Gel Ant Farm Fun

My daughter received her gel ant farm as a Christmas present last year. The whole idea of an art farm is pretty interesting, but this was even better since it's packaging referenced the gel as "Space Age Habitat" for ants. We instantly had a futuristic environment for our little friends to build, eat, dig, and live...And we could watch!

The Fascinations Antworks Illuminated gel ant farm comes with the container housing the nutrient-filled gel, a removable LED illuminator with power adapter, a magnifying glass, an extreme zoom lens and the "Instructions and Interesting Facts" booklet.

The unit itself is 6 inches high, about 6 -1/2 inches wide, and just about 1 1/2 inches deep making it a nice size for a desk, countertop, or shelf.

My husband ordered Harvester Ants online. When the ants arrived via regular mail, per the instructions, we put the ants in the refrigerator for a short period of time before placing them in the ant gel farm. The refrigeration makes the ants sluggish and easier to incorporate into their new environment.

The instructions suggest using the enclosed tool to poke four holes with two different depths to get the ants started with their tunneling. Caution is to be used when handling the ants because some ants can bite, so its best to let them chill out, literally in the refrigerator a bit before adding them to the gel. Also, the ants are all female so there is no fear or threat of a growing population in your gel ant farm.

After the ants were in their new environment just under 24 hours, they had made noticeable tunnels. It was exciting to watch their progress over the next several months. The most exciting tunnels were the ones closest to the walls of the container. By viewing these we could see up close how the ants interacted with one another and also project their next tunnel building efforts. We weren't always right about which tunnel would grow from their efforts or which direction the next tunnel would take, but that was part of the fun!

The ants have a life expectancy of 1-3 months. Our ants lasted 10 weeks, just under the three month mark.  As the ants died it was very interesting to see how the live ants moved the dead ants to the top.  This made removal of the dead ants easier.  Also, during the exploratory time we had the ants, about once a week we cautiously opened the lid of the container to provide fresh air for the ants.  The instructions suggest this be a quick opening of the lid to prevent any ants from escaping.

Having the Fascinations Antworks Illuminated gel ant farm has been very enjoyable and something our whole family has enjoyed together. Since the gel and container can be reused, it might be fun to get additional ants and see what they do too.