These are the white grains in our test tubes with refillable water chambers. It is called Perlite and has multiple functions in the ant-keeping hobby. They are mainly to retain and absorb water.
We also use it at the bottom of the substrate tray in our arboreal glass tower spider enclosure; it retains water and slowly releases humidity into the air above.
**Perlite is incredibly lightweight; it is hard to sell by weight, so we measure volume instead. One pouch of Perlite costs $1.25, and it is measured by filling up a 16x150 mm test tube with grains and bagging them in a small zip lock bag, containing roughly 23mL in volume and weighing approximately 2.5 grams. Usually, one pouch is enough to refill an array test tube at least five times.
We make these perlite grains in our warehouse; we grind the coarse Perlite granules, sift until we get the perfect size grain, strain all the dust out, rinse, wash the remaining with distilled water, and last we oven-bake it to kill any bacteria and spores.
Perlite does a great job at absorbing and retaining water. We like to use Perlite where water is needed, for example:
- Fill up the water reservoir in formicaria with Perlite, prolonging and slowing down the release of water. The "apartment founding formicarium" and the "gyroblock" greatly benefit from doing this.
Our refillable test tubes (used in the array formicarium) absorb water but, more importantly, ensure the cotton between the insert and the rear cavity stays tightly in place; this is important for ants not to dislodge the cotton and keep it in place.
-Put a small number of grains in a founding test tube set up to add substrate and increase overall humidity.
-Put some spread around the formicarium chambers; this will help maintain humidity levels and absorb any extra condensation; ants will move it to the areas they need.
-Use it as the substrate for your outworld; why? Well, it is white, so it looks clean and makes ants stand out from it, it also absorbs liquid spills, and because it is lightweight, it is easy to remove and even vacuum out. Ants may choose to bring it into their nest space.
Perlite is very lightweight, and ants can easily lift and re-arrange the grains to their needs.
What is Perlite? How does it work?
A perlite is a form of amorphous volcanic glass, although it's often confused with some lightweight material like styrofoam. It's occasionally called expanded pyrite and is called "volcanic popcorn." If you looked at a piece of Perlite under a microscope, you would see that it's pretty porous. The cavities in perlite help store moisture that will help retain humidity longer. It is non-toxic, clean, disease-free, and extremely lightweight.
Perlite holds water in three ways: between individual grains, channels leading to the grain cores, and each particle's highly irregular surfaces. The surface of Perlite is made up of the outer convex shells of glass bubbles and concave openings so that each particle can soak up a good amount of water.