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AntsMaryland's Formicarium Journal


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#1 Offline AntsMaryland - Posted May 11 2020 - 4:48 PM

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Alright – so this is my first time making a journal – so it will be interesting to see how this turns out.

 

I decided to start experimenting with making petri dish formicarium, specifically because my Tapinoma sessile colony is getting larger than I thought they would and are taking up a lot of test tubes in a plastic bin in my basement. I… well… want my test tubes back...

 

So I first took some deep petri dishes and drilled three holes in them. My plan for hydration is to have a piece of vinyl tubing going on top of the hydrostone with a sponge attached so I can syring water inside and not have to take the entire vinyl tubing out when refilling it – because that's just irritating for me. The hole that's on the top-ish side is the hydration port

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Next – I attached vinyl tubing to the left and right side where the ants will go in.

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And proceeded to plug the holes up so when I pour hydrostone… so it doesn't make a mess :)

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I then proceeded to pour the hydrostone.
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Then poured vermiculite on the hydrostone to give it a nice texture. Now why? Well… apparently it's rather absorbent and I put a bit in my tarantula substrate for this purpose – but more importantly: I like how it looks...

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After the hydrostone cured I made the "hydration port".

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Afterwards – I took the lids and drilled three holes on the top. The first hole is for ventilation where I put a piece of mesh on top. The other two on the side are going to be covered with tape and when I want to water that area, I can just remove the tape. This is mostly because I am not sure how much moisture the "hydration port" is going to provide the nest.

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FINALLY – I attached the lids onto the petri dish using hot glue. I know that hot glue isn't the most "ant proof" thing in the world, and epoxy or silicone is better (I am assuming stronger).

But –

1) I am all our of silicone and don't have epoxy

2) I plan on keeping Tapinoma sessile in these, and from my experience, they aren't the most bitey ants, and if it turns out they are… lesson learned.

3) I really can't be bothered to go to amazon and by silicone or epoxy and wait a week (or even 2 day shipping)

 

But all in all – I think it turned out rather well and am looking forward to testing it out on this Odorous House Ant colony – I will document how that turns out on this journal. If this is successful – I will try moving some of my other colonies into these kinds of set ups. Here's the finished product:

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I also plan on making many adjustments as I further this design – like making sure the ventilation hole and syringe holes are directly across from the hydration port… because that's driving me crazy – and making changes to the hydration port once I see how well it works (if it even works…).

 

 


  • TennesseeAnts likes this

Aphaenogaster cf. rudis 

Tetramorium immigrans 

Tapinoma sessile

Formica subsericea

Pheidole sp.

Camponotus nearcticus


#2 Offline NickAnter - Posted May 11 2020 - 4:50 PM

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Very nice!

Hi there! I went on a 6 month or so hiatus, in part due, and in part cause of the death of my colonies. 

However, I went back to the Sierras, and restarted my collection, which is now as follows:

Aphaenogaster uinta, Camponotus vicinus, Camponotus modoc, Formica cf. aserva, Formica cf. micropthalma, Formica cf. manni, Formica subpolita, Formica cf. subaenescens, Lasius americanus, Manica invidia, Pogonomyrmex salinus, Pogonomyrmex sp. 1, Solenopsis validiuscula, & Solenopsis sp. 3 (new Sierra variant). 





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