23 replies to this topic

[Ernteameise]

I have seen that the products from Tarheel ants are very popular on here.

I have looked at their website and I agree that these formicariums look amazing.

So I had a look at some review videos on Youtube and especially the European Youtubers were more critical.

 

The reason I am asking is, I am tempted to get one of the bigger nests (they still do not take a lot of space) and maybe try my hands on something like Pheidole.

Just thinking, not really into the planning stage yet.

 

Some of the criticisms I have seen are:

- nests too big and ants start storing their trash in the nest

- very poor ventilation

- mould (because of the previous points)

- hard to clean

- hard to get a heating cable on

- hydration system overflowing

- items like nest-mates arrive broken

- decoration of the mini-outworlds too big, so you cannot place a feeder in there

 

For everyone who owns one of these products-

what your your thoughts and experiences?

[Skwiggledork]

I only had a few THA nests and it's been a year or so since I had ants(working on fixing that), so my opinion may be just from limited experience, but I am about 50/50 on them and most of my drawbacks are personal preference and beginner problems. 

Nests being too big comes down to buying appropriate sized nests for your colony and I had trouble eyeballing what a good size was and also bought nests slightly bigger than I thought I needed since there is a wait time if you're not getting a premade one, so I tried to account for colony growth and enough space to not need another nest as soon as I got the first one. That lead to me getting some way too big of nests and is my fault.  Too much free space leads to most ants storing garbage in the nest, so would be fixed by buying the right size, though there are just some messy species.

I can't comment on poor ventilation. I just don't know anything about it.

I didn't have any issues with mold. I got lucky that the ants I put in too large of nests stored their trash away from the water towers and I learned pretty fast that the water towers don't need to be full. Half way is plenty. 

I would agree with them being hard to clean and hard to get a heating cable on, though I only tried adding a heating cable very briefly. I couldn't figure out how to get the heating cable to only get warm instead of frying my ants. I had a cheap rheostat, but even on it's lowest setting anything touching the cable got up to 95F+, so I just decided not to use it.

Hydration system overflowing was a beginner mistake for me. It's not easy to see how full they are and I wanted to keep them topped off. Fixed by just aiming to keep them half full, then they only spilled if I jostled the nest.

Everything I ordered arrived perfect, so no broken nestmates or anything. The nestmates were hard to clean though. Mine grew a thin layer of algae on the inside and the ants stuck some loose sand to the mesh and it was hard to scrub off. Filtered/distilled water would probably fix the algae issue and rinsing and drying out the nest before use would fix them being able to stick loose sand to it. The nestmates were also a little soft for my liking. I wasn't able to push them into the holes in the nest without squeezing them a little and that caused them to leak into the nest. I was probably a little ham fisted and the openings have to be snug to make sure ants can't escape past it, but I prefer other water sources.

The outworlds are definitely smaller than I would like and the decorations take up a bit of that limited space. There was enough space to feed insects on aluminum foil and that's about it. I would just go without decorations next time I order to get all the space I can or use a separate outworld.

My only other thing was I don't like how deep the chambers are in the vertical nests and the nests with multiple sides. It's 100% preference, but I liked journaling my colonies and had trouble getting photos in focus showing both ants on the glass and ants further back in the chambers and for the nests with multiple sides I have a shelf that I had them on so I could only see one side, so it was just space I couldn't see.    

    
 

[AntPerson76]

My pheidole which you've probably seen from my journal are nested in a mini-hearth, and I do have a slight problem with them storing their trash in the nest, but it's right by the glass so I can easily take it out without any escapees, although that might become a problem as the colony becomes bigger. 

 

Ventilation isn't really a problem as far as I know.

 

I've never seen mold in the nest or the outworld so I don't think it's really a big issue, but if you keep a species that collects seeds, the seeds could get moldy. 

 

The whole glass front comes off, so if a colony moves or dies the previous nest will be very easy to clean.

I don't use or know much about heating cables so I can't answer that. 

 

The hydration system does overflow if you fill it up too much, like Skwiggledork said, so halfway is fine. 

 

I've ordered many things from tarheelants and none have ever arrived broken. 

 

It is possible to place a feeder inside with lots of extra space, and that's even with the mini-hearth. If you plan on getting something bigger, it will definitely fit. 

