Before starting the question keeping ants at home, it is important to learn better about the features of such insects.
They live in their own "caste" society, therefore they are of interest not as separate individuals, but as representatives of the social structure.
Ants belong to the order Hymenoptera, their closest relatives are bees.
All ants are exclusively social insects, live in colonies and act as a large single organism.
Thanks to this, their evolutionary development has gone far ahead (in comparison with other insects), which allowed them to spread widely across our planet and have a dominant position among their fellow insects.
Ant colonies developed through the formation of various highly specialized individuals within one species. For example, soldier ants differ more large size and proportionally big head with powerful jaws.
In some species of ants, the soldiers have such large jaws that they cannot feed on their own! Working ants are smaller individuals without obvious morphological changes, but with different specializations.
Some hunt and search for food, others equip an anthill, nurse (feed and raise larvae) future ants. There are also ants-cooks or barrels-individuals with a large abdomen, they play the role of storage tanks for food.
The queen is the main ant in their entire society.
... This is the largest individual of the species, the main function is laying eggs, reproduction of ants.
It is the queen ant that monitors the ratio of individuals.
How many soldiers and workers there will be, it is up to her to decide. When males appear for mating and more queens that scatter and form new colonies, it depends on her decision.
Many ants are engaged in their own livestock raising: they grow aphids, protect herds from predatory insects are distilled to the more succulent parts of the plants.
Ants also have their own greenhouses, some species cultivate a fungus, which they choose the most suitable conditions in the anthill and, if necessary, are transferred to new places.
Most ant species live in colonies on a permanent territory, creating large dwellings on and underground, there are also stray species. Ants are omnivorous, consume animal and plant foods, and often play an important sanitary role in the natural ecosystem.
Many types of ants can be kept at home.. If the goal is to recreate a full-fledged durable colony, then it is better to use tropical species.
Small flat helium nests are often on sale and are great for keeping a small group of any kind of ants. You can eat the gel in such anthills, the ants will eat up the winding passages in it until they swallow it all.
If you set yourself a more serious goal (to simulate a viable colony), then first of all you need to acquire a queen ant, it will give rise to the future goosebumps.
Nowadays, interesting ready-made options anthills (formicaria) made of glass, plaster and plastic.
You can create an anthill yourself.
Before you start contain ants, you should get food insects in advance or find out the possibilities of their uninterrupted acquisition, since they are the main diet of ants.
Crickets and cockroaches, which do not have to be alive, are fine, but frozen ones are fine. You can also feed the ants with fresh fruit and boiled vegetables. Food for ants should be put in small portions as they are consumed.
In no case should the food stale, this will lead to the appearance of mold (and other unwanted organisms) and the extinction of the anthill.
It is sometimes necessary to spray ants a little, it is advisable to have a drinker with a small level (no more than 1 mm) of water so that it does not dry out. You can use foam rubber or cotton wool put in the drinker.
If you take responsibility for keeping ants, then, undoubtedly, a home anthill (carefully thought out formicarium) will not only be an excellent visual aid for novice entomologists, but also a decoration of any room.
When it comes to ants, there is a small black insect that sometimes flies and loves sugar. But this is only a superficial idea of these amazing living creatures.
The article will not talk about a couple of annoying insects, but about creating a full-fledged formicaria with your own hands.
Ant species are different. But whatever species is chosen for breeding, the same rules for creating a cozy anthill apply to everyone. Where do you start?
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How to make a formicaria for ants?
As you can see from the photo, this is a special aquarium, an ant farm. They are different sizes, formats, with different content. As a primer, you can use sand... From it, ants will build nests, create passages and an arena.
Perfect fit finely sifted natural sand... You should refuse to use garden soil as it contains various bacteria and chemicals. It is permissible to use plaster. It is poured into a special shape, forming passages and burrows. After hardening, the formicaria will be ready.
The third option is to use special gel... The insects will use the gel for both building and food.
Features of keeping domestic ants
An important component happy life ants is moisture... Its level varies from 80 to 90 percent.
Lack of moisture is tantamount to the death of the entire anthill. With an excess of moisture, fungus and mold can appear, which is also detrimental. If perspiration appears on the walls of the formicaria, it is a sure sign that you need to stop moisturizing for a while.
The required humidity level is determined in a practical way.
For drinking you can put a small saucer in the anthill or tin cover from the bottle. The ants will use this water to moisturize their homes and build new passages. It is important to remember that only filtered water can be given to ants.
In the vast majority of cases, suitable for ants room temperature, order 25 degrees Celsius... If the room is cool, it will slow down the development of the ant farm. In such cases, it is advisable to use special lamps or heating pads. A terrarium thermometer can help you track the correct temperature level.
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Ants feel best when moderate lighting. It is advisable to darken not only the chambers, but the entire formicarium.
Insects will get used to open lighting, and quickly enough, but for comfortable life it is better to leave them in the shade. Especially harmful effect sunlight has on the larvae. Adults are also not recommended to be exposed to ultraviolet radiation for a long time.
If for some reason the owner needs formicaria lighting at home, experts recommend using a moon-colored lamp. Such a lamp will be able to heat the ants in a cool room and will not cause them stress.
