Lighted LED Ant Habitat Kit with 25 Live Ants - Ant Terrarium Complete Set with Clear Nutrient Gel - Perfect for Learning and Fascinating Observation

The farm and ant package arrived yesterday, this would be my first contact ever with an ant farm; temperature outside has been in the 70s to low 80s in the early fall here in the Eastern US, I believe this to probably be an ideal temperature and time of year to do this, as the ant farm seems to be doing quite well. The package arrived with both the farm and the ants, as advertised. (Not sure if this is common, or if the seller I bought this from does this special; it sounds like these ant farms usually ship only the farm, and the ants typically have to be ordered as a separate step. I liked that they shipped together, as this saved a lot of hassle.) The farm was just about the size I expected, but looks smaller in person than it does in photos on websites - it's actually just about the same size as a typical paperback book. Be sure to read the directions for both the ants and the farm carefully, before starting, and at logical stopping points after starting while you wait (such as while waiting for ants to chill in the refrigerator) - the instructions on the tube of ants are useful, but wherever the instructions differ, the farm's instructions should trump the instructions that came with the ants. (In other words, the instructions taped to the tube of ants said to feed the ants occasionally with a little food and water, but the farm says this is not necessary, as the ants get food and water from the gel - it's only necessary to feed and water the ants if you have a farm that uses sand instead of gel.) Some models of ant farm similar to this one seem to have foam seals on the lid, which ants can chew through, causing problems, but this one has a solid plastic lid which fits snugly into the farm, and ants seem to be staying securely in the farm. I've seen some folks complain about ants being able to escape through the tiny hole in the vent cap in the lid, but they seemed to have stocked the farm with very tiny ants from their back yard, as the Harvester ants which shipped with this farm, though not especially large by ant standards in this part of the country, seem to be too large to squeeze through the vent. Some reviews of some models of gel ant farms complain that the gel is too tough for ants to tunnel in, or that the gel is too soggy and drowns ants, or that the gel pulled away from the walls of the farm in some way, but I experienced none of these problems; nevertheless it's probably a good idea to inspect the gel carefully for defects before introducing the ants. I opened the package, immediately put the test tube of ants in the refrigerator for several minutes (about 6 or 7 minutes) while I opened the farm, and poked four 1" holes evenly spaced in the gel at gentle angles with the small straw included in the package (check the package carefully for this straw, as it's hard to see). The straw seemed to scoop a little of the gel out with it when removed from the gel, though it was hard to see the gel, which seems to be desirable as it leaves starter holes for the ants to begin tunneling into. As soon as the holes were poked, I set the lid at an angle on top of the farm, removed the ants from the refrigerator, gently shook the ants to the bottom of the tube, removed the stopper from the tube, and tapped the tube gently against the inside of the farm to shake the ants onto the gel. This allowed just enough time for me to finish shaking the ants (and a small orange stick included in the tube, presumably food) into the farm, and get the lid on - the ants were sluggish at first, but quickly warmed up - those little guys move FAST once they warm up, and they were already scurrying around exploring their new home and looking for people to bite only moments after the lid was secure! Note that the stopper on the tube of ants is fairly snug - it requires a little strength to open, and open carefully - there might be some danger of someone trying to open the stopper, and shaking ants across the room when the lid suddenly pops free! Also, a few ants seemed to resist getting shaken out of the tube with the others, preferring to climb deeper into the tube to cling tight, looking for a way to get through the bottom of the tube and climb up a human hand... it took a little time to shake the last ants out of the tube. The little orange stick that was in the tube of ants had come to rest on top of an ant or two; they seemed to be tolerating being pinned underneath well enough, but I had no intention of leaving them there, so I set the farm in the refrigerator for a handful of minutes while I found some long tweezers and reviewed the instructions again, then got the farm out of the refrigerator, carefully removed the lid and set it sideways on top of the farm, and fished the stick out of the farm, carefully tapping one sluggish ant clinging to the stick and giving me the ant evil-eye free; she was stubborn, but finally dropped free into the farm, allowing me to close the lid moments after the warmed-up ants began scurrying up the sides of the farm - a close call! Discard the little orange stick, if one comes in the ant tube; it doesn't seem to be needed for anything. (For best results, I recommend that a patient adult with a good eye for detail add the ants to the farm and do anything that involves opening the lid of the farm, and that the refrigeration trick be used: children might not have the patience or coordination to get things done successfully before the little critters escape from the farm!) I've heard that these ants usually take a day or two to get settled in and start digging tunnels and they don't like bright light and disturbances, so I took the farm, set it inside a small cardboard box, and put it in a dark corner away from any electrical appliances. By the time I went to sleep a few hours later, a few ants were already exploring the holes in the gel and had deepened one of them by a half-inch (most seemed content to huddle in a corner of the farm together, keeping warm and making ant plans, I guess), and by the time I woke up, they had one fairly elaborate tunnel dug deep into the gel, and had started a second one. They've been busily taking turns digging ever since, and as I write this, about 24 hours after introducing them to their new home, they've started expanding the third and fourth starter holes. I've seen reviews reporting all sorts of trouble with these sorts of ant farms, and worried a bit about how successful this would be; I don't know whether this particular brand and model works better than others, or if I happened to pick a winner, but everything seems to be working better than both the negative reviews and the manufacturer's instructions seemed to suggest, and I'm happy with the results so far. I have no idea what the blue gel is, I probably wouldn't eat it unless starvation were my only other option, and it certainly looks unnatural, but these Harvester ants seem perfectly happy (or at least as "happy" as any ant I've seen in the wild) to dig through, eat/drink, and live in the stuff; the live expectancy for healthy ants in this sort of farm seems to be 2-4 months, which is probably an extremely long life compared to wild ants; they're amazingly tough and adaptable creatures, I suppose that a weird clean blue gel is probably one of the healthier things ants have lived in over their millions of years of history on Earth. I've seen some reviews complain that the ants seem to be sluggish and do not move until the lid is opened, at which point they suddenly become active; from what I'm seeing, most of the ants are standing guard while others dig, and become aggressive and curious when their home is disturbed by people lifting the lid and changing the air and otherwise altering their environment. Otherwise, the ants seem to work at a steady, unhurried, and methodical pace, taking turns resting, performing guard duty, digging, or patrolling and scouting their environment. (Ants seem to have an amazing sense of space, and seem to have a pretty good idea of the limits of their little territory in the farm, the location and shape and size of the tunnels and their relationship to each other, and so on; the structure of their tunnels seems to have some sort of rhyme and reason to it that I can't detect, I guess it all follows some kind of ant-logic. It seems like once the ants had a good look around the ant farm when they were first added, they all just picked a corner near the first tunnel they started working on, and set up ant-camp with what seems like a fairly structured job routine, which again follows some sort of alien ant-logic that I can't quite puzzle out.) I do kind of wish that I'd had an opportunity to grow a couple plants in the gel, to help recycle some of the air in there and because it seems like something green would be a nice addition to the farm. Perhaps I'll try that after this batch of ants runs its inevitable course (they should die out in a couple months, without a queen to lay eggs to perpetuate the nest); it seems from my research that there are some small plants that flourish in shade living side-by-side with ants, who protect the plants and have evolved to help them grow (such as the symbiotic relationship known as "Myrmecochory", which Harvester ants seem to enjoy). Based on my experience so far, my advice for best success: 1) Comfortably cool weather in Autumn seems to be a great time to order this product in a temperate climate. 2) Chilling (but not freezing) the ants in the refrigerator helps a lot with keeping them manageable when you transfer them to the farm, and when you need to open the lid for any reason, otherwise they're very likely to scurry up the walls and escape. 3) Be sure to poke some short tunnels into the gel for the ants to start tunneling with; the ants might be able to creep down vertical tunnels, but I think they liked the more gentle angles I used instead. 4) Let the ants do their thing undisturbed in a dark area, away from electronics and other appliances and away from electrical outlets; I don't know how sensitive the little guys are to electrical currents, but they seemed to be happiest away from electricity and light. 5) No need to feed or water ants if they're living in that weird blue gel, and because there's a vent hole and a lot of air space in the farm there's no need to introduce fresh air into the farm more than once every few days. In any case, 24 hours after this ant-farm was started, it seems to be off to a successful and healthy start, and after starting this hobby on a whim, I find myself now quite impressed and fascinated by the little creatures. As a first-timer, I've had no problems at all with this ant farm, and the product seems to be everything it was advertised to be, at a fair enough price.

