How to Build an *EPIC* Ant Farm | DIY Formicarium
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 7 มิ.ย. 2024
- An in-depth guide on how to build an Ant Farm that takes it a step further than regular formicarium designs here on TH-cam by creating a natural habitat with multiple nest areas. As a bonus I also included footage of my healthy 2,5 years old Messor Barbarus colony exploring their new world. An extended update video on “life inside the colony” will hopefully follow soon, so stay tuned!
🔔 Subscribe youtube.com/@antsadventure?su...
Please let me know your thoughts and comments on my Ant Farm 😊!
TIME STAMPS
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0:00 Introduction
0:41 Sneak preview
1:24 Ytong nest
3:52 Aquarium
5:11 Wall
8:02 Decorate
8:58 Connection
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A special shoutout to Ants Scandinavia & Ants Australia, their video’s motivated me to create one myself! You should know that I didn’t have any experience with creating a formicarium or editing prior to this video so forgive me if you notice sloppy details 😉.
Here is a list of the tools and materials I used:
- Acrylic paint (Black, White, Yellow, Red)
- Aquarium
- Aquarium Silicone kit
- Carving materials (screwdrivers, knife, speed drill bit)
- Decorations (stones, plants, wood)
- Dessert sand (red and brown)
- Face mask
- Pencils
- Plaster
- Polystyrene
- Tile adhesive (Eurocol 705)
- Ytong (AAC) blocks
- Ytong saw (others might also work fine)
#antkeeping #antfarm #messorbarbarus #ants
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Beautiful build! Looks great :)
Thanks Jordan!
Holy
The legend is here!
My lord, we await your valiant return
Upload more you biche ants Austrian
I think you should've filled the tunnels with colored sand layers. Nothing more fun with ants than watching them dig tunnels.
Cool idea!
:omg. That’s brilliant.
I rly wanna make an AAC ant Formica some time and paint I rainbow/psychedelic colours. Adding rainbow substrate around such a Thing would be AMAZING
I also think if you give the ants a man made nest, you miss too much of the ants action! The formicarium looks great but i would have filled sand all around instead of the y-tong made nest, so i could see all of there tunneling action! greetings from germany :)
@@DarthChris27the reason we use ytong is because when you use just sand, you don’t get to see the ants because they never dig against the glass.
@@andreasurace4386 i got that, also i have my ants for over 10 years and they all have a sand farm. I can assure you atleast at some point they will show up digging on the glass. You can also manipulate that by having a thiner farm.
Hi Guys! What kind of formicarium should I build next? :) Let me know in the comments!
Maybe an Island setup :D?
It would be nice a forest based formicarium, maybe a nest carved on a trunk
Let is are the life inside right now i wanna see if they moved
great video 👍💪 but where did you buy the aquarium? I would love to rebuild it
I love the rock background and overhang! I’ve never seen anyone do that before! So smart!
Thanks :)
Nice video bud! Well done!
Thanks man! :)
@Ant Adventure HE IS HERE
Nice setup, wish to see how the colony evolves on next videos
Congrats for the new channel
Thanks Tony!
LOVE this build man! Really beautiful 😃🐜
Thanks man! I like your setup as well! :)
Well done! Johan suggested that I check out your page, and while ants aren’t my thing, your video was really well done!!!
Thanks Jovie!
They look happy! Nice work!
Wow amazing ant farm. Really beautiful 😱
Thanks Ant Holleufer!
You need more subscribers, seriously. This guy is underrated.
Thanks :)
Very nicely done! Enjoyed watching the video. Always wanted to build an all in one.
Thanks Novo Ants! :)
A dremel can be quite expensive, but is really usefull in the long run when working with ytong. Great video!
Thanks Ruzzle, yeah a dremel is already on my wishlist :).
I really appreciate what you did there. You really have a great inspiration for making this and inspired me how to build one of my own.
Im completely new to ant farms and will use my old aquarium, which makes this a great example. Being Dutch myself aswell makes me recognize a lot of the materials that you've used and i probably have in the house myself being a handy person. Big thumbs up and subscribed for whatever you will show us next!
Bedankt voor je reactie René, succes met de bouw van je formicarium. Ben benieuwd!
@@antsadventure Dankjewel!
amazing design. I would recommend adding a separate outworld attached to a tube decently away from the nest, that'll promote the dumping of garbage in a separate area since the colony will look for the furthest place away from the nest to dump garbage. then you wont have to worry too much about cleaning in those tight spots
Good advice!
Wow love the result, you made a great work on that nest.
thank you :)
Your build is incredibly beautiful !🤩
Thankyou!
Can’t wait to see the next video. The setup looks awesome! I wish I could get ytong where I’m at
Thanks Marcus!
