How to Build an Ant Farm | Natural Formicarium 

Hi guys. Hope you found this video of help! Just wanted to let you all know I've just launched a Patreon page! www.patreon.com/antsaustralia I’ve always been reluctant to make demands upon you guys. Very rarely do ask anyone to like or share my content. Which begs the question, “why start a Patreon page?” Well, what changed my mind was the realisation that, without the support of donations, pursuing my dream of producing Ants Australia videos full-time, simply can’t be done. Any contribution vastly exceeds individual ad revenue here on RU-vid. So if you enjoy my content, and want to see more, please consider chipping in. I’d like to thank you all for your overwhelming support throughout the years. Whether that be through your donations, inspiring words, or just your silent attention :)

When I found a queen ant on a school field trip, I was amused. I said to my friend “oh look a queen ant” replied “I know someone who keeps ants. Let me get them.” The other kid began to get extremely excited and captured it to keep. I wanted to experience that excitement, so I got into antkeeping. Added to that, we became very good friends thanks to the hobby.

His voice is so calming

It began for me in my garden where a colony of ants started to move in under an old wall, instead of removing it I decided to let them be and observe their behavior. I was fascinated by their sheer power and determination and decided to learn more about them. I found channels like you that showed that you can keep ants and learn about their world. I've had several colony's over the years I kept ants but none that special as the ant colony in my backyard

I have been waiting for this video for almost a year now! It's finally here ;D

As a biology grad student, I have always loved nature and I think ants are one of the most interesting animals. Their solical interactions as well as their capability to create complex nests and tunnels are unique and amazing to witness. I started keeping my own ants around 8 months ago. Right now I have 3 small ant colonies which passed their founding stage and they are growing fast!

Wow, these naturalistic formicariums are beautifully made! The video is so well organized too, which is what I love about your channel. Looking forward to more :D

Ever since I was a kid I have always been fascinated with Ants. About how colonies thousands strong can live as one organism each ant is a small cog in a huge machine. I love most of all how orgonised they are from digging out their colonies to taking down pray and finding food. I dont yet have my own farm as i have never had suitable living conditions, now I do i have been looking in to starting my own. :D

Btw you should put a barrier no matter what to prevent raids

I began keeping ants from one day stumbling upon AntsCanada's RU-vid channel. From there I found your channel, and many many others! From there on I was absolutely hooked up collecting, & keeping ants. Cut to a year later, I now have over close to 30 different species. So, thank you, for helping me gain such an appreciation for these little critters!

AntsCanada is the first channel i discovered about Ant Keeping. Which in turn led me to find this channel. Watching how amazing it can be to keep ants has really opened my eyes to the lives of insects and their world. I am currently not keeping ants because i haven't been able to find a queen. Currently looking for Camponotus or Carpenter ants before their nuptial flights come to an end.

That big tank is a pretty realistic scaling job. Love it.

Wicked video :D glad to see that those strobe ants are surviving the winter!

What made me want to keep ants is the beautiful process of raising them, the exciting moment when you find your first queen is a feeling unlike any other its an amazing experience and makes you realize the little things are way bigger then they seem and how amazing nature really is also your videos made me want to keep them you showing how cool and delicate they are really made my mind think deeper and i was so fascinated in way i never thought i could be thanks.

Why I wanted to keep ants? I honestly hated ants and had a phobia towards ants. But slowly watching your videos it made me curious to see how ant keeping would be. I slowly gained confidence and started to keep ants. Now I have over 8 colony's! Thanks Jordan!

I watched this just to make the massive fish tank enclosure with no Ants, they’ve always seemed so complicated to keep and I just wanted a nice little ecosystem with plants and good soil to make for my springtails, isopods, millipedes, etc. Thanks for the tutorial!

This channel is criminally underrated

This year, I've begun researching nuptial flight schedules because I'm planning to start keeping ants. For most of my life, I've been in therapy for an anxiety disorder and a variety of crippling phobias including insectophobia and trypophobia, both of which made ants terrifying. Years ago, just talking about larval species of insect would make me panic and scratch my skin bloody. Watching RU-vid videos by AntsCanada and this channel in addition to therapy have helped me warm up to ants and some other insect species slowly. There are still many insects that I am afraid of or uncomfortable with, but I have learned to appreciate the beauty of ants and I want to celebrate this major step in overcoming my phobias by raising and keeping a colony of my own in a naturalistic terrarium set up, because like you said for some people watching the ants come up to forage and occasionally seeing just glimpses of their nesting activity below can be more than enough.

