Is this a good set up?

[Ant]

Do you now if this set up is good for tetramorium? This is made from plastic bevarge containers that are only $9 here. Also how often should I add water to it? Here it is.

The back of the nest.


Front of the nest.


Front brood chamber, they don't care about light any more after their life in an uncovered tube in a shady room. So no cover!


The whole set up.


The top.

[sammy]

It looks good, and you can see the ants well and it is quite big.

[Ant]

Ya I can see them. The queen is hidden away from me though. I have noticed little larvae on the sides to. ;D

[Formicalondon]

The only problem I can think of is that, it will need to be escape proof and Tetramorium colonies grow quite large. They might out grow it and require additional foraging space. But apart from that, if you do not mind not seeing much nest activity, it's a good set up.

[whiteice]

Looks great except for what FormicaLondon said. You need to make sure they can't get out.

[Ant]

I don't mind them leaving the farm for a wonder. They just won't wan't to because they won't find anyhing to eat there.

[sammy]

you might get ants in your bed and food or you might tread on them.

[golix]

If a colony is big enough to forage that far away a few deaths won't make much difference, but it's best to keep an eye out to avoid squishing any ;D. Also it's good to let them roam out incase you go on holiday or are kidnapped or something, at least you have the comfort of knowing your ants can search your house for what they need .

[zchuanru]

I think its brilliant! But that's if your ants do not deliver terrible bites like my colony

[Ant]

They only irritate a little. Also I don't like thinking about those negatives happening.

[golix]

They are rubra and leafcutters that walk around my room, when they bump into each other they just walk on as if they're from the same colony ;D.

[Formicalondon]

I wouldn’t recommend having ants wondering freely around your room. Especially as the colony grows you could find that once things get a little cramped in there, they will leave the nest and settle somewhere else, like under your floor boards.

[zchuanru]

yeah come to think of them nesting else where ... your right

[Jaikaiman]

Tetramorium are well known as a pest because of the damage they can do to the foundations of houses etc, so keeping them in an environment they can roam from is a bad idea. They can also give a very nasty sting, now this may be mildy irritating to you, but may be a nasty bite to someone else or maybe a pet.

[golix]

I agree, I expect the rubra's budding queens would maybe settle somewhere else, my rooms really small and all laminated flooring so if anything they'd settle under my sisters floor in the next room ;D. The leafcutters only seem to like soil, they've already moved most of the colony out of their original tank that got too cramped. I already anticipated this though and had a tank about 6x bigger than the start tank right next to them, very fun to watch such a big colony build a new nest, torrents of dirt carrying ants flowing out and empty mouthed ants flowing back into 8-10 different holes all across the tank.(it's like they'd already mapped the tank out before digging).

They actually still use the other nest too, only thing I'm worried about is if the queen hasn't aready moved into the new tank she has yet to cross a moat.