You’ve read a lot of information about ants, ordered them from the best AntOnTop online store, you’ve received your order, and you’re ready to let your colony into the formicarium. Now we will tell you step by step how to do everything well!
After receiving the package from the courier or at the post office, do not rush to open it! We always advise you to film the unpacking of the package, because anything can happen, and with the video you can send us in case of damage to the order, you will take advantage of the warranty and it will allow us to quickly familiarize yourself with the problem and solve it without scandals and very quickly!
So you opened the box and checked that everything was fine. If you had a formicarium in your order, most likely you received it unassembled and in a protective foil! Don’t worry, all our parts are covered with foil, so the parts won’t get scratched during transport, and you get a new and shiny formicarium. You can find instructions here on our YouTube channel. (We hope the videos were shot well enough and understandable for you, if anything is unclear please contact us for help).
After peeling off the foil and assembling the formicarium, you can proceed to decorating the arena.
Pour in sand, arrange decorations, and if you have a large enough arena and have space for a test tube incubator, place it in the arena as well. If you take pebbles or sticks from the street, just in case, we advise you to pour boiling water over them to destroy any viruses.
After decorating the arena, fill the sponge with water. Use a syringe to pour the water. It’s best to use distilled, filtered, or boiled water to avoid mold or mildew in the sponge. The first time, add a little more water so that the water is dispersed between the acrylic tiles. Moistening in the future should be every 1-3 days, depending on the humidity in the room. And yes, we do not moisten all sponges, if there are several, but only those near which the ants will live (if the formicarium is large and has partitions).
Now we have to find a place where our farm will be built.
It is best for the formicarium to stand in one place and not move. There should be no sunlight on the nest. The formicarium can be left unlit, but if you want to place a lamp above it, it will not disturb the ants.
There are disputes as to whether the socket should be covered and darkened or not.
On the one hand, when we darken it while opening, the ants will see the light and will be stressed, on the other hand, if it is not darkened, the ants will get used to the light and will not be afraid.
Before letting the ants in, check that all gaps are closed, and all doors and covers are closed. If you have a barrier like talcum powder or something else, you can use it by smearing the inside of the wound or the top of the arena walls so that ants cannot escape through the arena in the future.
Final part. Ant colonization.
1) If the Arena allows you to put a test tube there, just insert and pull out the cotton wool and wait for the ants to find the entrance to the nest and move there by themselves.
2) If this is not possible, it is worth connecting the test tube to the arena through a tube (you can buy it at any DIY store for pennies), and the ants will pass by themselves.
3) Or use a simpler and faster, but rather stressful for the ants, which is shaking or gently knocking them out of the test tube into the arena, shaking or gently tapping the test tube, but this is not the most desirable way for them.
This is all, but it often happens that ants are not very eager to go to the nest, since the test tube already has its own smell and pheromones, then you can help them with a lamp or gently heating the tube.
The lamp works best, turn on the lamp above the test tube, preferably the LED, from a short distance and the socket can be dimmed temporarily. And in 99% of cases, the ants will move into the nest very quickly. The main thing is not to fry the ants. It is similar with the thermal mat.
Also, during the settlement, you can give them some food so that the ants feel that there is food here and that it is good.
For reapers there may be seeds, for others syrup and fruit, but certainly not a large cockroach live)
Hope this article was of great help to you!
