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Advice request: To use or not use plastic plants in outworlds

plastic plants outworlds decorations

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5 replies to this topic

#1 Offline alwayslearning - Posted November 24 2020 - 11:35 AM

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Hi. I hope you are well.

As you can guess, I'm a newbie :)

 

I have 3 colonies of ants: 

  1. Camponotus fragilis
  2. Novomessor
  3. Honeypots 

Each colony has its own nest and outworld (attaching images of both)

Currently, in the outworlds, I have the towers for water, nectar, plates for worm-soup, sand and some small rocks. However, particularly for the Camponotus fragilis, which are always in the outside world (and they never go to the nest), I was thinking about adding some fake plants to provide places to hide and relax. 

I found in Amazon this https://www.amazon.c...n/dp/B0002AR5DI (I'm attaching it as an example) and I thought about buying different plastic plants for terrariums, cut them in small pieces (to make them fit in my outworld) and use them.

 

The question: Could this materials affects my colonies in a harmful way? Could the ants try to eat them? 

 

Remember, I'm totally new and I don't want to hurt the colonies. I would sterilize the things with UV light before adding it to the outworlds.

 

I would appreciate advice.

Thanks.  

 

 

 

 

Attached Images

  • Screen Shot 2020-11-24 at 11.31.58 AM.png
  • Screen Shot 2020-11-24 at 11.32.06 AM.png

Edited by alwayslearning, November 24 2020 - 12:59 PM.

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#2 Offline Ants_Dakota - Posted November 24 2020 - 11:38 AM

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i believe it would be fine for camponotus. it is other species that are the most harmful to fake plants


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#3 Offline ANTdrew - Posted November 24 2020 - 11:50 AM

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It won’t harm them in any way. The only downside if you put too much decorations would be that it is harder to clean. Once a colony gets huge, it’s basically impossible to clean anyway, so just put what you like.
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#4 Offline MinigunL5 - Posted November 24 2020 - 1:41 PM

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How are you going to put the plants in?



#5 Offline OhNoNotAgain - Posted December 14 2020 - 9:13 AM

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Sorry to come to this late, but I will throw in here that my Veromessor pergandei actually started ripping the leaves off their plastic plants.

I'm told they do this to real plants, too, but it's just a note that overcrowded harvester ants may actually try. I would only use plastic plants that are hard to dismember.


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Formiculture Journals::

Veromessor pergandei, andrei; Novomessor cockerelli

Camponotus fragilis; also separate journal: Camponotus sansabeanus (inactive), vicinus, laevigatus/quercicola

Liometopum occidentale;  Prenolepis imparis; Myrmecocystus mexicanus (inactive)

Pogonomyrmex subnitidus and californicus (inactive)

Tetramorium sp.

Termites: Zootermopsis angusticollis

 

Isopods: A. gestroi, granulatum, kluugi, maculatum, vulgare; C. murina; P. hoffmannseggi, P. haasi, P. ornatus; V. parvus

Spoods: Phidippus sp.


#6 Offline Swirlysnowflake - Posted December 15 2020 - 9:24 PM

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Just curious, where are these nests from? They look cool.


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