Wow it’s not that often I watch a 30 min RU-vid video all the way through. This is so good. Your channel is fantastic

I started keeping ants for two reasons. Firstly, because the practice of observing and caring for ants is meditative and calming. Secondly, because watching the colonies slowly grow and persist in problem-solving inspires me to be patient and persistent myself in daily life.

When I was a lot younger (5-10) I used to watched documentaries on the natural world for fun, as I was drawn to the natural beauty, and thus started keeping some exotic pets and animals. Keeping ants has been a great experience and given me a good upfront and personal look into the natural world. Also love the vids, keep up the good work👍

Mean while in other universe ant: we have humans, how to build a human farm!

Ever since I was a kid I was fascinated by ants. The way the work together, their life cycle... Everything. I was unable to keep them as a kid due to my perents, but as an adult I couldn't wait to capture my first queen during nuptial flights and start a colony. There is something magical about seeing directly into the ants founding chambers and witnessing the beginning of a colony.. It's like nature is sharing a secret with you. That's why I wanted to keep ants.

I have been working as an early educator at a preschool in Southern Vermont for the past three years. Having much appreciation and love for science and nature I strive to bring elements of the outdoors into the classroom. Having a natural ant farm would serve as an ongoing incredibly rich educational experience for the children. It would not only teach them how to love the earth, but also develop empathy and curiosity from a scientific approach!

I started keeping ants because of your videos in youtube. I was amazed of how organised and brilliant they are as a colony. Your 3 part ants raising tutorial got me to smoothly start my very first colony. Thank you so much for your vids. God bless your channel!!

I love keeping ants because when I was little my big brother inspired me to explore our world. Both of learned to love nature and ants threw your ant youtube channel and now I keep ants. Thanks For The Inspiration Ants Australia

I wanted to keep ants because of your videos! I started only recently but my first colony is expanding slowly. I wanted to watch my colony form from one queen and I wasn’t let down. I was amazed and can’t imagine me not keeping ants so I’ll keep going. Thanks for introducing me to this great hobby!

I started keeping ants one year ago because I came across youtube videos of ant keeper sharing their experiences (like you) and it all reminded me my love for ants when i was a kid :)

What made me want to keep ants is your and every ant you tubers videos. Ants were so interesting and I’ve always had a connection with nature. Also, I’ve now got a Formica queen ready so that I can start Ants America. I know, it’s very original.

I've watched this video over ten times its just so relaxing watching ants do there thing.

The first I heard about ant keeping was from RU-vid. I realised their beauty and enjoyed watching them on RU-vid. After learning how easy it is to keep them, I realised it fitted my requirements: low maintenance, fish tank sized and one which will not poop all over the house.so I Wan to keep ants .

I'm glad that all the ant channels have started using more natural nests. I started to keep mine in big dirt setups a couple of years ago as I wanted to see how different species nested in soil. It also allowed me to give the ants more room as in have two species of ponerine ants which hunt their food individually. I even keep a termite colony in a dirt setup.

I first saw this channel and have been binge watching every single video! You have a great way of talking and the tone of your voice seems like you're really excited to share the world of ants! Someday I hope I can be an antkeeper like you!

I love the fish tank setup! 2019 anyone?

We have been waiting for this for months

What made me keep ants was watching AntsCanada’s videos with my friend after he introduced the channel to me. After a couple of months I found your channel and watched the video how to catch a queen ant and decided to look for my own. I loved seeing the colonies move as a whole to accomplish a single goal. It truly made me see ants in a new way.

I started keeping ants because I have always had a love for insects and animals. It is so amazing being able to look after your own little ant city and see what kind of interesting things they do. Keep up the great vids.

