they will go thru it.

Very nice setup!