Epic vid I have been planning a similar build its awesome to see it in action thanks :)
Thanks Ollie, good luck! :)
Amazingly well done! You are a great designer with an awesome imagination! I loved the outcome and your ants definitely seemed eager to explore it as well. I bet that hard work definitely made a massive difference between the budget of trying to purchase something similar to that from the net! It would have been hundreds and hundreds of dollars.
Hi DM Raven, thank you :) , it sure did save some money but in all honesty it wasnt cheap. New video is out.
That ant farm is incredible👍👍👍👍👍👍👍
Thanks :)
First & very good video! Great job!
Thanks a lot :)!
This video is fantastic, Keep up the good work
Thank you Carl! New video is out there :)
Great video, the setup is great!
Thank you! I have seen some of yours as well :) good work.
@@antsadventure thank you very much 😊
Would love to see more of the ants moving in. Great set up though
Thanks Marcus I am working on the next episode.
So cool set up.
Thankyou
so amazing bro!!!
Thank you! New video is out :)
Wow, thank your for this.
Thank you Lucian, new video is out there :)
Creativity and hard work produced an excellent result! Your nest is an eye-catcher and I personally like your editing style👌
Always glad to inspire fellow ant enthusiasts🙂
Thanks man! :)
Nice I subbed!
Thank you :)
This is fantastic! Such an incredibly well built AntFarm! I'm going to copy this :) I hope you don't mind xD
I would love to see what your colony did with your super-cool formicarium.
Thank you James, I am working on a video at the moment but its taking me a bit longer than expected!
dankje voor de video en dat er nederlandse spullen inzitten nu weet ik precies hoe alle dingen heten en kan ik ze makkelijker vinden!
Haha top cassie, nieuwe video is uit!
Great looking nest . And nice content too . Definetly giving you a sub and thumbs up .
Thanks!
Awesome vid 👍
Thank you Catherine! New video launched
Sick video man and what an amazing nest. The craftsmanship is insane. Keep up the good work! I subscribed because I really want to see more of this.
(p.s don't copy Ants Australia too much, you could get into trouble for that in the future, just some advice). 😉
Thanks Estethic Ants for the kind words! I am working on some new ideas already.
In response to the advice ;) It's absolutely not my intention to copy Ants Australia in any way, I do however use a somewhat similar green color purely because thats a color that I really like. And I also contacted Ants Aus prior to launching my channel, so no worries but thanks for pointing out!
@@antsadventure yeah the green, font and logo look simular, but great that you contacted him. Just watching out for ya!
Wow!
this is perfect for my messor colony
Awesome! :)
Very talented!
Thank you Alex
Mooi geworden!!
Dankje mc adw , nieuwe video is uit!
Thanks for the inspiration! I made one myself like this. It is really nice and my messor will love it! One question tho. How did you cover up de nest parts? What did work for you?
Awesome bro
Thank you! :)
SO NICE!!
Thank you Jingjie
Goeie video, heb zelf niets met mieren maar erg interresant
Groeten uit Brabant van deze nieuwe abbonee
Dankje! Leuk :)
wow I am so surprised :O
Thanks haha!
Awesome!!
Thank you :)
Soooo good! I'd like to build a similar setup shed i have a large enough colony. Epic video!
Lol I already commented on this but it really is an awesome build I would like to t
Do a build like this for my sons school
Hi Ollie did you build it already?:)
Wow looks very cool! ;)
Thank you Lucille!
Wow😯
:)
this is so dope
Thank you Preston!
Epic!!!!
Thank you Andre
Great job on wall though
Awesome! What material u use to design the water hole hill?
Thanks, just some regular slate rock.
Hi! Awesome job. How do you keep humidity in it?
Thanks, with the water tunnels! I fill them on a regular basis.
That is so kool
Thank you!!
🔥
Mooi gedaan!! Kom je uit België of Nederland?
Nederland
Very epic
Thank you
Cool video! Where did you get the aquarium?
Custom made :) by someone
The formicarium looks very cool but I would like to see more of the ants exporing it or even moving in..
Thank you, hope to upload soon!
Keep going!!
Thank you! :)
How big does the humidity chamber have to be and can it be in the top of the y tong within the "outworld" or is it better deep inside the "nest"
small pipe is enough, beter deep inside!
It's funny. I was watching this video and you whent to the shop that shop is only 1 kilometer away from my house. But really!! 8:08
Haha praxis for the win, nieuwe video is uit!
Beautiful nest! 😍
I'm starting to build nest as well, so as a beginner I was wondering something. Why did you paint on the plaster? I want to know if I'll need to as well. Thank you!
No you dont need to paint the plaster, its painted 1 for aesthetics and also having it painted helps it to retain humidity for longer.
yes indeed :) thank you Ashley
Dude, this is so inspiring, when is your next update?
