Substrate

In ant keeping, substrate is the loose material that lines a setup: sand, soil, clay, bark or a mix of them. In an outworld, it's mostly the floor the ants walk on. In a sandwich nest or a naturalistic setup, it's much more than that, because it's the material the ants dig their nest in.

A substrate does a few useful jobs. It makes the setup look more natural, gives the workers some grip, and can hold moisture. Pieces of wood or a bark substrate, for example, help keep the humidity up in a naturalistic setup for Lasius niger or Formica cinerea. Digging species really show their natural behavior when they have soil or sand to work with.

In a simple tubs and tubes setup, a thin layer of sterilized white aquarium sand is enough to make the outworld look nicer. In a jar terrarium, you can build several layers with soil and moss and let the colony shape its own home.

In practice

• Use clean, sterilized materials like aquarium sand, and wash anything you add, including stones and decorations.
• Avoid soil or bark collected from places that may have been treated with pesticides.
• Keep the outworld substrate thin and easy to clean, and use a deeper layer only where the ants are meant to dig.
• Mist naturalistic setups with a spray bottle when the substrate dries out.