After seeing one of your video's quite a while ago, I started keeping these little creatures. They now live in a self-made ytong nest wich I made after your tuturial: how to make an aac nest. And I got another small colony living in a single test tube at the moment😀😀

I thought ant keeping was gonna be such a fun and exciting job and it is I love watching these little guys everytime i can and I love to see that more and more people are starting to join the community of ant keeping

As a little kid I have always tried to keep ants. But I never had the knowledge to do so properly and they always ended up poorly. 20 years later with the help of great ant loving RU-vidrs sharing ant knowledge, has given me the ability to care for ants properly. Caught a queen this summer and am so excited to care for them and watch them grow. The unity of ants is astounding and mesmerizing.

This so cool, I am making this, no doubt!

My ants have walled themselves in a test tube! I placed the tube in a small formicarium with some sand and few rocks and sneaky bastards have used the sand to build a 5mm wall in the tube. What's that all about?

A small ant species invaded my Florida, USA home. Needless to say they could not stay, but one colony moved into my stovetop grill. It is a large stovetop with a built in grill and I rarely use it, so I to decided observe this particular colony. To keep them somewhat contained, I put food and a water soaked paper towel out for them. I am intrigued with how well they work together! It has been a few months now and it is time they moved out. I have discovered that I may be able to get them to move into a formicarium, if I do it right. What a new and interesting hobby to learn about at age 71!

This is one of my most favorite builds of the channel! Hope we can see an update soon!

My 4 year old son was stung by an ant about 6 months ago, and was really upset. To try to explain to him (and my 5 year old daughter) that to an ant he was a very scary giant, and he got stung because the ant was afraid, I turned to RU-vid. Since then, both the kids and I have been raptured watching and learning about ants and how they are kept as pets. I have since caught both kids following wild ants around the garden, and found myself watching ant videos long into the night. Mum is certainly not convinced about ant keeping however... Yet

Love this video! Very educational and relaxing voice! Excellent job. thnk you :D

I have been interested in keeping ants since I was around 9 years old. What hooked me to these insects is how intelligent and well coordinated they can be and watching them grow from the very start is so satisfying.

I have always had a fascination of insects, so I wasn't surprised when a ant video popped up in my RU-vid recommended bar (it was one of your older videos) and ever scince I have been learning off you tube and have been growing my own colonies I know have a golden tail camponotus colony 43 workers strong. And that's how I got into ant keeping. Thanks

Yes thanks this will be so helpful when my colony grows! THANK YOU!

what made me want to keep ants: one day last autumn, I was walking through a nice forested path near my neighborhood, and I saw an absolutely gorgeous ant. The worker was a beautiful dark reddish-brown with a bright, amber colored gaster. I snapped a few pics, and set out to find out what species she was. I later found out that the species was Aphaenogaster Tennesseensis, which is one of the rarest kept captive species of ants due to the fact that the queens are social parasites, and raising them in captivity almost never works. I eventually wanted to learn everything I could about ants, watch every ant video on the internet, especially the ones from this channel, and I wanted to find out all of the species native to my area. That day in the forest, or rather, that one single worker alone sparked my interest in ants, and is now the reason that I have 3 colonies, one of which is a colony Aphaenogaster Tennesseensis that has begun producing alates, and 2 more founding queens. I don't think I can ever forget that one lonely worker and all she has done for me.

I started ant keeping just now. I have 7 queens with 0 workor, I found them about a week ago and I really love watching them laying eggs. I watched a lot videos about ant keeping and now I have my own queens it's amazing for me. I watched a lot of your videos and I learned a lot from them about ant keeping. Thank you very much.

So great to have you posting again I've been keeping track with the progress through Instagram! And what made me keep ants was just seeing all the intricate, stunning and elaborate ways they build their enclosure, work together similar to how humans build buildings, bridges and more. Another reason why I love keeping ants is even seeing the beauty of of the set up with plants, ants and other insects working together all in my own room! It really does make me feel nice and calm and i feel like i could just watche them do their thing for hours. Although I'm yet to make such a masterpiece I have gotten a lot of inspiration and motivation seeing yours.