[ANTdrew]

I have only ever had two issues with THA nests. One was a Type III Nucleus where the glass did not fit perfectly on the nest, leaving a gap my Crematogasters could escape from. The second issue was some flaw in the water tower of a Fallen Fortress that allowed my Pheidole to get inside of it and even escape out the water tube. 

 

Overall, I think they are great nests, but they work best for larger, relatively clean species. If you are housing smaller species, you absolutely need to custom order a design made for tiny ants.  Shipping costs to Europe would obviously be another limiting factor for keepers over there. After paying such a high price, you would want a nest that is basically flawless. 

[TacticalHandleGaming]

I love their nests. If you have any questions regarding sizes, etc for your colony, Mack is great to work with.

[Flu1d]

They make great nests, however I went with making my own "Formisquarium" and "Formisquarium XL" nests, rip offs of Cheeto's nests from "Arthropod Antics".

His nest builds are far more simple than THA, however I have zero escapes, zero mold and plenty of ventilation/hydration.

To keep back on topic with THA, whenever one of my colonies reaches a very very large size, nobody making mainstream nests in the USA makes a better LARGE nest than THA. If you have a MASSIVE colony, their huge nests made for massive colonies, in MY opinion, cannot be beat.

That being said, that doesn't mean you can't put together a few Formisquarium XL's together and still have an amazing massive colony nest.. but I still would, if it were me, go with THA in that regard.. or attempt to make a large THA clone myself. That being said, making a THA clone wouldn't be as easy as Mack doesn't actually list his materials (I believe he uses a proprietary blend of materials), rightly so, as many people would then copy his nests and attempt to sell.

I would never attempt to sell my nests in competition with Cheeto. The only time I would sell mine is if specifically asked for me to make them one or if I no longer needed the nests.

[Ernteameise]

Okay, I can see that Messors (who are, indeed very messy) and small species might be a bad choice for these nests.

 

However- what do you think of Lasius (either niger or flavus which are native to my region)?

Or Myrmica? Myrmica rubra needs a lot of humidity, would one of these nests provide enough humidity?

[Manitobant]

I've never had problems with messor in THA nests. My colony is in a casita and doing great.

[Ernteameise]

I've never had problems with messor in THA nests. My colony is in a casita and doing great.

No mould? Storage of trash? Messors also like to use glass panels as toilets, can you still see through the glass?

[Manitobant]

I mean they DO make a mess, but the nest still works great and you can see em easily.

[Ernteameise]

Well, thank you all for your advice!

I decided to take the plunge.

I ordered one of the XXL Mini Hearth Ready to Ship formicaria and decided I will just try it out.

International shipping with normal post might take 2 weeks to arrive, but 30 Euro was not too bad.

 

The XXL Mini Hearth might be a good upgrade nest for my Messor Rescue colony which is right now still living in the tubs and tubes setup (and will stay there until the colony has grown).

For the rescue colony, I also have the acrylic nest, so I have a backup (if the XXL Mini Hearth is a failure) and also an extension when they grow.

I estimate I could house around 500 ants in both nests roughly, when comparing it to how much space my other ~150-200 worker Messor colony needs.

 

I will give a full review and report back here on how the packaging and delivery went (if anything got broken for example) and when the ants move in, I will also document that.

 

Well, I hope this will work out with the Rescue colony- the formicarium and decorations look very nice and I just hope it is right for the colony.

Edited by Ernteameise, June 8 2023 - 9:14 AM.

[Full_Frontal_Yeti]

I have seen that the products from Tarheel ants are very popular on here.

I have looked at their website and I agree that these formicariums look amazing.

So I had a look at some review videos on Youtube and especially the European Youtubers were more critical.

 

The reason I am asking is, I am tempted to get one of the bigger nests (they still do not take a lot of space) and maybe try my hands on something like Pheidole.

Just thinking, not really into the planning stage yet.

 

Some of the criticisms I have seen are:

- nests too big and ants start storing their trash in the nest

- very poor ventilation

- mould (because of the previous points)

- hard to clean

- hard to get a heating cable on

- hydration system overflowing

- items like nest-mates arrive broken

- decoration of the mini-outworlds too big, so you cannot place a feeder in there

 

For everyone who owns one of these products-

what your your thoughts and experiences?