Hi Azog, New video was uploaded several days ago :)
Hello, very nice formicarium. How do you prevent ants from escape here ?
Thank you! The top is closed with venitlation holes so escaping is not possible :)
Nice
Wait I know it’s weird but can I use foam for the tunnels or something?
I watched the whole thing but have no idea what the water hole is for? do you just fill the hole with water to keep the nest moist? oh great build!!!
Yes :)
How deep have you made the water holes , have you filled them whit cotton ? As per humidity , those AAC blocks retain water ?
Almost till the bottom, yes I used some sort of cotton / sponge.
cool
Thank you!
I can't find the blocks anywhere doing my 5x2x2 tank a bit like this any idea if I could use thick polistiron
I dont know to be honest, not familiar with that. Those blocks must we somewhere? Maybe plaster?
Very nice made. Incredible and Definitely unique design. Well done. For the hole of water, or humidité how did you manage to do it ? You just make a hole inside and build a spécial compartiment for it. Could you be kind to explain me this part that I didn’t catch thank you.
I will probably just do the ant part and sand layer instead of the background it’s still great I have a Ant colony in a Jar they need a better home I will try this👍🏼😃
i might try do this but insted of the pre built tunnels ill make a 1 inch or so thick layer of dirt or sand so i can watch them dig
Sounds good
there are some where I live and I can tell you that what you did looks very much like their natural habitat
Haha nice, that was my goal :)
Today i went to the gamma to check for gips to make my first nest in the nl. I´m glad to find this channel bc maaaan I´m so lost when i need to source any material hahah
Do you have any info about pheidole in limburg or nearby? I´m in love with them and solenopsis, I´m hoping to find some in the future. For now i just got two queens of Lasius a few months back. They are already taking care of 6-7 pupa each.
Hahah nice glad to be of help
Yes
how the river works???? its awesome
Just drilled some mini holes for a minimum river bed in stone that prevents water from leaking.
Going to do the same with my 5x2x2 got all the wood and so on so half way there just need to build the bottom half
Cool!
ants were : "The sacred lands ! Just as it was forthtold!"
Amazing video!! Where are you from? I just like your accent
Thanks! From the Netherlands
@@antsadventure Je engels is echt fantastisch! Ik had niet door dat je Nederlands was totdat ik het gereedschap en zo zag staan!
💯
Really good job. I like it very much. Maybe I didn't quite notice it because my English is not the best, but what are the dimensions of the cube?
Thank you! The dimensions are 75 centimer by 55 centimeter and 40 depth :)
Isso foi incrível!!!! Onde encontro o vídeo 2?🇧🇷
Thanks! I am editing the 2nd one as we speak, took a bit longer than expected.
Wow
Thank you! New video is out
What is that tiny spider on 7:53 right under the hand
I love it and i built it too i have a colony of bullet ants :)
cool! :)
Good
Thanks!
how do you cut your tank circle?
Someone did it for me but there are some techniques on youtube.
What's the name of the excape prof mesh ?
I dont know, in dutch it is called "benzinegaas"
👍🏻
Hello, i can’ y realy understand how you do the river ? Can you help me ?
With a drill and some piece of rock :) very easy. You can also search for alternatives.
Very nice video, but do you place the plaster only inside the tunnels or also on the surface around the tunnels(facing the glass )?
Only inside! The outside should be as smooth as possible to stick to the glass and prevent ants from using shortcuts.
@@antsadventure thanks for your fast answer ,i appreciate it 💪🏼
1 more🙈, is the plaster nessesary or can they live in the Ytong only , excuse my English
@@loco0251 not neccessary, it is purely cosmetic :)
Ok Thanks man , very inspiratial , im fine now and gone glue the blocks in my terrarium👊🏼
Genial
Thank you! new vid is out :)
Obviously for viewing reasons mainly but im just curious is there other reasons you don’t want the ants being able to access the middle behind the tunnels?
Hi Sigrid, because I would lose them out of sight :)
👍👍👍👍👍
Thank you Dmitry!
How did you hold the glass together? Did you use silicone?
Yes! :) Non toxic aquarium silicone!
@@antsadventure Did you stop it short of the top to keep them from climbing out?
@@4uofacats it goes all the way to the top but the ants can't escape because the lid is closed
How is this method better then placing layers of soil and allowing the ants to build their own tunnels? Asking as a beginner farmer debating on which way to go.
It's not better or worse, it's just a matter of preference. By building the tunnels yourself you are more in control and you probably see a lot more of their nest area.
Will the colony consider all 3 separate spaces to be all one colony? Or will they attempt to divide?
Not an ant export, nor have i ever kept ants, but they will probably be one colony. When I’m outside i will sometimes see a big ant colony with a sub-colony stemmed from it a few inches away.