ANTSTORE World of Ants

[gabranth]

the time has finally come to move my Messor barbarus out of there carte d'or ice cream tube so im moving them into a 40cmx30cm basin and im going to put the ytong inside the basin not outside as its easier. so i was wondering how do you keep ytong inside a basin wet without drowning the ants and also is this ok for these ants or can they still see the light and get stressed?

shop/product_info.php/info/p115_Red-PVC-protective-sheet-sticking---10cm-x-60cm.html/XTCsid/4cb71009aee587b1f0cff9d5a55d8190

[Zagone]

Same way you keep it moist outside of a basin too is my suggestion. Carve a pillar on the underside of the ytong at the part of the nest you want moistened (you don't want all of it to be moist) and have a water cistern underneath the y-tong around the thick pillar you've carved. Then make a remote moistuirng system using some tubing that you can cleverly hide under the soil or sand in the basin.

If you want a standing y-tong nest I guess it might be better to make bore-holes down the back of the ytong that you can fill with water. I'm not sure how well that works however since I've never tried it.

I think there's examples of the first set-up here on the forums somewhere though.

[gabranth]

there's got to be a better way that doesn't involve drowning your ants

[Zagone]

What do you mean by dorwning your ants? By using a remote watering system you can cover the water so that the ants can't get to it. Unless you're talking about the standing one... For that I can only think of coarse granulation in the holes.

[Phasmid]

Messor are happy with very little humidity so spraying the y-tong every so often should be enough.
They can still see the light with this sheet and they will notice changes in light, but it is much better than nothing at all, for the PVC sheet to be thick enough so that the ants think they are in total darkness you will hardly be able to see the ants anyway, you could have the thin sheet and a black-out cover so that when you remove the cover the ants are less stressed.

[JimmyVe]

I use granulate to prevent my ants from drowning if i put the y-tong inside the basin.
Drill a hole into the ytong and put granulate in there, then put water in the hole en you are ready to go.

[gabranth]

one more thing are these any good for harvester ants?

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shop/product_info.php/info/p1349_Bloom-poll-10gs.html

[JimmyVe]

My ants didn't like them very much. You can try it out.

[gabranth]

ive ordered them yesterday along if ytong stuff im going to have the ytong outside now. but if i put a piece of wood to the 28cm hole on the side of the basin will Messors climb up it to the ytong block though the tube

[JimmyVe]

My ants have no problems with climbing through the tubes. If you worry they have problems with it you can put a wire in the tube, that way they can use that to climb.

[gabranth]

antstore gave me a free item

[JimmyVe]

Good for you.

[gabranth]

ive got to get a ytong nest for my Pheidole pallidula colony now as there's loads of ants including 7 majors

[SteveUK28]

Wicks sell them cheap.. especialy if you get a broke one.. they'll discount it Ive got to make 2 this weekend

[gabranth]

ive completed my ytong nest and im going to put my Pheidole pallidula in it instead of my Messors as they have more workers