The Dugout

Features of the Hybrid nest:

Each nest has different chambers of varying depths and sizes.

Each Nest has a 3mm clear perspex viewing lid, which is placed on top of the nest. The viewing lid can easily be removed and is not secured onto the nest.
*You may decide to use marine silicone for a more secure fit, but we feel that is only necessary when you have small colonies such as pheidole or an aggressive species. Be careful when moving your nest around.

Nest Area Dimensions: L×100mm W×100mm H×27mm

Hydration system: Simply add your moisture medium into the hydration chamber on the top left and the moisture will pass through the holes. The hybrid nest comes with a black sponge, but you may choose to use your own medium.

* This is a formicarium, your ants will also need an outworld to explore and forage.

Connectivity: The ant nest can easily connect to an outworld with a clear 12mm or 16mm pipe using either one of the holes. You may also connect a test tube to the nest for extra hydration. As your colony grows you may connect another nest to your existing nest for expansion.

The Hybird ant nest comes with:
1 x Hybrid Nest, including 3mm perspex lid
1 x 16mm test tube
1 x 16mm test tube adapter
1x Plug

How to clean:
Did you know, every ant colony has different hygiene habits. Some ants love to keep their nest area clean, and other ants fill their nest up with soil or other ant species use a section of their nest to dump their trash.
Once you make your hybrid nest their home, it is their home and they own it, their housekeeping may not be up to your standards but that is the way they like it.

When the time comes to move your colony to a bigger nest, you may give your hybrid nest a wash in warm soapy water. Do not make the water too hot. The PLA plastic does have a melting or bending point and should not be exposed to heat above 80 to 90 Degrees Celsius.

Where did The Dugout name come from:
Dugout shelters were used in the war. A dugout or dug-out, also known as a pit-house or earth lodge, is a shelter for humans or domesticated animals and livestock based on a hole or depression dug into the ground. Dugouts can be fully recessed into the earth, with a flat roof covered by ground, or dug into a hillside.
Our Dugout nest is in honor of the Moth Club - The Memorable Order of Tin Hats or the MOTH as it is more popularly known is ex-servicemen and woman Organisation founded in Durban, South Africa, on May 1927. The Moth club have dugouts and Shellholes all over South Africa.
The three Moth ideals are:
True Comradeship, Mutual Help, Sound Memory.
If you take a look at an ant colony, that is exactly what they stand for.
My Father and Grandfather were proud Moth members.