625 replies to this topic

[Kaelwizard]

I have museum glass for my mini hearth, but the ants I had in there died so now I just get a clearer view of a empty nest.

 

It's also nice to see you back! 

Edited by Kaelwizard, May 23 2020 - 7:00 AM.

[CatsnAnts]

I have museum glass for my mini hearth, but the ants I had in there died so now I just get a clearer view of a empty nest.

It's also nice to see you back!

Ahah Thanks!



Just a photo dump. The workers drank a lot of honey, as you can see, it kind of matches their orange color (ish):







Edit: It also seems like she has been laying eggs recently as can be seen in the photo.

Edited by CatsnAnts, May 23 2020 - 7:08 AM.

[CatsnAnts]

Hey!

(Warning, lots of photos!)

It’s been a while since I last updated this journal, and a lot has changed! For starters, I have a completely different colony of Temnothorax curvispinosus in my inception chamber since the first one wasn’t doing well, maybe it was too small for this formicarium? Either way, this colony is MUCH larger, and the queen has a much brighter coloration which is rare to see around here. I’ve had them for a few weeks now, and they are doing wonderful! Have a look:








I also have my other colony of T. curvispinosus (who has no queen) which I am keeping track of in a separate journal as a sort of experiment to see if it’s possible for them to produce a fertilized worker, check it out if you have some advice or knowledge on this sort of thing!

That’s it for my colonies, pretty pathetic, but I’ll get a bunch more going once blacklight season begins. I haven’t had any luck so far, but ants usually start flying at night on around June 24th here.

Now you may be wondering, “Where is he going to house these future colonies?”
- Well, my formicarium collection has been growing as of recently !

For starters, I have my Inception chamber with my colony of T. curvispinosus (which I recently just fixed the cave-in issue with the water tower tonight):

(I’ll clean up the excess sand once the mixture drys!)

Now, I’m addition to my one inception chamber, I have just received two more today! And each one is unique in its own right! Take a look, here’s the first one:





And here’s the second one:




And finally, here’s a formicarium that I made! It’s my first one to EVER turn out CORRECTLY! I still have to add the glass, but the molding is complete! I used Crystal’s method of layering the grout with different materials, and I added branches of sand from the water reservoir leading under the chambers! Here’s the molding process of the second one I’m making (since I didn’t take photos of the mold for this one):


Here’s what it looked like when it came out of the mold and after I sanded it (not the one for the mold above):



And my dad helped me to cut some glass from an old picture frame we had lying around (it’s not glued on yet haha):




So ya, that’s really it for now until I find more queens with my blacklight!

[Antkid12]

Nice formicarium! 

[AntsDakota]

I wish I could make something like that. Unfortunately I’m not a skilled craftsman.

[CatsnAnts]

I wish I could make something like that. Unfortunately I’m not a skilled craftsman.

Haha it’s okay, my first 5 formicaria that I attempted to make all failed miserably.

[CatsnAnts]

Another homemade formicarium!

I think I finally have a good process down for creating these, again, mainly using Crystal’s picture frame formicarium guide. First, I create the mold:


Then I tape together the acrylic frame that is not perfectly 90 degrees, shucks, and also brush on some olive oil:


Then I pour the cast in 3-4 layers, making sure that the middle layer contains crushed perilite:


(If you’re wondering, I’m using silly putty to hold the container in place [its the clear stuff])

And then, 1 day later, I take it out of the mold and sand it down so it looks smooth:




(Again, the glass is not attached yet. I’m actually planning on drilling holes for some neodymium magnet disks that I have. Although to appease my parents, I will also tape the edges so that it is escape proof lol. I would just rather have a removable top so that it’s easier to clean and reuse.)

And now my collection has two formicaria (they still need to dry for a week or so), but I plan on making two more as well of this kind:


And for those of you who love things that line up perfectly, I noticed this in my test tube this morning - a bunch of bubbles in perfect rows:

Edited by CatsnAnts, June 17 2020 - 8:11 AM.

[ANTdrew]

You could try selling them. Crystals’ tutorial link seems to down unfortunately.

[CatsnAnts]

You could try selling them. Crystals’ tutorial link seems to down unfortunately.

I think that’s a great idea! I have had that thought in the back of my head when making these. If I were to sell them, I’d first need to “trial run” them to see if they actually work ahaha, but my past formicaria have all had lots of problems, so I’m really hoping I’ve finally worked out all of the issues. So ya, I think my parents would be excited to hear that too, although I have finally gotten my Mom interested in what I’m doing, not my Dad yet though.

Here’s the link to Crystal’s guide to making a picture frame formicarium in case anyone is curious:
https://www.formicul...nced-hydration/

Edited by CatsnAnts, June 17 2020 - 8:04 AM.

[ANTdrew]

Great! The link is back. It was down when I tried it yesterday.

[Antkid12]

 

You could try selling them. Crystals’ tutorial link seems to down unfortunately.

