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Anonymous08/17/25, 11:01No.2938757Ant formicarium buildalong
I want to build an ant enclosure, more formally known as a "formicarium" myself because ant enclosures are overpriced as shit and the materials needed are pretty cheap all things considered.
I'll document it here similarly to a cookalong thread in /ck/, so whoever is interested can come along for the ride.
I'm also a rentoid and only have shit tier tools, which both means if you want to do what I'll do in this thread it'll be easy with minimal equipment, and I'll likely fuck up, meaning you get to at least laugh at me.
We'll build 2 (ideally) ant enclosures; one made of ytong (a porous building material) and the other made of grout.
Picrel is what I got for the project, all pretty cheap materials. Price estimates will be behind the items.
>For the Ytong nest
This is probably the cheapest nest you can build, and surprisingly decent for that price.
- 1 block ytong. This one is 60x5x20 cm big and cost me 1.50€. Density of 0.5 g/cm^3 iirc.
- Acrylic or plastic sheet (25x50x0.2cm for me) 3€, or picture frame (1.5€)
- 8 Magnets that are somewhat flat at the top (4€/6, so 5.33€ for 8)
That's ~10€ for the entire nest or less.
>For the Grout nest
- See-through plastic container (3€)
- Grout (7€/2kg, you need maybe a quarter, also if you order in bulk it's much cheaper, let's say 3€)
- Sand (Free or 1€)
- A cheap small plastic container (1€ for 6, say 0.5€)
- Plastic drinking straw (0.2€)
- Metal mesh (How fine depends on species, at least 30 mesh, 7€ for 4 A4 pieces, we'll use maybe 1/8th of one sheet, say 1€ total)
That's also ~10€, though slightly more initial cost as you likely have to buy more than you need for these things.
>Tools and misc stuff
You'll need a drill, a saw (optional but helps), and a chisel or screwdriver you don't care too much about.
I also got some fake plants for decoration later.
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Anon08/17/25, 11:08No.2938759
I forgot to mention that you'll also need some cooking oil.
Also that big plate of wood is not something you need, it's just from the offcut section of the hardware store and what I use as a sacrificial plate to drill into or saw on so I don't ruin my desk, as I don't have a proper workshop.Alright, we'll get started with the grout nest, then whenever that has to set we'll pivot to the ytong nest for variety.
The plan for the grout nest is to pour it and form tunnels with wet sand, to do so we need sand.
Sadly the hardware store sells sand in 25 kg sacks, and I was there by bike, so I didn't really feel like carrying 25 kg of sand on my back on a bike in city traffic.The solution? A devious heist.
The local playground has sand after all. Animal excrement and dirt included. So we go for a quick trip to the local playground and borrow some sand.
Note that we'll get back most of the sand used in this process, but not all. It'll stick to the grout and form the tunnels of our new ant formicarium.
(Of course I got the city's permission to temporarily borrow this sand beforehand through the proper channels)
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Anon08/17/25, 13:09No.2938776
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EzX_YcGkWbY
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Anon08/18/25, 13:34No.2938983
And here's my 3 formicaria on a shelf.
Left is a pre-bought formicarium from acrylic from aliexpress, middle is the ytong nest, right is the grout nest.
I'll have to 3D print a plug for the right one so I don't have to use the cotton as a plug, but other than that they're done, so this is it.
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Anon08/18/25, 17:34No.2939006
Came from the /csg/ thread.
Really neat autism anon.
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Anon08/18/25, 21:38No.2939059
Bonus while we're at it I made a misshapen gondola while watching a show as well.
Next time I do something like this I'm gonna use the machine, sewing this by hand took far too long.
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Anon08/19/25, 08:06No.2939185
Cool
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Anon08/19/25, 19:49No.2939296
Also a /csg/gger from >>>/g/106289060, [//boards.4chan.org/g/catalog#s=106289060%2C] gem of a thread anon
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Anon08/25/25, 13:21No.2940692
Ok AntonWere staying tuned.
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Anon08/27/25, 20:25No.2941255
Thanks for posting this, anon. How do you populate them? I assume you want a queen, and a few simp ants to keep her comfy, and one or two chad ants to produce more ants. Do you buy them at a pet store or what? If you get a scoop of ants from the woods you'll just end up with a bunch of wagecuck ants that won't reproduce, right?
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Anon09/03/25, 01:59No.2942577
Where are the ants?
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Anon09/03/25, 03:25No.2942599
Best thread in a long time OP. Thank you so much for posting all the info. Very interesting stuff!What do you have to do in terms of feeding and watering? I’d assume different types have different needs.
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Anon09/03/25, 05:05No.2942611
ohhh boy is this a drill as a router thread?
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Anon09/13/25, 10:16No.2944649
>ytong
>grout nest in a maybe one liter container
>fake plants and figures
>Lasius niger
Damn, such a normalfag setup. At least put some moss on the top, not bare grout.
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Anon09/17/25, 06:21No.2945330
I too want some ant frens but i am worried about them surviving winter.
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Anon09/17/25, 06:22No.2945331
Also based thread any info about hygienic environments?
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Anon09/27/25, 15:14No.2947301
this hobby is more complicated and compelling than it looks huh