What to feed the ants with?
Contrary to popular belief, sugar is not the best food for ants. A source of protein worms and cockroaches can appear. To provide carbohydrates, honey water is made, diluted 1: 1. It is important to remember that such water can ferment rather quickly, and this is harmful to insects. As solid food Suitable for ants: pieces of vegetables and fruits, bread crumbs, dead insects and mixtures for parrots.
Like many living things, ants hibernate. Insects become inactive, refuse proteins, rarely leave their nests. For this period, you should change the approach to caring for formicaria with your own hands. The temperature must be kept between 0 and 10 degrees Celsius. The aquarium can be refrigerated, for example.
Periodically, but not so often, you need to moisten the soil. Hibernation lasts 1-2 months. After this period, you need to bring the formicarius back to warmth and gradually warm up to the usual temperature. The rewarming process can take up to 7 days.
Here's how to make an ant farm with your own hands. At proper care, the owner can get a very interesting and developed ant world. It is interesting to watch him, he is interesting to both children and adults.
A charming ant with a furry belly and legs. Summer is the brightest and most expressive time, and every child with great pleasure tries to reflect the impressions received at this time of year in their creative works.
Therefore, children with great pleasure make a variety of summer crafts with their own hands, trying to preserve in them at least a small piece of sunny days and warm emotions.
As a basis for creativity, you can take the most different materials... In summer, at the time of picnics and trips to the bosom of nature, they become especially relevant. If desired, they can be turned into interesting, unexpected, images.
One of the examples of such works is the "Ant" craft. A child of any age, including a younger one, can make it with his own hands.
What you need:
- two disposable spoons of red (you can paint ordinary white spoons red with nail polish or paint for plastic);
- black chenille wire;
- eyes for toys;
- polymer glue.
Let's get started.
We put the spoons together with the holders, while the wide part of each spoon should be turned to one side.
We fix the handles of the spoons with each other using black chenille, wrapping them.
For greater strength, you can pre-fasten the handles with polymer glue - then they will not slide relative to each other. We use several pieces of wire - at least three. You can use regular wire, or combine it with knitting yarn.
We glue toy eyes on the wide part of one of the spoons.
When ants appear in the house, most people try to get rid of them as soon as possible. But there are also those amateurs who are engaged in breeding these unusual pets. After all, a home anthill is good way distract from the problems, observing the life of hardworking insects.
Formicaria types
A home anthill - formicarium - usually looks like a vertical aquarium. It is convenient to observe insects through its transparent walls. The container is filled with a special material or soil and, in order to prevent ants from entering the outside, it is closed with a lid.
Fillers in such houses can be of several types:
- ground (sand or earth). Its disadvantage is that when using such a filler, it is very difficult to monitor the life of insects. After all, their passages are located inside and it is impossible to see them;
- gel, in which a transparent gel acts as a filler, which is also a breeding ground for insects. It is worth noting that the agar-agar, of which the gel is composed, does not deteriorate over a long period;
- acrylic or glass have the form of a container with big amount tubules. Insects crawl along them, which are very clearly visible, since these formicaria are completely transparent. Their disadvantage is that caring for them is more difficult than, for example, for gel home anthills;
- combined consist of several materials, different in properties.
How to make an anthill
For those who want to get domestic insects, but do not know how to make an anthill, I would like to inform you that it will not be difficult to make it yourself. To do this, you can take two cans of different sizes. The first one is larger and with a wide neck should be closed on a screw cap. The smaller container should also have a lid, and its shape should be such that it can be conveniently placed in a large jar.
You can pick up and plastic containers the right size: the principle is that the smaller vessel is tightly closed and, being inside the larger one, thereby creates an empty space inside it.
Before making an anthill with your own hands, you also need to prepare:
- A soil mixture consisting of sand and earth in a 1: 2 ratio. If you are going to bring inhabitants to the formicarium from a natural anthill nearby, collect the soil there.
- For making holes in the lids - a nail and a hammer.
- Cotton wool.
- Sugar syrup.
- There are 10-15 ants. If you buy them from a farm, check to see if they come with optimal soil. Note also that it is necessary to place in the formicarium not only the working ants, but also the uterus.
Before starting work, clean cans need to be held over steam for a few minutes, and then wait until they dry. Next, you need to place a small jar in a large one and fix it with glue or tape exactly in the middle. You need to make some very small holes with an awl in the lid. large capacity... In the small lid, you need to make one small hole and insert a cotton swab into it.
The soil is loosely poured into the space between the banks, not to the top - so that the ants cannot accidentally get out. Insects can be launched immediately afterwards. The tampon in the small lid should be moistened with sugar syrup, thus ensuring their nutrition. Then big jar closed with a lid.
Power features
As living organisms, ants constantly need food, so the owners of formicaria need to take care of this. The feeding process is very simple: you need to open the lid home anthill and leave the food in the so-called arena. Insect food should be selected according to the species of ants that formicaria contains.
For example, some ants prefer plant foods, others love sweets or ordinary bread crumbs. It is important to carefully monitor that there is not too much food in such a house, since insects are not able to process it on time or send it to the trash, and as a result, mold may appear in the home anthill.
