 Hi guys, my name is Jordan and in this video I'm going to be creating some more antness. In the previous episode I showed you guys how you could create a modular nest made from autoclaved aerated concrete, AAC for sure. In this episode I'm going to be working with this same material again but instead creating an environment which has both the ants nesting area and their foraging area contained in a single unit and all in one design. So to make it all in one, the process is pretty similar to the modular designs we made last video. Again, we're going to be using cheap and simplistic tools and materials so just about anyone can give this a go. First, what you'll need is your container. I'm going with some acrylic tabs of various shapes and sizes. As we're going to be slotting the AAC up against the sides, ideally you want your container to have perfectly vertical faces, then it'll be relatively easy to get it sitting up flush against them. Then you want to think about how you want your nest to look. I recommend sketching out some ideas until you're happy. For this tutorial I'm going to be creating three different designs, for three different ant colonies, all at various stages in development and all in need of a new nest. The first is a young colony of some very unusual looking ants with their relatively small frame and super long legs. They are a finagaster, longy-seps, commonly known as funnel ants. They get their name from the way in which they construct their nest entrances. They form them into, well, funnel-like shapes. The soil in these structures are maintained so they're loose and slippery, making them perfect for entraping cumbersome insects, like this beetle here. A very similar strategy to how ant lines capture their prey. Currently, they're housed in a single test tube, hooked up to one of our ancestors, foraging arenas, also known as an outworld. The colony currently has around 10 workers, so they'll only need a very small nest at this point. My plan is to house them in a mini-chic container and have nesting chambers up against three of the four sides. For my second nest, I'm going to be housing a fairly established colony of rainbow ants, an unidentified species within the genus Arido Mermex. They're named rainbow ants after their iridescent coloration. Under my LED lights here, they look quite plain, but under sunlight, they can appear reddish gold, with hints of green, blue, and even purple. They're very common ants here in Australia, and are extremely hardy and fast growing. The very first queen I caught almost five years ago now was actually one of these guys. And if you've seen some of my older videos, you'll know that that colony absolutely thrived, getting well into the tens of thousands strong. Currently, I've got these guys housed in a simple tubs and tube setup, and I'd estimate they have at least a thousand workers present. Here's a shot of the queen of the colony, who's becoming increasingly difficult to find now. She seems to always be hidden away, encased by walls of workers and brood. Much like my original rainbow ant colony, these guys are developing incredibly fast. As you can see, they've got tons of brood, so much so that they've decided to create little towers out of them. Not something I see ants do very often. They must really be in desperate need of some new nesting space. So for these guys, I'm planning on using this fairly decent size container and positioning a large nesting area up against the front. That should give them plenty of space, for at least a little while anyway. And lastly, there's my colony of truthless blants. Mermicia, Pilly Ventress, featured in my blant room tour here. Since their last appearance, they produce another two generations of workers, so the colony is now sitting at around 30 workers strong, which is quite a substantial number for such a large species event. Each one measures in at around two centimeters in length. And as you can see by all this lava here, another generation is well on its way. Almost half the nest is occupied by their brood load. So for these guys, I'm going to be going with a small fish tank. I plan on making their nest segmented, covering the front two corners, like so. So once you've decided upon your design, work out the length, width, and height of each piece. Then mark out their dimensions onto your block of AAC. You want to give it a little extra margin, around two to three millimeters or so. When it comes time to fitting the block inside your container, and you find it's a little too big, all you'll have to do is just sand it down a little. It's much easier taking off anything extra than it is to add it. So these margins just give you a little safety buffer. Once all the measuring's done, it's time to cut out your shapes. I'm using a hacksaw, but any saw will do really. Try to cut down as straight as possible, so you end up with nice flat edges. Sculpting this material creates a lot of mess, so I recommend working some place outside. And it's also worth wearing a mask, so you don't inhale all those fine particles. Once that's done, we're going to mark out the nest's exterior onto the brick, all those curves and slopes. And then the interior, all the tunnels and chambers. It's a good idea to leave at least a 10 millimeter margin between your interior and your exterior, so as to prevent the edges chipping off during the carving stage. Then work out where you want your nest entrance holes to be. This is where the ants will be able to access their foraging areas from. The size of these holes only really needs to be big enough for the largest of your ants to be able to fit through. In most cases, this