Keeping a young ant colony in their test tube for an extended period is great for getting them established but it does come with a couple of difficulties. The first of these is running out of water, solvable by offering a second tube for them to relocate to (if they will).
The second causes me more difficulties and that is adding food or removing waste. The advice is usually to remove the cotton wool plug and pop in some food on a small piece of paper or foil, this is great in theory but I find the practice somewhat harder. Out comes the plug, out come the ants.
Great news, it looks like Wakooshi has supplied an answer for less than the price of a pint of beer.
Their test tube feeding pods come with a tube connector at one end and a stand at one end, a tune is supplied as well. The other end has a sliding top which kits securely but can be slid open to feed. Ants being ants, they will likely dump their rubbish there too.
Early days as mine (I ordered several as it is better value on postage) only arrived today but it is immediately clear that they are well made and are going to make things a lot easier. There is even a small removable plus to connect them to an outworld or nest if that helps you to get the colony moved out when the time finally comes.
Just three things to note
They are available in two sizes so check the tube you wish to attach before you order
Make sure your tube is securely connected. Once on they should stay there properly
The 'lid' has a protective film on both sides and this will need to be removed before use or the air holes will be blocked
I'm looking forward to using these and expect it will allow me to keep one or more of my current small colonies in the tube until hibernation which is great for the colonies and for space saving. You can find the full details on the Wakooshi website
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