I think that’s a great idea! I have had that thought in the back of my head when making these. If I were to sell them, I’d first need to “trial run” them to see if they actually work ahaha, but my past formicaria have all had lots of problems, so I’m really hoping I’ve finally worked out all of the issues. So ya, I think my parents would be excited to hear that too, although I have finally gotten my Mom interested in what I’m doing, not my Dad yet though.

Here’s the link to Crystal’s guide to making a picture frame formicarium in case anyone is curious:
https://www.formicul...nced-hydration/

 

About how much would you sell them for?

[CatsnAnts]

You could try selling them. Crystals’ tutorial link seems to down unfortunately.

I think that’s a great idea! I have had that thought in the back of my head when making these. If I were to sell them, I’d first need to “trial run” them to see if they actually work ahaha, but my past formicaria have all had lots of problems, so I’m really hoping I’ve finally worked out all of the issues. So ya, I think my parents would be excited to hear that too, although I have finally gotten my Mom interested in what I’m doing, not my Dad yet though.
Here’s the link to Crystal’s guide to making a picture frame formicarium in case anyone is curious:https://www.formicul...nced-hydration/

About how much would you sell them for?

I would likely sell them for around 30 dollars, but if I were to make more of these to sell, I’d need to figure out a reliable way to obtain the materials, which means that I don’t quite know how much it costs to make one of these considering these are all resources that I have acquired over a slow time. I’ll get back on this topic when I do some more research.

[madbiologist]

Have you tried putting sand in the layer where the ants are too, kind of like THA does it? That could be interesting.

Sent from my Pixel XL using Tapatalk

[CatsnAnts]

Have you tried putting sand in the layer where the ants are too, kind of like THA does it? That could be interesting.
Sent from my Pixel XL using Tapatalk

Yep! I have thought about that, but in order for me to actually get the sand to stick I guess I’ll put some on top of the clay when I create the mold! Either that or I will use some epoxy to put some in the nest (which I don’t have). The sand I’ve been using is from a stockpile that we have, but if I were to put some in the nest I’d likely need to buy a solid-color sand such as white sand. Thanks for the idea!

[ANTdrew]

I don’t think the ants care either way about our obsession with sand coating everything.

[madbiologist]

I don’t think the ants care either way about our obsession with sand coating everything.

Some ants cannot walk on smooth surfaces, like cryptics or Pogonomyrmex. Others need substrate to help their larvae spin cocoons, like Formica. They definitely care, IMO.

Sent from my Pixel XL using Tapatalk

[ANTdrew]

Good point, but grout isn’t all that smooth.

[CatsnAnts]

I don’t think the ants care either way about our obsession with sand coating everything.

Some ants cannot walk on smooth surfaces, like cryptics or Pogonomyrmex. Others need substrate to help their larvae spin cocoons, like Formica. They definitely care, IMO.
Sent from my Pixel XL using Tapatalk

I agree that this could affect a lot of things, which is why I think I should probably add it. I agree with Drew that grout really isn’t all that smooth, especially since I agitated it a lot while mixing it to create micro air bubbles (I only sand the walls, not the floors). However, as for substrate, sand will most likely be neccessary since I try to remove as many loose particles of grout as I can. I’m basically convinced that I’m adding it in my next formicarium build, not only for the ants, but also because it looks really nice !

[CatsnAnts]

I have currently halted the production of my third formicarium, and have taken into consideration what you guys said:

Selling formicaria sounds like such an amazing thing to do, so I have been putting together a pretty large list of items from the web that I plan on buying to build these. The size will be 4x6 with a glass pane, and I have found some good micro mesh that I can construct water towers out of! For sand, I found some nice white beach sand that I will partially build into the formicarium and partially use two part epoxy glue to place it. As for the grout, I am going to use white grout with a clear vinyl tube that has an inner diameter of 1/4”. I have lots more things “in my cart” that I plan on buying as well. I want these formicaria to be awesome!

Edit: The size is actually 3.5” by 5” now, it’s a much better size to work with for the type of ants I will be keeping. However, I will make some 4”x6” formicaria to sell if my first few formicaria do well.

Edited by CatsnAnts, June 18 2020 - 12:57 PM.

[AntsDakota]

I have currently halted the production of my third formicarium, and have taken into consideration what you guys said:
Selling formicaria sounds like such an amazing thing to do, so I have been putting together a pretty large list of items from the web that I plan on buying to build these. The size will be 4x6 with a glass pane, and I have found some good micro mesh that I can construct water towers out of! For sand, I found some nice white beach sand that I will partially build into the formicarium and partially use two part epoxy glue to place it. As for the grout, I am going to use white grout with a clear vinyl tube that has an inner diameter of 1/4”. I have lots more things “in my cart” that I plan on buying as well. I want these formicaria to be awesome!

I actually have a proposal I’d like to make. I PMd you.