will be the queen of the colony. So around this size should be fine for my funnel and rainbow ants. And I'll obviously need something a little bit bigger for my bullets. Now we need to work out a hydration system. To give you guys some options, for each nest, I'm going to be using a slightly different method. For the first one, I'm keeping it super simple. All you do is inject water into the nest's entrance holes directly from above, and the water will flow down into the nesting chambers below. And for this one, I'm going to be creating a couple of hydration chambers on the front two corners. These chambers will then be hydrated from the exterior of the setup via holes in the plastic. Just big enough for a syringe tip to be able to fit in. You're best using a drill to cut these out, but if you don't have access to one, a pair of scissors works nicely. Just apply a little pressure and carefully work your way through. While you're at it, it might be a good idea to cut out some extra, slightly larger holes at the back, allowing you to lead the ants to additional nesting space, when need be. Given how fast rainbow ants grow, a spare hole or two is definitely a good idea for me. And finally, for my fish tank design, I'm going to have some small sections of vinyl tubing coming down from above, which will connect into a hole that I'll be cutting into the brick. So the water will simply be injected into the top of the tubes, run all the way down, and into the hydration holes, and disperse to the surrounding nesting chambers. So now that all the planning's done, it's time to start carving everything out. First, I like to sculpt out the exterior. For the miniature one, I'm making some subtle hills around the nests entrances, just by shaving it down with a chisel, and then smoothing the edges over with a small screwdriver. For the larger nests here, I'm using a chisel in combination with a hammer, so as to form some steep sloping hills. Make sure to start of the edges, and slowly work your way in, like so. Once you're happy with how the exterior is looking, it's onto the interior. So with a screwdriver and a hammer if needed, carefully carve your way through all the tunnels and chambers. Next, drill out all your entrance holes. I like to do this by drilling down vertically from the top, and then horizontally from the side, so that the two holes meet up in an L-shade. For the large nests, I'm also drilling down a hole around three centimeters into each corner. This will be where the vinyl tubing will connect in for hydration. Just make sure that the hole you drill matches the size of your tubing, so that the tubing fits in nice and snug. Additionally, with this hydration method, you can drill little holes into this cavity, reaching the nesting chambers on the other side. Now when you inject water in, it'll find its way directly into the nesting chambers. Just make sure the holes are small enough, so your nests won't be able to crawl through. Alright, so that's all the carving done. Next, I like to give the whole nest a light sanding, so it's all looking nice and smooth. Here, I'm sanding the faces of the nest, just so that they'll sit up flush against the container walls. The best way to do this is to tightly secure some sandpaper up against something solid and flat, like a mug coaster. Then, sand it down evenly, like so. Once all the sanding's done, you want to clean off all that fine dust. For this, you can use a dust blower, brush, or even a vacuum cleaner. Now, you just need to test to make sure that the nest fits into its container. All fitting nicely. If you're having trouble with yours, you may need to sand it down a little bit further. This is where that safety margin we applied on the cutting stage comes into play. Next, I'm giving my nests some color. I'm using some natural, non-toxic paint, made from chalk and clay, which I've watered down quite heavily, so I used to feel in all those bubbly grooves. After I've given my nests a couple of coats, for a more natural look, I like to further sculpt my nests with some edge-riding clay. Here, I'm creating little slopes and steps, and building up the nests entrances into little hills. You can sculpt a landscape to really, however you like. While you're at it, you might want to also make some little stoppers for your nests entrances too. I'm forming mine into little mushroom-like shapes, which works quite well for the job. Once you're done with all the painting and all the sculpting, allow some time for the paint and clay to fully dry. Then, it's ready to go into your container. But first, just make sure to give it a good clean so that you'll get a nice clear view of your ants within. And if you've created some hydration chambers for your nest, additionally, you can add in some little sponges. This will help the water disperse more slowly and evenly upon injection. Just make certain that the sponges you use don't have any added harmful chemicals. Now it's time to seal the nest into your container. Non-toxic formulas of silicon, hot glue, and even blue tack could do the trick. But for mine, I'm going from my natural approach, utilizing some air drying clay again. Simply roll the clay into long, even strands. And then gently press them into all the edges of the nest. You want the clay to be a fairly dry consistency for this part. Otherwise, it may sink in and drip down the sides of your container, which could look quite unsightly. Once you've covered all the edges, I like to then water the clay down a little and then proceed to blend out the sealant line to give it a nice natural looking finish. Then, for my large nest, I'm plugging in those