Formikary with their own hands. Home anthill.

Usually the first question asked by the myrmaker is "why do you keep ants houses?". Many experienced amateurs can not really answer for themselves - "Well .. interesting ...". And this is so, the behavior of the ants, their interaction among themselves is very interesting - it's a whole country, even civilization on the table.

In favor of the content of these little creatures, it is also said that:

- Ants do not make noise
- Ants do not smell, wool, dust; From them there is no garbage at all
- Ants do not pour a puddle on your favorite carpet and do not bite your favorite slippers
- Ants live in a compact and light formaria (try to move the aquarium)
- Ants are very mobile - they will not melancholy hang in one place of the aquarium - in the formicaria something is constantly going on, work is boiling
- Ants do not grind their claws on the sofa, and in the spring they have all no complications
- on the day the ants eat forage by about one penny!
- The ants themselves put things in order in their Formica, and in general they do everything themselves
- they do not have to walk (remember: winter, early morning, piercing wind)

For the maintenance of ants, we need a formica (Formicarium (Latin Formicarium) - a structure for keeping ants or an artificial anthill ). Formikarii, there are flat: horizontal and vertical, and there are also "volumetric" towers (they are always vertical). Of course there is also an "exotic", for example an island, but the main types are listed.

Since in pet stores almost nothing suitable for ants is not for sale, and prices for formica start from $ 50 - have a lot to do yourself ! And this, too, is very interesting, and, most importantly - useful!

It is advisable to make a tower for fast fabrication of a formica. Towers are cheap, fast and practical! (And you do not need to look for a glass workshop). With proper approach it turns out beautifully, and on sober meditation is even more convenient for ants.

Before starting the manufacture, it is necessary to prepare the workplace, materials and tools. This photo shows the preparation for the first stage of production - a transparent container with a lid (for loose food products) and technical clay. Naturally, plasticine is designed to make in an alabaster form moves and cameras for ants.

That's how the capacity for the future formica looks after the end of the first phase of production - technical clay is glued to the internal walls. Plasticine formed the way and chambers, as well as the so-called "pool", in which water will be poured. After all, ants, like many other insects, can not without water, and in the anthill the humidity must be maintained at a sufficiently high level. It should be noted that sticking plasticine inside the jar was not easy. In this case, you will need to seek help from your children

Go to the next stage. Again, materials and tools are collected: a prepared container with pasted plasticine, a five-liter plastic can for mixing alabaster, alabaster itself, a stirring stick and a knife for preparing cans, sticks and opening a package with alabaster. So, everything is ready, you can start production.

The question is - how much water should be used to fill the alabaster shape? It's very simple: we pour water into the container where the clay is already pasted, and then we use this amount to prepare the mixture. No sooner said than done. The image shows the use of a container as a measure for water.

The five-liter bank is deprived of its neck, water is poured from the measure into the resulting "basin", alabaster is poured into the water, it is stirred to obtain a homogeneous creamy mass. The result can be seen in the image.

After this, carefully pour the resulting creamy mixture into a container with plasticine. Transfusion must be done with the intent that no air bubbles should remain. Especially this applies to places under the plasticine, where it flexes in a way that promotes the formation of bubbles. For this, during the pouring of alabaster, the capacity should be shaken. Well, the whole process of pouring must be done very quickly - the rate of solidification of alabaster is very high.

A few days later the alabaster froze completely so that it was not scary to take it out (it froze after fifteen minutes, but it could be crushed). However, to get a frozen alabaster, complicated by glued to the walls of the reservoir plasticine, it just did not work. It was necessary to carefully cut the jar and get the "body". As a result, the alabaster form was taken out, which can be seen in the illustration.

After taking out the form, it was found that it was still cheese. Another week, she lay in a shady room, turned over and dried herself. A week later, the second container was purchased, in which the final formarium was to be built. The image shows the preparation for the next stage - the removal of clay.

Clay was not easy to take out. Of the moves, he was taken out with a nail, whose cap was equal in size to the diameter of the ant movement. Cameras in formicaria were removed more easily - from below the clay was moving away from the alabaster itself, but from above it was necessary to help. Frozen plasticine did not give anything, it was only worse. The clay was the easiest to put in a warm form, but after that in many places plasticine had to be cleaned. Well, the picture shows that the pieces of plasticine here and there have remained. We hope that the ants that inhabit this artificial anthill will clean the remains of plasticine.

Finally, the mold is cleaned of plasticine and inserted into a new container with transparent walls and a hermetically sealed cover. Downstairs, where the pool, a small hole is made, into which a cocktail tube will be inserted, through which water will be poured. The water will expand upwards through the micropores and provide the necessary humidity.

I wish you many fascinating hours of watching your merry and friendly pets. But before I get new pets, I strongly recommend that you study the information on the content of ants, the good on the Internet this information is enough.