PTFE experiment

[Deleted]

Obviously preventing your ants from escaping is an important aspect of ant keeping so with that in mind I've taken a small plastic food container and painted a 1cm border of PTFE around the top inside edge.

I've collected 4 Lasius niger from outside and placed them inside the container with a honey water soaked cotton wool blob in payment for helping me out with my experiment.

Have observed all 4 ants unable to move onto the PTFE border. This stuff really works!

Will keep them over night and release them in the morning if they haven't managed to escape.

In the meantime I'm just enjoying watching them, quite fascinating actually seeing them up close like that and watching how they behave and interact. Especially when each one in turn found the honey water. They pounced on it with relish and an hour later are still gorging themselves!

And I just love it when they clean themselves, that's the thing I've noticed about them the most.

Never thought I'd ever enjoy simply watching ants but I have to admit I'm hooked

Bring on the colonies!

[Deleted]

Have removed the honey water, now it's time for the ants to earn their keep. It's actually quite amusing watching the ants trying to escape from the tub, they just tumble to the bottom lol.

[Deleted]

Two of the ants managed to escape!!

Undeterred by this I did some further research online and I was advised to apply a thinner layer on a completely smooth surface. The tub I originally used was an old one and was actually quite rough on the inside. So I tried again with a brand new tub which has very smooth sides and it seems to be working. I WAS worried about this but I think maybe I've got it.
Lets see if they're still there in the morning.

[Deleted]

The 2 ants from yesterdays experiment failed to escape last night.

This time I've placed 12 ants into the revised-treated plastic tub and they have been in there for 1 hour so far without any escapees.

[elitzchupa]

Where did you obtain your ptfe from?

[Deleted]

from a website which won't show up in a standard post. I'll pm it to you

[Deleted]

I can report that my PTFE experiment was a complete success. 10 hours and no escaped L. niger, all 12 remained in the open tub the whole time.
Will do another experiment in the future with Camponotus spp.

[Jenny]

From what other members have said,  you do have to re apply regularly. 

[Deleted]

Apr 4, 2015 4:06:15 GMT Jenny said:

From what other members have said,  you do have to re apply regularly. 

yeah it will just be a matter of keeping an eye on it but it should last a few months before a new application is needed. Some keepers have said 6 months but I would take that as a maximum. It all depends on factors such as temperature, humidity and I would guess that household dust would also play a part in deteriorating the PTFE barrier.

[Deleted]

Time for a species update.

Camponotus cruentatus was unable to crawl up the barrier, except for one worker that behaved abnormally and tried repeatedly and eventually successfully for 48 hours straight but no other workers were able to escape.

Myrmica sabuleti are also unable to crawl up the barrier and I observed several workers trying and failing to do so yesterday, however most workers I observed only climbed vertically a few centimetres and never got near the barrier.

Ants 0, trueviper 3  

[ricbritain]

What kind of PTFE past is it? I work with liquid PTFE for use in pipe connections. Some of it is made by Loctite and is either red or white. It goes hard when applied to thread joints. I wonder if this would work? I don't think it would go hard if applied to a surface.

[Thebugman]

PTFE is less effective on plastic, it works better on glass. Try using a thicker band of PTFE, it should be at least 3 times thicker than the length of the ant.