Complaint number one is not a problem of THA products. That the same as saying, this 12 cylinder hot rod sports car is way too much for my 16 year old. It was not the product that made the wrong call on that.

My nest does have a crack in the water tower somewhere i can't see. If i fill it up too high it leaks out and wets the nest material (no standing water) which then gets humidity saturation and condensation on the glass from it.
But once i figured out how high i can fill it, no problems, it can be filled to 3/4 way so no real issues in my POV here.

 

I don't notice poor ventilation. the mini hearth has three ports + the outworld exit. Any of those ports can be plugged with a screened tube/nest mate for ventilation if needed.
But by being sure not to place the heat cable too close to the water tower, then the internal humidity is not over saturated all the time, just nice and high.

"hard to clean", someone has a nest full of ants that's easy to clean? i notice they are building up a fair bit of poo o certain spots of the nest. But i see them moving out in 2-3 months to something bigger, so not worried bout needing to clean it while they still need to occupy it.

 

heating cable: on this i ani't seen anyone with a good design for dealing. My mini hearth sits on top of 4 little rubber feet, that i cut a groove in two of. This way i can run the heat cable under the nest but not make it tippy.
I am moving into a fallen fortress soon which comes mounted to a bit of wood. i am going to cut out a groove in the wood base so i can run the heat cable under the nest  while being sure to route it far away from the water tower.
I imagine a nest pour that puts a placeholder run of a  skinny play dough snake in the bottom of the nest, so you can run a heat cable under the nest in the little tight fit groove that keeps good nest/cable contact,  and allows the nest to sit flat too.
Nest makers yall reading this, free design improvement ideas here for you. That or just place a small brass/copper tube in the right spot so a heat cable can be inserted to it.
Also if the heat cable is routed correctly, you can make it have a little contact with the glass and that can make all the difference for condensation. As condensation happens when the temperature inside the nest is far off enough form the temperature of the glass. Applying just a little heat to the glass is all it takes to stop that.
Though if the humidity is super saturated nothing can prevent condensation from forming. That's mostly a matter of not heating the water towers up directly too much to control the evaporation rate.

 

On nest mates: i seen enough vids, i'm going with most nest mates are fine, it's the end users who are clueless on those.One of the most easy to find vids that talks about nest mates is someone literally doing it wrong and not understanding they are doing it wrong, but saying they think it's broke. It's not broke, you put your finger over the screen to fill it and you keep it there until after you get the red plug in place.

For seeds and boiled bugs i don't need any feeding trays. I only need trays for gooey stuff like honey or bugs with runny juices,  which the 4 seconds of boiling has consistently taken care of for me. Ever sense i started boiling bugs i stopped putting them on trays.
So i've not used feed dishes for a while now, seeds, boiled bugs are fine,  and fruit just goes skin side down.


 

[Ernteameise]

I actually had sent an email with exactly then points stated above to Tarheel Ants.

And I had a very detailed and long answer today!

This is great customer service.

I love the company already, and the nest has not even shipped yet!

 

I will not keep it a secret, here is what the owner of Tarheel Ants, Mark Pridgen, has to say:

 

Seed harvesting ants will have problems in any nest if the user is not careful with the hydration method.  I personally have not had any issue with them as I understand how the water towers and nestmates are filled (Google "nestmate video" and watch the first couple of minutes).  If you have a situation with an acrylic nest, concrete nest, Ytong, grout, wood, any material at all really, and the seeds get wet, you will have something to be concerned about in the short term.  Hopefully the ants would remove the seeds.  There are ways to avoid the issue more with some planning:

 

1. Do not give your ants too many seeds, watch their stores carefully and limit them.  A teaspoon of good seeds would last your small colony a month or so, maybe more depending on the amount of larvae to feed.

2. Do not overflow the water towers, they should only be filled 1/2 to 2/3.  This is for two reasons, the first being moving the formicarium.  When it tilts, water can touch the top of the screen, and this is where part of the material we use to make our nests comes into contact with the screen.  This material has a very good ability to quickly absorb water, so avoid that issue if possible.  The material also disperses water quickly, so if you have a small flood it is not going to kill the ant colony and will absorb quickly back into the nest.  The other reason you should not fill them over 2/3 is just out of caution.  Should any of that material during the creation process be slightly below the screen for any reason, again the water will be sucked up and out of the water tower.

