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Step-by-step instructions on how to buld a 3x3" Claustral Cell Ant Terrarium or Habitat. Last Updated 2002.06.03.1837

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Materials required

• 2 sheets of 1/16" or 1/18" pre-cut to 3x3" or dimensions you desire
• Cotton or tissue paper to make rolled tubes of about 8-12" in length and diamter the thickness you wish for the space between the glass..
• Glass of water (preferrably distilled)
• Soil, sand, or sawdust (optional)

I prefer to use glass because my work involves live photo or videography and hence I need the most transparent medium available (which is glass IMHO). One can easily replace the glass with a clear plastic or plexiglass to make these units much safer!.

At this point you need to form the Tissue wall to the glass. I simply carefully squeeze the glass

Some species of ants just don't seem to be happy if they don't have something to move around - at least initially. This means one has to get to know the species. Most often I try wood because I prefer not to use soil or limit the use of it as much as possible. In the image seen next to the title you'll notice that I have a formica queen with a little soil to move around. For Camponotus Pennsylvanicus I use sawdust as seen here - and this has worked perfectly for me.

At this point your pretty much ready for a queen. I try to have a few of these prepared in case nuptual flights occur. But often I make them after catching queens and putting them in jars with moistened tissue bits for moisture - to be safe until I'm ready for them. Most queens will NOT start laying eggs until they are sure they have found a suitable home. Some queens will wait for days - if not 2 weeks (I've had a couple examples) before starting to lay eggs. In the image to the left one can see how I simly open a slit by sliding the top glass. Then I endeavor to carefully, w/o injuring her, get the queen to go into the exposed hole and then slowly sealing the glass when she is not near the hole. (I put my finger over the hole when she's in).

On the left I show a claustral cell that I have currently in operation with a unidentified formica species. The queen in the image is less than 1 month in her chamber and she already has 5 pupae and two remaining larvae. (I obtained this queen 2001.07.21 off nuptual flight). I wanted to make a few notes here. First most queens I've had would not feed while producing their first brood. They will suck up water off the edges of claustral chamber though and keeping the chamber humid is pretty important. But you don't want to keep it sopping wet all the time. In fact I let mine dry occasionally - particularly when the brood is mostly pupae (Keep sopping in early brood stages). The other issues one has to face is when the first brood pupae are produced. When the minim's hatch you will want to feed them quickly and a feeding area will be needed. But if you get to that point you can get ready to have larger home for them to move into (and see the next in this series of articles). Now you will know if your queen is successful and is ready for a larger home. I have had many queens simply die in their claustral cells for all kinds of reasons. It's a fact of life - things sometimes die (injury, heat, lack of moisture, disease, death laying egg (queen)) etc.

The reason for this addendum is to note as follows: First, claustral cell walls should be made in a way that the material for the wall must be long enough to hang off into a water bath. This is CRITICAL. I've learned that given the size it is quite easy for the claustral cell to dry out the queen dying in hours if not a day or so. Keeping the cell moist insures a healthy queen and good first brood. Using a large water reservoir insures maintenance to be minimal. I can add a few cups of water and be assured the claustral cell will stay moist for at least 1-2 weeks. (Do not put in direct full day sun - partual day of 1-2 hours is fine). Mold does not seem to be a factor given the limited time use of these cells. Secondly I'm including pictures of the new Extended Claustral Cell my AC-C2. This cell is slightly more elaborate in that the top glass is broken into two sections (bottom only one). The first is a kind of maze in which the queen is expected to live in off the nuptual flight (she will set up her cell in one of the chambers in the maze. But as the first brood hatches the second section allows you to feed the colony in the foraging cell by sliding the glass either removing rubber bands or simply sliding glass open with bands in place and dropping bits of food in the feeding area. In conjunction with this one can also use a syrenge to provide the ants with some kind of sugary solution to feed on. Finally. At this point I don't have time to do a new set of step-by-step pages for how to make this Extended Claustral Cell but it should be rather straightforward for people to figure out based on the above instructions.

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