in the past I've made tutorials on how
to raise ants in captivity from a single
queen to a colony thousands of an strong
but I've only briefly touched upon
potential nesting mediums and Designs so
throughout this series of videos I'm
going to be covering the subject in a
little more detail and walk you through
how to build your very own ant
nest in this first episode we'll be
looking at a very cheap and simplistic
yet highly effective solution which I
like to call the tubs and tubes
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method a well-designed nest is comprised
of two main elements the foraging area
where the ants collect their food and
dump their
garbage and the nesting area where all
the ants reside and store their brood
first let's focus on the foraging area
any sort of container will do
transparent ones made of glass or
acrylic are best you can usually find
these sorts of containers at Pet
Aquarium and kitchen supply
shops you'll also need some vinyl tubing
this will act as Tunnels for the ants to
navigate
through vinyl tubing can be found at
most hardware stores and comes in a
range of sizes which size you choose
will depend a little on on the species
you intend on housing ideally you want
to allow enough space for at least
two-way traffic so for most ants 10 mm
will
do for larger ones like sugar ants you
might want up to 16
mm and for something like bullan even
larger
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still once you picked an appropriate
size you'll then need to attach it up to
your container so work out where you
want it to connect anywhere on the sides
towards the bottom is ideal for mine I'm
putting a couple on one of the
sides now it's just a matter of cutting
out some holes a drill is ideal but if
you don't have access to one a sharp and
sturdy blade like from a pair of
scissors works perfectly just apply a
little pressure and slowly work your way
through like
so if you're going with a glass tank you
likely need a specialized drill bit in
order to get through cleanly
preferably you want to end up with nice
round circles slightly smaller than the
circumference of your
tubing once you're done place the end
segment of your tubing in some hot water
just until it softens up a
bit then squeeze it through and you
should have a nice
fit preparing these holes and tubes like
this allows you to easily connect the
ants up to additional foraging and
nesting spaces once they require it
until such time simply plug them off
with some cotton wool or remove the
tubing and seal the hole off instead a
bit of sticky tape works
nicely now the tubing's done the tub
needs to become escape proof I found the
most effective way to do this is by
using this specialized non-toxic liquid
known as
fluon just apply a thin layer in a
circular motion with a brush or even a
bit of cotton wo make your way around
all the upper inner edges being careful
you don't leave any gaps it helps if you
work with the container upside down that
way you won't end up with unsightly drip
marks down the
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insides when you're done just leave it
to dry for around 10 minutes or so once
dry the surface becomes super slippery
any ants that try crossing the barrier
will have a tough time gripping on and
end up falling back down to the bottom
over time the barrier will lose its
Effectiveness so every 3 to 6 months or
so clean off the old layer and reapply a
fresh
one flu can be found online although it
may seem a little pricey you really
don't need to apply very much of it for
it to be effective so it'll likely last
you a long time I've had this small
100ml bottle for around 3 years now and
as you can see it's only just starting
to run
out
the added security it helps having a
tight fitting lid just in case some
Nifty ants manage to find a way
up however you still need to allow for
some ventilation this can be achieved by
simply cutting some holes into the lid
then just applying some fluon around
them and or stuffing them with some
permeable material like cotton
W alternatively you could cut out a
large section or two and then glue on a
sheet of meshing just make sure it's
fine enough so the ants won't be able to
squeeze
through now it's time to decorate a
layer of a fine substrate like sand
Works nicely I'm going for this deep
orangey reddish sand which is found
naturally throughout Central
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Australia whichever you go for just make
sure it is and will remain bone dry
otherwise the ants might choose to dig
into it and end up moving their colony
Underground and out of
sight next I like to add in something
the ants can climb on essentially giving
them additional surface area to
explore I'm going for some small rocks
and pieces of wood but you can go with
whatever you fancy some figurines even
it's really up to
you just don't get carried away remember
that the ants will be using this space
to dump their garbage like the
exoskeletons of pass prey so the less
decorative and more open the area is the
easier it'll be for you to clean and
maintain later
on now you can just leave the container
bare if you like but just note that
having some form of substrate can be
beneficial for many species especially
those whose L spin cocoons like this