3. Adjust with your ants....you will have two nestmates.  Likely your ants will keep the seeds to the far left, away from the higher humidity.  Do not add water to the nestmates if there are seed stores directly below them.  Just leave it empty, or use it as a vent (the nestmates allow you to control the ventilation in the nest by either using them as a water feeder, vent, or just plugging them up).  Not many people get this part right....honestly it is all over the place and there is a lot of trial and error with ants.  Unfortunately with all the varying habitats of ants across species, there is not a one rule for all situation for how to manage the liquid feeding, ventilation, and heating to prevent issues.  

 

I would try to lean on more experienced ant keepers for situational issues (not necessarily with the use of our habitats as not all understand the functionality), but those are usually the more difficult ones to find as their interest in social media fades.  I am happy to help troubleshoot, and we also have a Facebook group where usually 24 hours a day someone is able to help with a suggestion.  There are some of the longest running ant keepers around in that group, but again it is not always easy to find those with the best advice.

 

Heating Cable:  Tape it to a surface, this secures it on something other than your ant colony.  They are long and can be the source of major disasters should it get snagged on something moving.  Push the left side of the XL Mini Hearth up against the heat cable.  This is usually enough heat for most ants.  You can also bring it around the front of the glass along the bottom of the glass where it touches the nest.  The ants will put their brood right on the glass in these instances, and it is easy to see how this is a good transfer of heat.  Taping the heat cable to the Mini Hearth or putting it underneath can work also.

 

Watch the videos on our Guide on the website, scroll to the bottom.  These are designed for a similar species to our seed harvesting ants.  Also, watch the video on the Mini Hearth as well, it can show general arrangement among other things.  Hope this helps...

 

I will follow his advice and do exactly what he says.

I am very curious how this will work out with the Rescue Messor colony and how well they will adapt to the Tarhill nest when they are big enough to move (right now they are around 20 nanitics in a test tube, so they will have to at least triple in size before I will even attempt to move them).

[Ernteameise]

So, ta-da!

Today, my order from Tarheel Ants arrived.

It was stuck in German customs for a few days and I feared it would cost a lot of duty, but in the end, I only paid 14 Euro of custom fees, so no big deal.

 

I promised some un-boxing pictures, so here we go.

 

First impression- this is VERY well packaged (and customs did not bother to get it out of wrapping)

 

 

 

Of all the extras (including the plugs and nest-mates) everything seems to be in order and looking fine (nothing broken).

 

 

And then look at this nest!

It is drop dead gorgeous!!!!!!

 

 

 

 

Now I have to play around a bit to get the hang of the magnets and the water tower. Especially refilling the water tower.

 

But anyways, I am impressed.

This is good work.

[Ernteameise]

Right-

so today I realized that my main Messor barbarus colony will outgrow their current acrylic nest.

I am in love with the design of Tarheel Ants....

so I sent them an email, with pictures of my current setup, and asked for options for a custom nest.

I am thinking something along the lines of the Nucleus.

(watch this space!)

 

Has anyone ever had done custom nests by Tarheel Ants?

What are your experiences?

[Barristan]

The problem will be that they will chew through the ytong or plaster or whatever that is I guess it is not concreate, that would be fine.. So it would be best to move them to a nest integrated into the outworld.

[Ernteameise]

The problem will be that they will chew through the ytong or plaster or whatever that is I guess it is not concreate, that would be fine.. So it would be best to move them to a nest integrated into the outworld.

They are not using Ytong and plaster anymore, they now have this „Type III“ material which is much harder and they at least say it keeps chewing ants like Camponotus and harvesters in.
I have this smaller nest for my smaller colony and it is amazingly heavy for such a small object.
It is a pretty dense material which I cannot scratch with my fingernail ( which I can do for plaster and Ytong).

I have however not tried the nest with ants yet. So yeah, I will find out myself what will happen.

My Antcube has a digfix insert in, but while the Messors have dug tunnels, and have stored the occasional grain, the have remained stubbornly in the acrylic nest. Maybe Digfix is the wrong material? If they have destroyed it enough, I might go back to sand/ clay.

I just have fallen in love with these Tarheel nests and I am surprised how well they are made and how much thought went into them.
A Tarheel nest will be a sure upgrade to the acrylic nest. Better ventilated ( when using the nestmates as ventilation) better hydration and more stable and less prone to destruction. I also can better apply heat with a heat cable.

