ANTSTORE World of Ants

[paulhdear]

OK - run two strips, about 2-3mm apart (make sure they don't touch) and just connect a 9V battery across them (+ to one strip, - to the other). There is no need to limit the current: the resistance of the ant is the limiting factor.

If you find your ants sometimes go across this, then either try three strips (middle one positive; other two negative), or increase the voltage by using two 9V batteries in SERIES. (So, one copper strip goes to + of first battery; - of first battery to + of second battery; - of second battery to the other strip).

If you get condensation, you might find that the water shorts out the strips - this won't do any harm but your batteries won't last as long.

If you have very small ants, you may need to put the strips closer (the ant has to touch both strips at the same time to get a shock).

Have fun!

[ratgreen]

good so 9v battery if that dont work then 2 of them making 18v and/or more alternate strips. sounds good.

[paulhdear]

Yep. Also, make sure your strips aren't insulated. Some strips (eg for window security) have a thin plastic coating on the "metal" side; if yours do, the ant's will just walk across them with no problem.

[ratgreen]

nah it aint, i will probably try this on a fruit fly to see if it works, its got adhesive side and the other side is normal, you can even solder on it, its really good.

[paulhdear]

Should work fine then. Not sure how it'll work on a fruitfly - you'll need a smaller gap. What species of ant do you want to contain?

[ratgreen]

lasius niger/flavus and messor b.

[paulhdear]

OK - I guess you just need to make the gap small enough to be sure that the ant touches both strips at once. Let me know how it goes!

[SteveUK28]

ok well i have always thought that vaseline was pretty darn good.. however this morning i find a lasius niger walking over my vaseline strip.. time to consider somat else me thinks

[mzfckr]

ptfe maybe?

[paulhdear]

I've never had much luck with PTFE - maybe my ants don't know they are not supposed to walk over it! I also tried other treatments, with no success. Maybe they prevent ants from walking upside-down, but they did not stop them from walking vertically.

[badman]

I put vaselene on the underside of the lid so that it creates an airtight seal. The ants walk on it, but their escape routes are blocked by vaselene. Obviously air still gets in through the mesh

[paulhdear]

Yeah, I've already got an antproof seal, but I want to be able to open the lid of the tank sometimes without a major ant exodus. I'm still waiting for my copper tape to arrive - I'll post pictures of my formicarium when it's finished.

[SteveUK28]

well atm im using open containers.. with no lids.. i dont mind if just a l.niger gets out.. but if ants like my pallidula get out i wont be immpressed lol

[JimmyVe]

I use PTFE and i must say it works very good. Sometimes an ants gets over it but that just means i need to redo that part. After that they can not cross the PTFE any more.

[Phasmid]

All of my setups have open tops and I use PTFE for them just with a really wide strip, the ants seem to sometimes get about 1cm up max, then fall of.