Building Your Own Ant Farm (Part 1)

[Lski3]

Why you gotta flip me off while giving instructions....

[alandavs]

Cool project. I'm trying to make an even smaller farm. Anybody have any ideas on smaller ant species that I can successfully keep in a farm about 1/3 the size of the CD farm in this video?

Thanks,

Alan

[snooki352]

when he points e sticks the finger

[luisgtatatug]

eu tenho a formiga rainha mas ela é a saúva. e ela não cabe no negocio!

[CobaltOtaku]

I'm gonna make an ant farm and dress an ant in a tiny afro and make it say "WELCOME TO THE ANT FARM!"

disney references lol

[stephen2275]

i wouldn't use that lol get a real ant farm instead of wasting time for a colony that has no room to servive.

[crazymonkey86056]

@nanoguy4098 teach me everything you can about ants!

[SabreSlushie]

Hmm, so I tried this thing out.. I have a Camponotus queen in a CD case set up, though I only used one hollowed out CD Case, so far two workers have eclosed, i used some sort of instant clay to seal the open side of the CD case, but I can still open and close the CD. So far things seem to be doing well, easy to maintain in my opinion, and its my first colony (:

[dolphinsrockful]

can I use and Instead of soil??



[nanoguy4098]

If anyone has any questions about caring/keeping ants, or the capture and care or queens, PM me!

[dolphinsrockful]

@nanoguy4098 for this ant farm can I use sand instead of soil

[CtrlRm]

Instead of cutting the plastic, I heated a paper clip and burned small holes in the plastic lol. It was safer, in some ways.

[CtrlRm]

Thanks for making these videos, I wish science was shoved down peoples throats like all the garbage we are fed through the media and schools and marketing.

[snowmanjr25]

do some editing wow most of the vid is yall bsing

[mattstew1234]

Can you help !!!!! i cant put the hole in the case because the glass/plastic keeps cracking and it just ruins it .What should i do????

[EllaWilliams7]

dude! buy one 4 $10!!

[hangtight97]

@EllaWilliams7 wheres the creativeness there?

[David12Reese]

is there a different way you can make an ant farm??????? if there is let me know ok

[VolturousKossae]

I've made antfarms from jewelcases twice - in both cases no brood would develop at all. I kept Lasius niger in it. It's well known that Camponotus-species will outright die in jewel cases.

I blame toxic fumes evaporating from the plastic

[kenseisato1989]

hey jsut a question, i live in utah and i have a garage that i would like to make a ant farm, utah gets really cold to freezing point and it gets hot as 100 degrees sometimes in the summer, any suggestions?

[vincentmagician]

i have a cabnet and will that be good enough to keep the ant cool when im not looking if its closed?

[Leafarlara]

Novo videos da minha Camponotus arboreus, com ovos e pupas :

/watch?v=LTej6WNLwm8

The new video of my Camponotus arboreus, with eggs and pupae :

/watch?v=LTej6WNLwm8

[Quakesil]

Please stop saying "ok" and stuff background while the girl is talking.... so annoying!

[mitchell88able]

that was useful information

[NBAZera]

this is wayy to much, ill just spend 30 bucks on the ant works website thing'

[biarox14]

This is soo cool :) Bur where do they breathe by?? :S

[russel123you]

How do you feed them?

[MegaMarioUltimate]

@russel123you just add seeds n all.

[jetblueilikeful]

that pretty cool

[alivingcreature]

you could use a hot skewer to make the hole in the cd case. heat up metal skewer in the flame on the stove. hold other end with oven mitt so you don't get burnt.

[gummib4er]

Why you just built this lame farms?

you can use gypsum or "ytong" stones?

My Myrmecia pavida would never get in that tiny farm :D

[StepaNiki]

what do they eat?

[gummib4er]

@StepaNiki

Depends in the species, some ants just need insects other need insects and honey or sugarwater and then there are some species which need grains and seed´s

[Boeff82]

Greet Idea to make a video about this subject!!!

Only I would make another type of farm myself.

With other materials, like my farms. See my video's for example.

You can't see the ants that good in sand.

I used these types of nests in the past.

