Last night was an exciting night for me.  Over the last 2 weeks, I have worked on creating a brand new plaster nest.  The truth is, I wasn't happy with my Messor Barbarus being in an Ant Farm.  Although it was a large ant-farm, I just don't think they were happy with it.  A number of things made me think this, there was very little activity in the tank, and there wasn't much in the way of foraging going on.  I began to get concerned for their future.  Now, on You-tube , I had seen some awesome movies of Messor Barbarus in plaster table top nests, to have a look, click on the link HERE.

Here is a picture of the old nest, and the new nest, you decide which you think is better.

	The New Messor Barbarus Old Nest
	The New Messor Barbarus Plaster Nest

Is quite a large nest as you can see, 35cm x 28.5cm x 10cm deep.  It was made using some cheap wood, plaster of Paris, and a piece of glass from a picture frame. Here's a close up. 

So here are some quick instructions on its creation before I show you some great pics of the MB's in their new home.

Create a box to the measurements above.  Any timber will do, but bare in mind that I will be varnishing this one, so it has to be quite nicely grained.  On the bottom of the box tack in place an mdf bottom, shiny side up.  Seal all of the internal joints with silicone, and allow to dry.  Mix up between 7 and 8 kilos of plaster of Paris. I did this in 1 kilo stages, and let each stage dry first (about 3 hours to fully dry).  Filling the box to the very top ensure it is as level as possible, and bare in mind a small amount of shrinkage will occur during drying.  Draw in pencil an outline of the chambers that you would like to create, remember to put in an area as a main passage to the tube that links to the outside.  Using a dremmel, chisel, screwdrivers of different sizes carefully dig out the plaster to the shapes that you drew earlier.  A depth of between 1 and 2 Cm's is good.  Once you have done the digging so to speak, fit the glass to the top of the plaster nest.  If there is any movement or rocking of the glass this means the plaster is raised above the level of the frame, and needs to be sanded flat.  Now, this is where other people might change things a bit, personally, I drilled a hole in the side of the frame, and inserted the tubing.  this I siliconed into place.  I then used an L shaped wood strip to hold the glass in place, I.e. the glass slid under it.  These 3 sides I siliconed and tacked into place.  Finally, I cut the last L shaped piece, mitering the corners etc, and cutting a slot for the tubing.  This allows me to slide the glass out if required.

Job Done.  Well, I can safely say that the ants seem to be a heck of a lot happier in the plaster nest.  I do keep the lid covered at the moment with a newspaper, but they have settled into the place nicely.  The tubing is linked to the old feeding basin, which I have rearranged.  The funny thing is, watching the large majors running down the tube, picking up a piece of seed kernel, and taking it into the nest, then coming back for more, time and time again.  Every-time I see it, the Mission Impossible music springs into my head.   The tubing is being filled slowly by 3 small workers that haven't left the basin yet, and have been backwards and forwards.  Its like watching a fire bucket train.  Here's some more pics.

 
Now, you may be wondering how I got the ants out of the old farm, and into the new one.  Well, it wasn't without its stress, and it wasn't without its scares I can tell you.  Basically, using a chopstick of all things, I carefully scraped the sand out of the farm a bit at a time.  Whenever I came across an ant, I managed to get it to attack my tweezers (this of course stops there being any damage to the ant, it attaches itself rather than the other way round).  I then carefully drop the ant into the tube connected to the new nest.  The scary bit was getting the queen out, shes got a nasty pair of nashers on her.  When all the ants are in the nest, I then sifted through the soil and removed all of the eggs before dropping them into the tube as-well.  Finally, to get them into the nest (they were all sitting in the tube) I turned the whole nest on its end and gave it a quick shake.  This had the desired effect, and all the ants of which there are 11 workers (4 majors and the rest minor), the Queen, and 12 eggs.  Well, I hope you've enjoyed this blog entry as much as I have enjoyed writing it, please rate it, or comment on it if you do.