two sections of vinyl tubing in for hydration. And then just using some small strips of blue tack, I'm tucking them up against the corners so that they're relatively unnoticeable. Then you'll probably want to seal off the end of the tubing. I'm not bothering with mine as the ants going in here are far too large to be able to crawl inside. But if yours aren't, a little bit of cotton wool or blue tack should work fine. Alright, so now it's time for some decorating. I'm giving each of my setups its own distinctive theme, Forest, Beach, and Desert. For the forest, I'm adding in a small carpet of mosses and some fallen eucalyptus pods, one of which I found carbon in some very pretty looking liking. For the beach theme, I'm putting in a layer of white sand, along with a small piece of driftwood, some rocks, and a few shells. And for the desert theme, a layer of red sand, along with some twigs, grass, and some little rocks which I carbon in clay to match the nest. Once it's all looking nice and pretty, you'll need to make your setup escape proof. Here I'm applying a thin layer of florn, also known as PTFE, a plate in a circular motion, all the way around the upper inner edges of your container. Once dry, this area becomes super slippery, making it very difficult for ants to pass over it without losing their grip and falling back down to the bottom. It might also be a good idea to apply a layer around the outer edges too. This will reduce the chance of wild ant colonies discovering the nest and potentially attacking and raiding your colony. Alternatively, you could also use some kind of vegetable oil or Vaseline, but personally, I found floren to be the most effective barrier. For extra security, it also helps if you have a lid to go on top, ideally something that allows for some decent ventilation. This container here came with a single hole in the middle of its lid, designed to act as a handle. So what I'm doing here is covering it over with an ultra-fine steel meshing and just securing it on with some blue tack. Now, fresh air will be able to pass in and out of the nest, with zero chance of escaping ants. For my large nest here, the tank came with a removable frame, so I'm simply fitting a fine aluminium flyscreen over the empty space and securing it on with some tape. At this point, everything's done, and your setup is ready for some ants. I've designed my desert and forest theme this so that I can restrict the ants to certain parts, simply by closing off the entrances. This way, I can gradually give the colony additional nesting space as they require it. So before I introduce my ants, I'll need to work out which areas they'll be able to occupy. For my desert theme nest, I have four separate sections, and you'll probably have noticed I've gone for two different chamber styles. The ones on the right corner have fairly narrow tunnels and chambers. Whilst the ones on the left have quite wide and spacious ones. So using those little clay seals I made, I've decided to leave the front two areas open, and then let the ants decide on which style they prefer. And for my miniature forest theme nest, I've got three separate sections, I've decided to leave just the front phase open for them. Alright, now that's worked out. Finally, in-go the ants. I'm just placing their cartenests directly inside their new foraging areas. For my miniature setup, there isn't enough space for the tube to be able to sit down flat, and I can't really let it rest against the sides of the container, as that would form a bridge for the ants to climb straight out. So here I'm pressing on some blue tack at the entrance, and standing it up almost vertically. It looks quite precarious, but with enough blue tack, it's really quite secure. Alternatively, if you cut out an expansion haul into your container, you can simply attach their cartenests up to this via a small length of vinyl tubing, and move the ants in that way. To encourage the ants to move into their new nests, this continue hydrating them so that they slowly dry out. Meanwhile, continually hydrate their new one. How often you should hydrate will depend on a variety of factors, such as the species' event you're raising, and their particular humidity preferences, as well as the temperature the nest is kept at, and how much ventilation you're set up as. If you've covered the majority of your nest in clay, while you're using a lid which doesn't provide much ventilation, for example, any moisture within the nest will take longer to evaporate than otherwise. So it's all about experimenting, and finding something that works for you and your ants. You'll also want to cover the nest from any light, too, so that they feel right at home. Now it's just a matter of waiting. Sometimes ants can grow quite attached to their nests, and it may take weeks, even months before they budge, so just have some patience. The ants will move in when they feel it necessary. There shouldn't be any need to rush them in. In my case, the funnel ants moved in fairly quickly, but not exactly where I wanted them. They ended up moving in underneath the layer of moss, completely out of sight. I thought they'd never leave, but almost a week later, they decided to move down to the bottom most chamber, where the humidity was highest, and now they're looking quite comfortable, or huddled up closely together. The bullets moved in almost immediately. They ended up deciding upon the narrower structure nest, over on the right. Perhaps they felt safer and more secure in this cramped environment. Just like the funnel ants, they bunched up in the bottom most chambers, so as to take advantage of that increased