Ant naturalistic nest.

[Chickenfeeder100]

so I caught a lasius neoniger queen ant and once the colony out grows the formicarium twice,
I'll move it to an naturalistic setup so I have a few questions.

I'm trying to use plants that are from my area that are probably exposed to pesticides, so how do you breed weeds?

How do I water the enclosure and the plants without collapsing the tunnels and stuff?

What soil should I use that is suitable for plant but I can see the ants cause the ants will be relatively tiny and brown.

 

[Marvinxox]

You could just use plants you took from the wild, but try to wash all the dirt off their roots and keep them with their exposed roots in jars of clean water.
This should help getting a lot of the pesticides away.

For watering you could try burrowing a flower pot made out of clay (one of these brown ones, I don´t know the correct english name for them) and fill water into this.
The water will slowly go trough the porous walls into the dirt and if you put a lid on top, there will be no danger of drowning ants.
(You could also make a tiny hole in the lid, take some string and let it hang through the hole into the water. So it will suck up some of the water and the ants might be able to drin from the wet string.)

Try regular untreated top soil.
As the ants are brighter than the soil you might be able to see them.

 

[Chickenfeeder100]

Ah okay, I will use the methods with the plants in the jar stuff, and I might use some tubing in the corner of the tank and put water in the drainage layer but I will definitely take the flowerpot
Into consideration. And for the soil situation, I'm just gonna scoop some dirt from my yard, wash it, throw it in the oven and bake it. Then I will cover it with some sand. Will that work.