[Full_Frontal_Yeti]

Right-

so today I realized that my main Messor barbarus colony will outgrow their current acrylic nest.

I am in love with the design of Tarheel Ants....

so I sent them an email, with pictures of my current setup, and asked for options for a custom nest.

I am thinking something along the lines of the Nucleus.

(watch this space!)

 

Has anyone ever had done custom nests by Tarheel Ants?

What are your experiences?

Yes the stuff from THA are their own works of art i enjoy. I practically got ants to have an excuse to buy them.

I got a custom outworld made in one of their 9x5x5 boxes and i love it. Here next to a fallen fortress outworld(when it first arrived). I like the little entrance ways look better than a plain old tube. And the little cups on top are great for placing seeds.

This one has the extra vent lid and premium decorations. And the look is my custom ask to not be "not too busy." I like less leafy bushy stuff and more rocks/sticks/cactus looking stuff. It's all a little more on the minimal side by request.

And i recently placed an order for another outworld in a custom sized box, 11w x 8d x 9h and had to get a larger riser to make room.

The fallen fortress and mini hearth i bought as premades.

Edited by Full_Frontal_Yeti, June 29 2023 - 6:13 PM.

[Ernteameise]

 

Right-

so today I realized that my main Messor barbarus colony will outgrow their current acrylic nest.

I am in love with the design of Tarheel Ants....

so I sent them an email, with pictures of my current setup, and asked for options for a custom nest.

I am thinking something along the lines of the Nucleus.

(watch this space!)

 

Has anyone ever had done custom nests by Tarheel Ants?

What are your experiences?

Yes the stuff from THA are their own works of art i enjoy. I practically got ants to have an excuse to buy them.

I got a custom outworld made in one of their 9x5x5 boxes and i love it. Here next to a fallen fortress outworld(when it first arrived). I like the little entrance ways look better than a plain old tube. And the little cups on top are great for placing seeds.

This one has the extra vent lid and premium decorations. And the look is my custom ask to not be "not too busy." I like less leafy bushy stuff and more rocks/sticks/cactus looking stuff. It's all a little more on the minimal side by request.

And i recently placed an order for another outworld in a custom sized box, 11w x 8d x 9h and had to get a larger riser to make room.

The fallen fortress and mini hearth i bought as premades.

 

Your setup is very beautiful.

It is one of the reasons I decided to take the jump and buy my first nest from them...

It is also great to see your custom setups!

With Messor barbarus, they are just very destructive ants. Not malicious, they are maybe like young puppies who feel the need to chew on everything.

So I will have to go with "minimalist" and "not busy", too. I think I will have to miss out on the plant decorations and anything delicate, too - because from what I have seen from other Messor keepers, they will just wreck it. I have seen one Messor keeper who had the plastic grass decoration in their outworld and the Messors just cut down that plastic grass!

So "minimalist" is the way to go- however, I love the look of the shiny vermiculite and the petrified wood stones in my XXL Mini Hearth so that would be great for a custom nest.

 

Why do I need a custom nest at all?

Because I have my main colony on a shelf and have the shelf fitted out with LED lighting and there is already an Antcube outworld in there which I would like to keep for the girls. So I need some options to fit a new, bigger nest in the gap where the acrylic nest is sitting right now.

 

[Ants_Dakota]

Okay, I can see that Messors (who are, indeed very messy) and small species might be a bad choice for these nests.

 

However- what do you think of Lasius (either niger or flavus which are native to my region)?

Or Myrmica? Myrmica rubra needs a lot of humidity, would one of these nests provide enough humidity?

Ok on the topic of lasius i will say i highly dislike tarheelants mini hearth just due to the size of the chambers. Literally only camponotus can found comfortably in them. The bifurcated attempts to solve the problem, however visibility is a bit of an issue. For smaller species like lasius, etc. it would probably be best to go with a flat nest, natural setup, or smaller caverns from them, which i believe can be done for the fortress formicarium(the price tag just keeps me away sadly). The only actual design flaw i encountered was some of the 3d printed plugs not fitting snugly into the holes on the nest, leading to some of my formica being able to escape(formica being a fairly medium species, which was worrying). However, this nest was from maybe 3 years ago, and i believe they have now fixed the problem.