306 replies to this topic

[Licespray]

Wow, just spent the last hour reading this entire thread! Brilliant!

[CrazyLegs]

Glad you enjoyed it Licespray ,

 

Here are some pics of the finer details of the Geode. They may seem small but their significance is great.

Filling the water reservoir is made easy with an external port.

Water pot with a micro mesh screen.

To ensure the evaporation takes place within the tunnels the filling port is plugged with a hand made hebel and epoxy plug.

16mm test tube access port.

With a little vinyl tubing this port can be used to connect any of my formicarium models together as your colony grows.

The Geode internal tunnels and a hand carved, clay coated and sealed nest entrance.

I'm testing my Geode prototype with a Myrmecia pilosula queen. Apparently it holds the record as the worlds most dangerous ant.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited by CrazyLegs, April 16 2017 - 11:09 PM.

[Leo]

where did you get her

[CrazyLegs]

I swapped her with a friend for one of my Dragon Eggs.

[Guzzer]

fantasitc

 

I moved in a Camp. intrepidus to one of your Geckos last night. She looks like she is enjoying her upgrade from testube

[Alabama Anter]

Make a company Crazy Legs!

[CrazyLegs]

Good stuff Guzzer.

 

Thanks for all the interest guys and gals, what started as just tinkering in the garage has snowballed into quite an interesting affair.

As far as making a company is concerned I am not sure it will be a viable business. I will have some creations for sale shortly but you will most likely be taken aback by the cost. A Geode takes no less than 12 working hours to complete with everything made by hand. If I am able to make these for a fair price I will happily start pumping them out as fast as humanly possible. 

If you consider yourself a crafty person and you want to make your own. Here are all the hand crafted hebel parts you will need to get the job done.

These parts have already been clay coated and sealed. Tunnels carved and water tower has been made, fitted and access port installed. The reservoir hebel and epoxy plug completed. Now you just need to drill a hole into a glass tank. Cut some acrylic for the veiwing screen and lid. Set a micro mesh ventilation port. Position the outworld over the nest entrance. Drill and set 12 neodymium magnets in strategic locations. Glue everything together and seal any gaps. Phew,..... guess I'd best get to it.

[Guzzer]

 

Good stuff Guzzer.

 

 

She is loving it as she loves hanging upside down - though I did notice she made it to the smallest chamber and was really struggling to turn around. She did finally make it back to the top chambers but I think it might be a tad to small. We thought so at the start, but we're so keen to get an queen into the Gecko that we risked it.

She might have to move back into a testube

Edited by Guzzer, April 19 2017 - 3:34 PM.

[CrazyLegs]

Yeah mate, I made the Gecko for the smaller girls. I wouldn't be game to put anything bigger inside a small sealed unit. I have mine inside a fererro rocher box with the glow globe off at the moment. I've been adding springtail covered leaves to the out world and have seen a couple that have made their way past the ants and are feeding on the mold at the bottom. Happy days.

[Spamdy]

I have just read this whole thread, the best there is! Hope that queen of yours is fertilized!

[sgheaton]

I'm fully convinced from the spiders, to the snakes, the baby eating dingos and centipedes, right down to the trap-jaw Myrmecia Brevinoda........Australia wants to kill me. 

[Kevin]

You should try to think of a way to have the water come in direct contact with the AAC, while maintaining a fair usage rate.

[PTAntFan]

Crazy Legs,

You just need to find an industrial setup that can take your templates and carve them quickly and with precision don't you? That would inject some cost but greatly reduce the production time to something manageable. I bet there's a balance there somewhere where it becomes affordable for buyers and profitable for you.

[CrazyLegs]

You should try to think of a way to have the water come in direct contact with the AAC, while maintaining a fair usage rate.

Over the course of evolving my designs I found that if you want a hebel formicarium to last it should never be in direct contact with water. Hebel swells when wet and of course shrinks when dry. where the moist parts meet the dry parts of the nest there is a conflict between the shrunken and the swollen which will eventually lead to cracking over time. I would hate for my creations to have a shelf life and have modified all my current nests to incorporate a water tower. Water towers create a humid nest environment without actually wetting the hebel.

 

It would certainly be quicker if a machine could do all my carving but I simply can't afford the outlay. Plus I have my doubts that any machine would be able to carve anything but a synthetic looking product.

 

I have even moved my Pseudoneoponera sp out of the Crustacean and installed the water tower and test tube access port.

I even did some more tunnel mods while I was at it.

The girls were back in there and looking like they were loving the new renovation within 48 hours.

 

 

Edited by CrazyLegs, April 21 2017 - 12:40 PM.

[Spamdy]

update on bull ants?

[CrazyLegs]

I'm trying not to disturb the M.brevinoda too much for the time being. They are at a critical juncture.

[Leo]

haha good to see your Pseudoneoponera sp are doing quite well like mine   

[Guzzer]

Hey mate, do you dye your hebel blocks? How do you get that smooth natural colour.

 

I built one not long ago but it's the original pasty white colour...

[Martialis]

Hey mate, do you dye your hebel blocks? How do you get that smooth natural colour.

 

I built one not long ago but it's the original pasty white colour...

I believe he uses tea to dye them.

[Alabama Anter]

 

Hey mate, do you dye your hebel blocks? How do you get that smooth natural colour.

 

I built one not long ago but it's the original pasty white colour...

I believe he uses tea to dye them.

 

WOW how?