AC family like here

Great video! :-)

my interest in ants all started when I was browsing youtube and came across its Canada and started watching his channel ant eventually came across yours and since then I have been a regular watcher of your videos and just this past week I decided to keep my first queen ant a black crazy ant she currently has no workers and is in a small test tube set up but she has plenty of brood. So thank you for sparking my interest in these wonderful creatures! :)

Thank you so much for making this video. This was inspiration for my Natural Formicarium I was planning to make. I really love how you use clay balls and coconut husk as a natural filtration on the bottom of the tank. 10/10

What made me want to keep ants was my love for overseeing them and helping take care of them. Ant-keeping in a way makes me feel like a God or a protector. These ants think as one, as a colony. They're not selfish, and are smarter and more unique than one might think. So, taking good care of these ants makes me feel like I, myself, am a part of the colony too. I also love spotting differences within different species of ants. Each specie is special in their own little way.

*MAKE MORE VIDEOS ABOUT ANT SPECIES*

I always wanted to keep ants since i was a kid but i only started when i found youtube channels like yours with really helpful guides and everything. I watched tons of videos for a year or so and learned so much, so thanks for that. Last year i started antkeeping and now i have a camponotus colony which i raised from a single queen and 2 lasius flavus colonies.

I really like the large Bull ant set up, looks amazing and seems that it would provide many years of colonization and entertainment for the owner.

update of sugar ants pls :)

My plants dried out in the first 20 mins

Wow. Came back to look at your channel and this was 2 years ago. I remember that I was at the airport waiting for a flight when I say your new video pop up and I watched it. It was only 2 years ago but it somehow feels nostalgic. Thanks for the memories :D

Stumbled upon one of AntsCanada's videos and soon found myself on this channel. I've always been interested in entomology, and this seemed a perfect (and low-effort) opportunity to keep some close at hand. I've now got four young colonies on my desk with me as I work every day!

Be careful about adding that peppermint. According to many sources, its oil can repel ants and flies.

What if I made a channel called ants Arizona and my intro was "HEY What's up double A's?!"

I started ant keeping this year and I am really loving it. I already have a queen with 15 workers. I have always loved nature, since I was a kid I have been looking around for animals, especially insects. It has been two years now since I’ve been watching ant videos. And finally I decided to antkeep, which I find very satisfactory and rewarding

What got me into keeping ants is videos of them living in natural setups, I found it very cool that you can make your own mini world for something living and breathing that will enjoy a non-artificial place to live. This also got me into reptile keeping.

Am I first?...I think lol

I’ve loved ants since I was like 4, just the thought of housing a community of animals in your room, they’re just so amazing to watch, whether outside or my own. They pretty much show us the perfect society.

yesssss it took sooo long. Glad to see u back

This video is sooooooo cool!!!! We found it when we were researching homage ant habitats and this is so inspirational!!! We are already making notes for our habitat!

I have looked at many documentaries and I always found the parts about ants the most interesting. How they comunicate, search food, work together, overcome obstacles and the huge amount of diversity. I went on a research about ants and found out about the ant keeping hobby. It wasn't long after that, that I catched my firts ant queen.

ive been looking for this site for seemingly a long time! thank you! my husband is a fan!

I discovered a video about ant keeping and it really leave me in an awe. As i dig deeper about ants it gives me a feeling of excitement, curiosity and knowledge. After that day i decided not just to be an ant keeper but also a biologist.

I have always had an interest in ants right from a young age. I experimented with trying to keep ants and also build formicariums, but didn’t have much success. Then one day I did a search and found your website. It looked so easy and finally I could keep ants and study them. After watching a few of your intro videos I went straight out looking for queens. Within a couple of weeks I had two queens, they are still going after nearly a year, housed in your acrylic nests. They are awesome to watch, I’m now looking for a bull ant queen. Thanks so much for your videos and website. Keep up the awesome work.

I started antkeeping around a month or so ago but i have loved ants for the last year, i wanted to create and see how the ants reacted to the creations. It helped when my best friend also loved ants and once nuptial flight came we both helped each other find queen ants.

Ive got a friend at school keeping ants and he is very joyful about it so i started to look after them when he was on holiday ( with permission obviously) and i love the way the scurry around. I havent started ant keeping yet as i dont have the money to do so, but i will start this month when my friend swaps nests for his nigers and ill buy his old nest off of him.

