One of the downsides to connecting your nests using long tubes is "ant loitering" some ants like to just hang out in the tubes because they retain a little moisture and it's near everything. This will cause the tubes to get dirty and less attractive... hence my new invention of a "mid tube fan"
@futurebird what do they make of the Boston Museum of Science’s leaf cutter ant habitat, I wonder. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=domGDg2t7ic
Their tubes seem pretty clear of condensation. Other than that whole space being uncomfortably warm, I don’t see any mitigations to explain it.
Leaf cutters don't like to loiter away from the fungus. They want to sit on their fungus and munch it and care for it at all times that they aren't looking for more leaves.
This is a species related issues. The Camponouts discolor (small heat loving carpenter ants with red head and black gasters) love to loiter near areas where food tends to show up so they can pounce on it and abscond.
Getting ants to do anything is next level. They respond to every change and not in the ways you'd predict. They are sensitive to temp, light levels and air currents in ways that aren't obvious.
I recently cleared out a tube that the cone ants blocked with sand, using ... the legs of dead crickets like rebar to reenforce the structure. They had made this whole barricade to regulate the air flow to the nest (hence I'd never recommend a fan on a nest tube)
I guess building a wall out of cricket legs (as struts) with a sand slurry like concrete... isn't any more strange than those early humans with their bone huts...
@futurebird@lisamelton this is so neat! Have you read the book “Children of Time” by Adrian Tchaikovsky? It features ants as “computers” for a sentient race of spiders. It’s a pretty awesome thought experiment.