colony of jumping jacks
here when the lava are nice and plump
the ants will carry little bits of
substrate back into their nest and start
covering them
up
this AIDS the L in the construction of
their cocoons as it gives them something
to grip onto and act like scaffolding
for their strands of
silk finally we're done with the
foraging area and it's ready for
ANS assuming you've been raising your
colony in a test tube set up all you
have to do is simply place the tube
inside for most ant species test tubes
comprised with a water reservoir blocked
off with some cotton wool serves as a
perfectly adequate nesting
environment either plastic or glass
tubes work fine I prefer glass as they
provide a clearer View and are far more
scratch resistant than
plastic if you need some guidance on how
to effectively set one of these up I
cover the topic in my how to raise a
queen ant tutorial
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here to prevent the tube from rolling
around press it down a bit and slightly
bury it in the
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substrate if you do choose to go with a
bare container use something like blue
tack to secure it down
instead you also have the option of
connecting the tubes externally by
utilizing the whole tube cut simply link
up the test tube with the vinyl tubing
secure it on with some sticky tape if
needed finally you want to cover the
nest from light a strip of tin foil
works well or if you want a more natural
look a leaf or a piece of bark will
suffice for the external style pipe
insulation works perfectly and like its
name suggests it'll help in keeping the
colony at a nice consistent temperature
too whatever you end up using just make
sure it's not too much of a hassle to
remove that way you can check up on the
ends with minimal
disturbance once you're happy with
placement simply remove the cotton
seal now the colony is free to roam
around and explore their new
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environment place in some food and
they'll be sure to find
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it this kind of setup is perfect for
claustral Queens who've just recently
acquired their first generation of
workers and also for semi clustal Queens
Queens in which must consume food whilst
undergoing their founding stage like
this giant blant Queen
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here as the colony grows they'll require
additional nesting space which can be
achieved by simply introducing further
test tube setups same as
before or what I like to do is set up a
small container something which hasn't
much depth to it and comes with a nice
clear and tightly fitting lid this phone
case here works perfectly just drill a
hole in to match the size of your tubing
fill it with a few test tube setups and
attach it up before long the ants will
discover the new space and begin moving
on
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in
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eventually the water in each of these
tubes will run out and the Ants will
need some fresh ones to inhabit so when
the water does start running low just
move the ants out by exposing them to
light perhaps direct them to a new
module of
tubes just keep it nice and dark and
they should move straight
in once they've moved simply detach and
block off the old nesting
area the great thing about using test
tubes is that they're infinitely
reusable so don't throw out these old
ones just remove the cotton with a Fray
stick give them a quick clean with some
hot so water and they're good to go
again so the tubs and tubes method it
really is a foolproof inexpensive and
highly effective way of raising ants
however it does come with its downsides
the cylindrical shape of the test tubes
makes everything inside seem a little
distorted and so doesn't allow for the
greatest viewing
experience and more importantly some ant
species just aren't well suited for test
tubes some ends find it difficult to
grip onto glass and plastic surfaces so
trying to raise them in one could really
debilitate The Colony and others may
prefer a relatively dry nesting
environment and so won't adapt very well
to the high humidity levels in which a
test tube setup
provides if there's one thing I've
learned about raising ants it's that
there is no one size fits all each
species has specific needs and it takes
some intuition and experimenting to
fulfill them for this reason throughout
this series I'll be covering how to
build a variety of nesting Styles
including
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heble
acrylic
soil and more in the next episode we'll
be working with heble also known as
whong or
AAC and we'll also be featuring our
range of Premium models soon to be
available on our official shop at
ancestr.com
here's just a little sneak peek of what
we've been working
on
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we'll also be offering essential and
keeping items many of which have been
utilized throughout this video such as
test tubes and vinyl tubing more info on
our shop coming very soon here on
YouTube and over on our Instagram and
Facebook page so stay tuned as always
thanks for watching this video and I
hope you
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enjoyed