Ants really changed my life , I used to mess about in life and school , but when I first caught my first Camponotus? Queen I was so fascinated by everything she did , from laying eggs to drinking honey. Now I focus a lot better at school and our new biology topic is social insects! I’ve watched you since your updates on the big headed ants and I want to say thanks for all the great tips on raising queens and colony’s , your video helped me raise a carpenter ant colony 100s of ants strong , Keep up the fantastic work!

What made me want to keep ants was just the beauty of them and just the simple things they do, by me watching them do these things it just makes me feel closer to them. Now at school my friends call me ant boy because of how much I know, but ever since I was a kid I would watch these creatures in my backyard for ages.

well first of all you did you inspired me to keep them. i have been a fan of your channel. when was 8 years old i had this passion of keeping them. thank you

What made me want to keep ants was the ability to watch a whole empire grow that you take care of and make sure stay healthy and there is soooo much to learn about all sorts of different species I see almost no reason not to keep them and has been one of the most entertaining this I have done ever.

I never knew much about ants but after watching this channel I became fascinated with ants and other insects alike. This drove my now growing obsession with ants and other insects . I know properly understand and appreciate these wonderful little creatures. All this finally lead me to keep my own colonies of ants such as mymicra rubra, which is the one I have now.

I've always loved ants because of their power tot work together without speaking to each other. Then i found your channel and began waiting for the nuptial flights!

What made me want to start keeping ants, was the way the ants seemingly work perfectly together. The teamwork, and time spent invested in anything they see fit doing until its accomplished. They work harmoniously together, and tiny organisms, when banded together can accomplish great feats.

The thing that made me want to keep ants was videos on RU-vid like yours, also, I have been interested in insects from a young age, as I wondered how they interacted with each other. I know have two queens that I have in a test tube set-up. They are my first, I hope that they do well!

The quality of your videos are AWESOME...

Thanks for this video Jordan now I have subscribed and watched every video on your channel and have liked all of them. Thank for these incredible video as always. You have changed my life with ants so I would just like to say thanks :D

I always wanted to keep ants because they are so creative, smart and hard working. Most of all they are so fun to watch.

i started kepieng ants because i saw your videos and antscanda and now it has become a part of my life

For me ants were always interesting creatures they had different amazing features different personalities, and colors. They had impacted my life in big way i have caught one queen and successfully raised brood. Which seem to make my life less stressful and interesting thanks to channels like yours and many others. And you are most definitely right it’s amazing to watch them for hours on how busy they are. Knowing that it was so easy and fun.

Great video yet again ! Keep it up ! Also that's quite an impressive colony size for those myrmicia pyriformis... They grow so slowly ! Good job !

Keeping ants make me happy, I loved it when I got curious and watched one of your videos. Even if the video was only for watching your ants, I saw the beauty of nature. I'm in Philippines btw.

i have just recently got an ant colony because i was inspired by you its the best thing ive ever done in my life

This is an amazing vide! I've always loved ants and they were my first pet growing up. I was hoping to built an ant farm with my kids and this is more than I could have ever wished for. Thanks for all of the amazing tips and examples of beautiful setups.

I wanted to keep ants when i was quite small and now i do they are relly interesting and i knew where a nest was and am useing the tubes and tubes method and i owe my ants to you teaching me everything i need to know you rock THANKS

I have always loved small critters as a child but I say a video about ants a few years back and realized how amazing they are, I tried to make a ant nest by putting ants in a tub of dirt but of course that did not go well and I gave up soon after, but about a year ago I watched all of your how to raise an ant nest series and figured out what I did wrong and now all thanks to you I have a susscessful ant colony of Formica fuscas. I started raising ants because of there shear beauty and because of you to!

These habitats are amazing. It’s inspiring me to be an antkeeper to be honest. Great video and I hope you post updates on all the ants!!

Ant youtubers like you, antscanada and ant invasion you really seem to have so much passion for such specific things that Isn’t seen at by many

I got into ant keeping is when I woke up and I saw a you alate on my desk, I was going to throw it out of the window but then I wanted to explore and keep here! So I went on RU-vid and found your amazing channel which now the queen is thriving in my setup a Pheidole colony to be specific! Amazing vid loved the info!