10 replies to this topic

[Ants4fun]

I'm not sure if there is a thread like this, but I want to create one anyways. This is where you can post what you bought for keeping, acquiring, maintaining, etc. ants. Please also include a link where you bought it.as well as a link to buy it.

You can also post any special deals or sales that you have found. Please be creative! For example, you could post a link to a certain medium that you think would be a good substitute for plaster, or a suctioning devise to use as an aspirator, or perhaps an interesting container that you could use to house ants. People have done this, but it seems to be scattered across threads, so i think we should put them all here. I'll go first.

Plastic test tubes to house small queen/ colonies. 16mm in diameter/100mm long

100 for $11.99 with free prime shipping.

http://www.amazon.co...mall containers


3 milliliter pipettes

Pack of 100 $3.86 with free shipping

http://www.amazon.co...ywords=Pipettes


Tar Heel ants Atom founding Formicarium

$8 shipping not included


http://tarheelants.c...tom-formicarium

Edited by Ants4fun, July 27 2015 - 6:34 AM.

[Gregory2455]

(16mm is what I use) 16mm diameter test tubes:

http://www.lcmlab.co...s_p/41a20-w.htm

 

All diameters:

http://www.lcmlab.co...ubes_s/1120.htm

 

I order a lot of stuff from here too.

https://www.bioquip.....asp?prodtype=1

[William. T]

I'm not sure if there is a thread like this, but I want to create one anyways. This is where you can post what you bought for keeping, acquiring, maintaining, etc. ants. Please also include a link where you bought it.as well as a link to buy it.

You can also post any special deals or sales that you have found. Please be creative! For example, you could post a link to a certain medium that you think would be a good substitute for plaster, or a suctioning devise to use as an aspirator, or perhaps an interesting container that you could use to house ants. People have done this, but it seems to be scattered across threads, so i think we should put them all here. I'll go first.

Plastic test tubes to house small queen/ colonies. 16mm in diameter/100mm long

100 for $11.99 with free prime shipping.

http://www.amazon.co...mall containers


3 milliliter pipettes

Pack of 100 $3.86 with free shipping

http://www.amazon.co...ywords=Pipettes


Tar Heel ants Atom founding Formicarium

$8 shipping not included


http://tarheelants.c...tom-formicarium

Why plastic test tubes? I know they are cheap, but they are very problematic.

[JakobS]

For those of you who use aspirators to collect ants or insects in general, I have found that the aspirators from Rose Entomology (no affiliation) to be far better than others I have used from Bioquip or Carolina. It possess a rather innovative screen design compared to others that avoids insects being sucked into your mouth. One that won't have a lightly glued or rubber banded screen come off when you need it the most!

 

http://www.roseentom..._Aspirators.htm

 

I also got my 20mm glass test tubes from Lake Charles Manufacturing (lcmlab.com), and they arrived in perfect condition. 

Edited by JakobS, July 27 2015 - 9:48 AM.

[Gregory2455]

Oh wow, that looks pretty good. I use Bioquip aspirators, but I may pick one of those up.

(Here is the Bioquip aspirator for anyone who wants a fairly cheap aspirator.) https://www.bioquip....t.asp?pid=1135A

Edited by Gregory2455, July 27 2015 - 9:48 AM.

[Ants4fun]

Formula blue 100 ant food. Provides ants with all nutritional needs. Good while on vacation.

$22 with free prime shipping. 6pack
http://www.amazon.co...rds=formicarium

[sehrgut]

Why plastic test tubes? I know they are cheap, but they are very problematic.

 

 

 

Would you mind elaborating? I've seen lots of videos and read a lot of journals here, and this is the first time I've heard anyone say plastic test tubes are problematic. I'm very new to the hobby, so would you mind going into what problems plastic tubes have over glass for queens and small colonies?

[drtrmiller]

I like plastic test tubes.  Others will say that test tubes are inadequate, or that glass provides better visibility.  I'm content with durable polypropylene.

[sehrgut]

I'm glad to hear that recommendation. My biggest attraction to them was being able to prepare them for field use and not have to move the collected queens into "permanent" founding tubes afterwards.

[dspdrew]

It depends what you're using them for. Instead of giving my opinion, I'll just give the properties of the three main materials.

 

There's polystyrene, which is brittle, clear, and soft (scratches very easily).

 

There's Polypropylene, which is very durable, and not brittle, but not very clear.

 

Then there's glass of course, (I think most everybody already knows the properties of glass--very fragile and brittle, but very hard (does not scratch easily), and clear.

[dspdrew]

We actually already had a thread for this pinned in this same subforum.
 
 http://www.formicult...rchasing-guide/
 
I went ahead and added JakobS's aspirator listing to it. The rest of the stuff was pretty much already covered.