humidity in which they provide both them and their brood. They've also terraformed their new home a little. Here, they've carpeted their chain before, with sand, which they've gathered from their outworld. I suspect this could be to aid the larvae in the construction of their cocoons. If you look closely here, you can actually see one of the larvae starting to spin. See its little head moving around? Blant larvae are able to expel tiny strands of silk from special glands near their mouths. They use this silk to meticulously wrap their entire bodies in multiple layers of this stuff. Given how translucent this larva's cocoon is here, it was probably just starting work on its second layer, quite a fascinating process to witness. Now onto the rainbow ants. Well, surprisingly, after a whole week, they've only just partially moved in, utilizing this new space like a satellite nest, with a few clusters of brood here and there. I found they like to store most of their pupae in here, many of which are quite close to, if not already starting to close. See these pale-looking ants here? They've likely only just to close a few hours ago. As they mature, their exoskeletons will slowly harden and darken over time. So for now, the majority of the colonies brood, and also their queen, is still sitting back in their old test tube setup, which I'm perfectly fine with. As long as the ants are happy, I'm happy too. Honestly, I'm quite content with just watching the mate use of their new foraging area, as they were quite limited on space in their previous setup. You can see I've used a little shell here as a feeding dish. I put a few drops of raw honey in here, which they usually seem to like, but they weren't very keen on it here. They were much more interested in this cricket I placed nearby. They absolutely swarmed this little guy. The funnel ants are very shy in their new setup, never venturing very far from their nest, which is quite normal for a clonnie as young and small as they are. So for them, I've been placing food right by their nest entrants, like this tiny drop of honey here, which they eagerly lapt up. For the bullets, I've been putting little drops in the grass. And up on the twigs, which they're often very quick to find. I've even created a little clay pot for them, a honey pot. They really love their honey. And I think they're really loving all this extra space to wander. So what do you guys think of these all-in-one setups? Personally, I love the way everything is contained in a single unit. I think it makes for a really enjoyable viewing experience. Look up and you see the ants harder work scaring the area for food. Look down and you see all the ants nesting activities, with workers tending to the brood and queen, much like you would expect to see in the wild. And with all the ants contained in a single unit, it makes transportation of the ants much easier too. You don't have to worry about wine on tubing slipping out and ants going everywhere. Like you might with a modular style. And if you've designed yours, so the nesting space is segmented, like I have with this one, as your colony grows and needs more nesting space, you simply open up another segment. So you can really get some good long term use out of it. So if you guys end up giving a build like this a go, make sure to let us know about it. I just love seeing people follow along with last video's tutorial. It really inspires me to make more of these videos. So send us some pictures of your creations through either our Instagram, Facebook or email. So that wraps up my tutorials on working with AAC, at least for a little while. Next we'll be covering naturalistic dirt setups, something like what my massive big headed ant colony is housed in. So look forward to that. Now onto our regular contest. Last time I asked you guys what you were housed in your ants in. And if you weren't raising ants, what would your dream setup be? It was really interesting reading all your responses. It seemed a lot of people were going for a basic tubs and tube setup, and many eventually had big plans for huge naturalistic setups. Alright, so I went to here on YouTube. Matt DV. Matt only just recently discovered ant keeping, and is currently caring for his very first queen ant. He dreams of one day having his ants housed in a pallidarium. That is, a setup which incorporates both terrestrial and aquatic life. I love the idea. Been a dream of mine for quite some time now too. We're actually currently working on an arid theme tank with a little stream and lake, which I'm really excited to show you guys. And now to our winner over on Instagram. The winner is... Ants West Java, who's housing his ants in some nests which he built himself. This first one here is home to a colony of trap joy ants. So basically it's just the plastic accessory box, and it looks as though he's cut out some holes to join up each of the compartments. And he's also added in some soil to help the larvae spin their cocoons. And here's another nest he made for a young colony of sugar ants. This one's made from a cast, a plaster, and gypsum. And then he's just going in and carved out some chambers. Very creative stuff. So congratulations to you two. You've just won yourself one of our size one whiteong nests. For our next video's contest, we're going to be giving away one of our size one acrylic nests. So to enter, simply answer the following. What's the most disturbing thing you've discovered about ants? Post your answer in the comment section below. We'll pick out a single comment and announce the winner in our next video. As always, thanks for watching this video, and I hope you enjoyed.