Some home ant farm owners recommend planting green grass on top of the ground.
How to care for insects
A very important moment in caring for domestic ants is to moisturize the formicaria. It should be remembered that excess moisture can simply kill insects. Therefore, it is necessary to fill the places farthest from their accumulations with water. After that, the ants will select the optimal conditions for themselves.
These insects build tunnels at night, so it's important to remember to cover the jar periodically. thick cloth... And in no case should you shake the can, so as not to destroy the passages created by ants.
Do not leave the ant farm under the influence of direct sunlight - they are harmful to insects. Hot air and high humidity will also kill the inhabitants of Formicaria. However, if an additional arena is equipped in such a structure, you can place stones on it and direct an incandescent lamp at them. This is a good way to keep the litter of ants warm.
Ants. The Secret Power of Nature: Video
Home anthill
The largest formicarium on my ant table is three-liter can filled almost to the top with earth. Lazius live here. Through the glass, one can see inclined passages, along which streams of ants are streaming; in separate cozy closets, heaps of eggs, larvae, separately small and separately larger, piles of cocoons with pupae whiten. These are ant children of different ages, the subject of constant and touching cares of nanny ants. All the internal affairs of ants are constantly in front of my eyes, and I sit for a long time with a magnifying glass at this jar.
Books about ants usually describe a laboratory nest enclosed in a flat box with glass walls and connected by a tube with a special walk. Not everyone can make a formicarium of this design: you need to be able to do carpentry, cut glass, and not all necessary materials are at hand. And a simple bank can go into business.
For those readers who wish to keep lazius at home - these smart and funny ants, I will describe the device of the simplest indoor formicaria. The design has paid off, and I have been using it for several years.
So, the usual three-liter glass jar with a plastic cover, punctured by numerous holes for ventilation of the nest (an awl for this can be made from an ordinary needle). There are also two larger holes in the lid. One serves to moisten the anthill and is plugged with a stick; a glass tube is inserted into the second (I jokingly call it an ant-chute). For this purpose, a tube made of fusible glass (sold in pharmacies) is best suited, which bends easily in a flame. gas stove or a spirit lamp. The ant pipe is bent in the shape of the letter P. The segment of this P entering the jar is short (five centimeters); at the end it is equipped with a sleeve made of a rubber tube cut obliquely from the outer end - this is the entrance to the ant pipe. It is located on the surface of the earth inside the jar. Having learned about the purpose of the entrance, the ants will not lay it. The horizontal section of the tube is 8–10 centimeters long. The same length is the descending segment P. It is also equipped with a rubber sleeve, at which the end is plugged, but a hole is cut out on the side - the exit from the glass tunnel. However, if there is no rubber tube, you can glue the nozzles from several layers of paper. Just below the side hole (exit) is a horizontal cardboard circle with a diameter of 6 centimeters; it has a hole in the center, which is set on the bottom of the sleeve, just under the inlet. The glass P is inserted with its short end into the lid of the jar so that the cardboard disc is placed on the finger from the outer wall of the formicaria, otherwise the ants will climb onto the jar and scatter around the room. To prevent the lazius from slipping and falling inside the glass ant-pipe, you should breathe into the tube and immediately pour a pinch of flour. Its particles will stick to the walls and dry out - quite sufficient support for the tenacious ant legs.
But so that they would not run away along the outside of the tube, I had to smash my head: neither slippery, nor sticky ointments, nor odorous substances, nor "hedgehogs" made of wool and fiber stopped the ants. But a way out was found.
Above the cardboard pad, I planted three discs of aluminum foil at a distance of 1-2 centimeters from each other and fixed them on the tube with drops of glue. The foil is carefully smoothed, wiped dry, so that no wrinkles or even fingerprints are left on it. There is not a single crack between the foil and the tube for an ant to crawl into; if holes do appear, they must be carefully filled with glue. After the discs are put on the tube and the glue dries, it is necessary to sprinkle each of them with talcum powder, talmanine or, at worst, powder on both sides with a soft brush.
The ants that get to the first disc cannot stay on it and immediately fall off the slippery and at the same time dusty surface onto the cardboard. To make them fall on her, and not on the table, the foil mugs are made small. It is best to do this: the bottom circle is 2.5 centimeters across, the middle 3 and the top 4 centimeters. This is in case the rogue ant still ends up on the second disc: when falling from it, it can catch on the edge of the lower one, ricochet and fly outside the cardboard area, but if the upper discs are wider, the ant will fall directly onto the cardboard. A battery made of such foil insulators weaned lazius from climbing the outer side of the tube already on the second or third day after the opening of the ants duct opening. I was afraid that the ants would fall from the cardboard, but my fears were completely in vain: there were almost no accidental falls, and the lazius are afraid to jump down on purpose. On a cardboard site, my pets received food in the form of finely chopped meat and diluted honey, which was soaked in a cotton ball. For hygienic purposes (so as not to stain the cardboard), meals were dispensed in small sinks; however, you can use any other suitable bowl-type vessels or make plasticine saucers. This dining room my lazius mastered immediately.
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