"Growable Nest" From Antz For All
For many, choosing the right formicarium can be an interesting challenge. One of the big issues I've noticed is that people will often use a formicarium that is too big for the colony, as nobody wants to spend the money buying a small formicarium that the colony will surely outgrow in the near future.
Unfortunately, using an excessively large formicarium will result in ants using sections of the nest as a dumping ground, rather than taking rubbish outside the nest. This causes major issues with fungus, disease and basically a dirty nest.
ANTZ FOR ALL have come up with a pretty nifty way of combating this issue by producing a "Growable Nest". The basic idea of the nest is that many chambers can be easily blocked off allowing the keeper to manually control the amount of space the ants have access to. Whilst this isn't an entirely new concept it's the first time that I've seen this achieved with a clean and simple design, and in a founding style nest.
I know I say this all the time, but like other 3D printed nests, the design could be victim to hydration problems. Especially if you are planning to keep a species requiring high humidity. Whilst a test tube port does provide water to your ants, it doesn't necessarily allow the formation of an effective hydration gradient.
For the price you are paying you get alot of bang for your buck though. In general it seems like a great product if you are planning to keep a fast growing species that doesn't require extremely high humidity. So if you are in Australia this might be a great option for something like Iridomyrmex sp. or Ochetellus glaber.
Check them out here. Priced from £10.
