Anthouse Sand Ant Farm 3D L Review

Product Reviews
Bruma 4 min read
Anthouse Sand Ant Farm 3D L Review

In short

The Anthouse Sand Ant Farm 3D L is a 3D-printed sand nest and outworld combo with an easy-to-fill 20x25 cm, 2 cm deep sandwich nest. I like it a lot: the depth is a perfect compromise, the outworld lid is precisely cut, and my Messor barbarus colony started digging immediately.

Hi guys! I hope you’re doing well!

Today I will be setting up and reviewing this really cool 3D-printed ant nest made by the company Anthouse. You can find the nest here!

Let’s see if it’s any good!

Setting Up The Nest

Before we start with the review, I am going to prepare and set up the nest, so you can see how it looks once it’s ready!

Anthouse Sand Ant Farm 3D L fully set up with sand, liquid feeders and a white castle seed feeder

Before we can start putting the sand into the nest, we have to close the 4 little expansion ports of the nest. To do so, we can use these cool rubber entrance blockers, which are included in the package.

Clear rubber entrance blocker from the Anthouse Sand Ant Farm 3D package, held between two fingers

There are 4 holes in total, 2 on the outworld and 2 on the sandwich nest.

Sealing the expansion ports of the empty Anthouse Sand Ant Farm 3D frame before adding the sand

Perfect!

Empty Anthouse Sand Ant Farm 3D with all four expansion ports closed and the outworld lid in place

Now we can finally start filling the nest with sand! I’m going to start from the outworld and then proceed with the sandwich nest.

Pouring sand from the included bag into the outworld of the Anthouse Sand Ant Farm 3D

To spread it evenly, you can just give it a little shake!

Gently shaking the Anthouse Sand Ant Farm 3D to spread the sand evenly across the outworld floor

Now to the actual nest!

Pouring sand into the vertical sandwich section of the Anthouse Sand Ant Farm 3D

Filling the sandwich nest is extremely easy! One tip: if you don’t want to bury the nest in sand like I’m doing right now, you can use a folded sheet of paper to create a barrier and contain the sand, making it fall right into the nest!

If you like the look and feel of this particular type of sandwich nest, you will definitely love this other product too! This other nest made by the German company Antstore uses the same all-in-one nest philosophy but takes the build quality to a whole new level!

Let’s clean this mess with a paintbrush!

Brushing spilled sand off the frame of the Anthouse Sand Ant Farm 3D with a paintbrush

If you want, you can level the sand in the sandwich nest using a stick of some sort. I am using the back of the paintbrush.

Leveling the sand in the sandwich nest of the Anthouse Sand Ant Farm 3D with the back of a paintbrush

You can also level the sand in the outworld, just to make it a little more appealing.

Smoothing the outworld sand of the Anthouse Sand Ant Farm 3D with the paintbrush handle

Fantastic!

Anthouse Sand Ant Farm 3D with both the sandwich nest and the outworld filled with level sand

Now we have to water the nest. To do so, you can use a regular pipette or some sort of water dispenser, like the one I am using.

Watering the sand in the Anthouse Sand Ant Farm 3D sandwich nest with a small water dispenser

With time, the water will come down to the lowest levels, humidifying the whole nest.

Darker, moistened sand inside the Anthouse Sand Ant Farm 3D a while after watering

If you want, you can put some escape prevention oil under the border of the outworld opening. To do so, I’m going to use the Antstore’s escape prevention set, which includes a small bottle of oil and a very useful sponge.

Applying Antstore escape prevention oil with a sponge to the outworld rim of the Anthouse Sand Ant Farm 3D

Perfect! Now it’s an impenetrable fortress!

Anthouse Sand Ant Farm 3D ready for a colony, shown with the outworld lid removed

It actually looks really good! Let's continue!

Adding The Feeders And A Colony!

The next thing I’m going to do is add two liquid feeders to the outworld. The first one will contain this extremely concentrated blue sugar liquid, included with the starter pack that comes with the nest.

Bottle of concentrated blue sugar liquid from the Anthouse Sand Ant Farm 3D starter pack

I’m going to use this smaller feeder for the sugar liquid, and a bigger one for the water.

Filling a small Anthouse liquid feeder vial with the concentrated blue sugar liquid

The blue sugar looks awesome inside the feeder!

Small Anthouse liquid feeder filled with blue sugar liquid and mounted on its white base

If you like this kind of colored sugary liquid, you cannot miss this other product review! In this article, I give a detailed review of the amazing Ant Antics sugar snaps, one of the best ways to provide your beloved ant colonies with a constant and healthy source of sugar!

Here’s the sugar liquid and the water reserve. Now the ants can count on a constant source of liquids!

Water feeder and blue sugar feeder standing on the sand in the Anthouse Sand Ant Farm 3D outworld

If you like these really cool types of liquid feeders, I would strongly suggest you check out my review of these products! In the review, I list the pros and cons of using these particular types of liquid feeders, explaining why they can actually be very useful in some circumstances!

I’ve already moved in a colony of Messor barbarus. They seem to like the nest a lot! Just a couple of minutes after they saw the sand for the first time, they started to dig like crazy!

I’ve also added this extremely cool seed feeder. It’s made specifically for Messor species and can contain an enormous quantity of different types of seeds!

White castle-shaped seed feeder for Messor ants next to a water feeder in the Anthouse sand outworld

Reviewing The Nest

When it comes to the nest, all I can say is that I like it a lot!

The sandwich nest is reasonably sized and has plenty of nesting space inside! It measures 20 centimeters in height and 25 centimeters in width, or about 7.9 inches by 9.8 inches.

Close-up of the sand-filled 20 x 25 cm sandwich section of the Anthouse Sand Ant Farm 3D L

The depth of the sandwich measures 2 centimeters, or about 0.8 inches. This size is the perfect compromise between the space that the ants need to build the chambers and the depth that allows us to see the ants inside the nest.

The lid of the outworld has really amazed me! It’s cut with incredible precision, and it allows us to see the outworld from above with no issues!

Laser-cut clear acrylic outworld lid with a small lifting handle on the Anthouse Sand Ant Farm 3D

The little handle placed on the top of the acrylic panel is super useful, making it extremely easy to lift the lid!

I hope you have found this guide helpful!

Anthouse Acrylic NaturColor 20x10x1 nest with red lid and its built-in outworld full of ants

If you’re interested in the company and want to check out some other products, you will definitely like this review of another Anthouse nest! This one is perfect if you have a smaller ant colony and like acrylic nests!

FAQs

5

The nest measures 20 centimeters in height and 25 centimeters in width, or about 7.9 inches by 9.8 inches.

To set up the nest, close the expansion ports with the rubber entrance blockers, fill the nest with sand, water it using a pipette, and add feeders.

The nest is suitable for various ant species; the reviewer specifically moved in a colony of Messor barbarus.

Yes, the package includes rubber entrance blockers, liquid feeders, and a seed feeder designed for Messor species.

Yes, the nest can be easily cleaned using a paintbrush and leveling the sand can be done with a stick.

Product Review

3.7/5
Sand Ant Farm 3D - L
Anthouse

Sand Ant Farm 3D - L

3.7 / 5

A very good ant keeping product that seamlessly merges a classic sandwich nest and an outworld, creating an amazing-looking ant nest! The main structure is 3D printed, and it doesn’t have any signs of errors or smudges! The sandwich nest is reasonably sized, and has plenty of nesting space inside! Overall this is a very good ant keeping product, perfect for housing your beloved ant colonies!

Reviewed by Bruma

Author

Bruma

Published:
Last updated:

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