Thanks for the continued help! Yes, I saw that too! Fascinating to watch them 'climb the tower,' but takes more time. That's why the one plant was completely under water, the whole thing, foliage, flowers, whole thing. The ants were crawling around under water after 30 minutes. It got too dark to see in there after that, but the one plant that stayed in for 2 hours still had ants when I finally took it out. The ants seem to have no interest in anything inside, so I don't know if they're what you're calling house ants or not. I never saw this kind of ant in OH, or any of the smaller ones that take up residence in pots here, just much bigger black ones which were definitely interested in coming inside. AFAIK, plants don't have pests aside from the occasional aphid or white fly that any bunch of plants outside would have, which I dispose of/rinse or trim off. I look at every leaf at least 4-5x per week, almost every day. They're definitely not picking pots housing plants with pests as a basis for that decision. The pots that seem to have ants in them more often than not show signs of stress and slow growth from issues around the roots, not pests at the foliage. The primary issue is nests in pots. If I could isolate why they like some and are not interested in others, that would be awesome! I'd like to put a moat around the whole porch, sigh! Yes, there's a lot of pots, most of them hanging. The ants find those too. They can be temporarily thwarted by coating the hanging arms with veg oil, or backwards tape, but either method is short-lived, and messy or ugly. (Not that this conglomeration of cheap plastic pots is terribly attractive, but I'm working toward having the outside of all pots covered with enough dangling foliage to 'fix' that.) This is shady end of front porch. There are more pots on the back porch, around my potting area, hanging from several trees, and our dog's house.

yea I think it will work for awhile anyway. eventually it will break down but in the meantime it will give really good drainage. I would just skip the screen or instead use something organic like a layer of sphag. moss. My tank that has been doing well for around ten years is layered thusly: gravel/moss/potting soil/charcoal/peat & sand mix so in my case the gravel won't break down but serves the same purpose that your bark would. another consideration is the types of plants you want to use. I say go for it.

Thanks for your response iliketerrariums... You're right...it is all trial and error. It just sucks that it's mostly error. :) Sorry about your anole. I know it's never any fun to have a creature die. I have been into aquariums and aquatic plant for about two years now. I went to the atlanta botanical gardens one day and saw the possibilities with tropical plants inside an enclosure with dart frogs. Me being obsessed with naturalistic setups, I just had to try it. However, frogs are a lot easier than other reptiles/amphibians. For my frog setup I only use reptisuns 2.0...and that keeps them nice and warm and the plants happy...so it worked out. But the color radiant of the reptisuns 2.0 is very different from the 5.0s. A brief update on my setup: I have siliconed the inside and outside of the cracks. I also shoved some lichens against the inside where all the silicone was. That way I don't have to see that crack...ever. It's kinda big, so a bit of an eyesore. I also went to petco and got two clamp lamps that are 5 and 1/2 inch in diameter. The fit almost perfectly behind the fluorescent fixture. Yay! Finally, something good. I got two 75w bulbs, one daylight, one black nightlight. I then went to home depot and bought two plug in lamp dimmers. I tested temperatures and dimmed until I got desirable temperatures. DIMMERS! Ten bucks at home depot...that's the best freaking idea. I got the temps to 85 degrees, and the glass isn't even scorching so I can continue to use the glass top instead of screen...which means good humidity. Which means...I think I'm ready. Here's crossing my fingers that nothing else goes wrong. Now, what I need a little more help on is figuring out what type of bulbs to put in my double fluorescent fixture. Right now I have a Reptisun 5.0 and a GE Sunshine (5000K). I couldn't find a bulb that was 6500K at home depot or walmart that was 24". I saw a GE Daylight that was 6500K but they were only carrying it in 48". Will that 5000K bulb work okay, or should I expect to see my plants withering away? Should I continue searching for a bulb with 6500K? Thanks again for any responses and advice...I'm so glad I found this place. It's far more jam-packed with information than actual sites specializing in only terrariums and reptiles. Go figure... Fernando

I think it's possible to have a good lawn and property without necessarily having "everything" under the sun there that is indigenous to the area. As a more extreme example, I think grass snakes are fine but I don't want to find some other larger, possibly poisonous, snake in tall grass around my property. Or let's say squirrels might get a pass, but I don't want to see too many possums hanging around. Small black ants are all around, but I'll try not to have fire ants or carpenter ants if I can help it. Another example is that even deer and rabbits are cute and fun, awesome to see walking through the yard, until they affect some landscaping plants or gardening plants. At this point, I even believe that the mulch around the house harbors some of the same flying insects that I'm annoyed with on a hot, humid day. Depending on your housing community area, you may be compelled to keep it in check, also. I think it's OK to care for the lawn, and still have the kids learn to love and appreciate nature without man's strong interference. An example would be to create a lizard-safe or toad-safe environment in the backyard to help control bugs and insects there.