[rancy240]

i want to make a big as worm farm. i probaly got a limited supply of resources

[rickybobbychuva]

2:43

random helping hand XD

[captainkeys10]

ok were can u get a queen and why cant you by one

[MrIvan72]

if you want a queen and a bunch of its workers just get a water hose and squirt it in an ant hole. you will get many ants for free. hope this helps people

[hellomoto4000]

i got 1 queen with 2 workers and its brood, will it fit on that ant farm? ithink its a little bit small if my ant grow in population plz help tnx!!

[Iulian87]

The ant farm made from CD cases is good just for observation. Is you want a long term ant farm, you should use a large bottle, with a small bottle inside. The purpose of the smaller bottle is p to take up space and to encourage the ants to build their tunnels against the outside glass so you can see them.

[dataaja95]

I just made a box out of plexiglass and filled it whit the nasas gel crap :D

[Iulian87]

The gel really is crap. You should have used sand.

[bugloy101]

dude what kind of ants did you use i got now my fireant farm i want to make my 2nd

[bugloy101]

dude australian bull ants beat me up by painful stings

[ironguns327]

also can i use anything else besides seeds?

[ironguns327]

omg you explained it as clearly as possible yet i am having trouble making.. maybe because i am using scissors instead of a box cutter

[bugloy101]

how many hours do the plaster of paris get dry. cuz i w8ted long still its wet

[AskaBiologist]

A good question. It should take about 30 minutes to setup and one day to cure. Not having a lot of experience with plaster, you might need to check some Web sources to see what the problem might be. My guess is there was too much water in the mix, but this is just a guess.

[reptileboy9111]

kool :]

[malinamanson05]

OMG I LUV U GUYS !!!!

[Fr0stBlade]

This is great! But can the ants eat through the tape?

[DigestYourselfTM]

This video is so slow... its bad

[TheTDICody]

The ants we have here are so tiny, and when I put in the ants, they were escaping through some area between the hole and dirt. I tried taping it, but they escaped still and died in the tape. what should i do?

[AskaBiologist]

As always, for detailed answers please use our Web Q&A form. Here are a few suggestions.

Modeling clay is good for sealing leaks, or a hot glue gun. Our researchers who work with tiny ants coat their nests with fluon, which is slippery to the ants. It's pretty expensive though and not easy to find - a cheaper alternative is mineral oil, but I'm not sure how well it works or how messy it is. Some ants are so small it's almost impossible to contain them.

[ardz07]

Amazing video. Using those resources the idea is fabulous. Pat on the back to people involved 5 stars sure brilliance

[abaneyone]

I like it!

[Galacticmaster]

has anyone tried this and worked?

will garden ants fit in it, seems a little small

what about using 2 plastic containers, how will that work?

[nafaka12]

is it me or is that just to small even for lasius niger + queen

[AskaBiologist]

The species of ant that we have mostly been working with is Messor pergandei, which has queens that are under 1 cm (0.5 inches) in length. The farm is large enough for a moderately-sized colony of Messor. From what we can tell, they should also be large enough for Lasius niger queens.

[WoodyW123]

could u have an ant queen in here?

[AskaBiologist]

Yes, you could have an ant queen in these farms. Harvester ants would be a good choice for this type of ant farm. Keep in mind that you cannot purchase ant queens and commercial ant farms do not ship with queens. We have a new video coming out that shows you how we collect ants for our labs. Stay tuned...

[myrmecofourmis]

In my opinion, this ant farm will have some problems of humidity. Many ant species need humidity, consequently you have to build an humidifier. I believe that the ant farm created with ytong are the best ant farm.

[AskaBiologist]

Good point. Humidity is indeed very important for different ant species and ant farms. Sealing the edges of the farm with packing tape helps keep moisture levels high within the nest, but the farm will also need to be watered approximately once a week. Although ytong might be a better long-term ant farm supply it is not as readily available as the supplies used to construct this farm. Our emphasis is on creating a farm from simple materials that are easy to acquire.

[ArkGrave]

This is pretty cool idea for an ant farm, but I like using a bigger case to hold them because I want an Ant queen in it.

I wouldn't really recommend the aluminum foil because the ant tunnels are really fragile if your not careful in removing it, it could destroy it.