Hormiguero

thingiverse

This is a modular ant nest, it can be printed and connected to expand the nest. The large holes are for 15.5mm diameter tubes and the small ones for 4mm diameter straws, these small holes serve either to feed the ants or to connect more modules. The modules can be removed to clean them as well as the tubes, with two tubes always one will remain where the queen lives. I'd like to share a design I've done that's printable on 3D printers, indeed I have one, I have glass and a glass cutter to put lids on top, the fundamental idea of the design is to be able to replace the tubes that are getting clogged with water or are very dirty. Two tubes are placed, one for the queen or minicolony, both with their water and cotton, the rest of the holes are sealed with cotton so they don't escape except for one that will be used to feed them through a straw (4mm) at one end of which a cotton ball is placed so they don't escape and inside it's put food (water, honey, sugar water, tenebrions etc.) and it's introduced through the only hole we left without covering, a glass lid is put on top. We can always change the straw for a new one with new food, when the tube where the minicolony lives gets dry or very dirty it will be exposed to adverse conditions so they migrate on their own to the clean and wet tube next door, once this happens the dirty and dry tube will be removed and replaced with a new one that's wet and clean. With this process we can have the minicolony always in good condition without bothering them. The ant nest is modular, meaning I'll design modules that can be connected to the main module as it expands. Suppose there's a module very dirty from food leftovers, in that module adverse conditions will be placed such as light or cold and we'll let it dehabit for later removal being replaced by a clean module. With this idea we can have an ant nest perfect for our ants' demands and never lack humidity.