In praise of .5mm silicone tubing
I’ve had the more commonly seen ports on commercially made nests like from THA and such. Kind of a big hole on the relative here. They work, but there’s better to be had I think and I want to encourage everyone to check it out.
.5mm is tiny by comparison, a typical blunt tip syringe just fits, and fits tight enough to not leak when injecting water to the watertower/nest humidifier.
It can also be inserted high on a watertower, but pressed low to the bottom where it will stay(sorry I have no good images to show). This allows a high fill line in the tower. And the low tube allows for using bubble sounds (or lack of) to help gauge water levels. Which can be hard to see in some nests, particularly topdown view style.
It's very flexible, allowing greater options on nest making layouts. The watertower can go anywhere, and the fill port tube can easily be snaked around however is needed to reach the nearest convenient exit form the nest block. The flexi tube also allows this longer tube hanging out, which can open up placement options for a nest. And allows injection of water without ever disturbing the ants. I had on occasion with the other style of water port scratched/poked the nest with the blunt tip and disturbed the ants.
And I have found this excellent use for them as air intakes to prevent the sponge form being sucked in. the sponge was stronger in its density when wet than it’s grip pressure force increase from expanding while wet. So would be sucked inward and eventually spill the water out long before they drank it. A toothpick sized hole pressed in while dried out was a perfect fit for the .5mm tube to allow air in without water leaking out. Now these all last a lot longer. You can just barely see the tube there in the middle of the blue sponge.
So I say to all, when buying supplies for nest making. Get the .5mm silicon tube, use that as the water port and whatever else you dream up that’s useful.
Edited by Full_Frontal_Yeti, Yesterday, 8:20 AM.
