3 replies to this topic

[Ants_Got_Swole]

Since salt causes pain to ants, is there enough salt in beach sand to stop ants walking on it? Would beach sand make a good substrate for a formicarium? will it kill ants?

[Zeiss]

Never heard of salt "hurting" ants and no, it would not make a good substrate.  It wouldn't hold it's shape at all if ants tried to dig into it.  

[Ant Broski]

Although not angodd substrate for digging, ants still can walk on it without any trouble.

[DaveJay]

Here in Australia there are definitely ants in the sand dunes and foraging on the beach, for other species perhaps it would have too much salt, not that salt is hard to leach out of things using fresh water but there are other options.
I always get sand from the landscape supply yard, they have a wide range sold by the tonne, between $30 and $60 a tonne usually. This week I happened to park near a pet shop, red desert sand $27.95 for 10kg! My last purchase was 3 10 litre buckets of red sand from the landscape yard, cost 85 cents and it was wet, so maybe 25 cents in summer?