Order#1 I received this ant farm and followed the instructions. About half the ants came dead the first time. The ants dug 2 tunnels the first day, and stopped after that. The gel then started to liquify and the tunnels and the holes created per the directions filled up with the liquid the gel created. The gel habitat molded within a week and had to be thrown away. Order #2 I contacted the seller directly after the awful experience I had, and they promptly responded and sent me a replacement. The replacement was not much better. Only one of the ants came dead, and the rest seemed to be healthy. The ants were very active and the progress was promising. However, just a few days later, the gel liquified again. The tunnels and holes filled in and the ants no longer dig any tunnels just a week later. This habitat obviously has a design flaw and does not function as advertised. Do not buy this habitat if you want your ants to dig and survive for more than a week.

This thing is awesome. All of the ants were alive and happy when they arrived. Except for Dave. Dave has been actin a fool. Leroy, sally and peter took control of the first 2 tunnels and Dave just watched. That was ok, a lot of the ants just watched. Then out of nowhere Dave started just like, trying to sit right at the top of the tunnel blocking the the rest from digging it further. After a little while of this happening the ants were all like: fine, Dave can have that tunnel and we will work on another one. Their effort to keep the peace failed when low and behold Dave moved to the next tunnel and blocked that one too. At this point i was wondering if maybe i needed to separate Dave and speak with him about his attitude. I decided to let it go another day to see if the ants could work this out amongst themselves, i went to sleep. I tossed and turned all night worried to death about Dave and his behavior. The next morning i went to check on the ants and all 4 tunnels had progressed. I thought: Dave must have started getting along with the colony. Then when i went to look for Dave i realized that i didn't know which one Dave actually was. Not only that but i couldn't tell any of them apart. As it turns out all ants look the same and all that Dave drama from the day before could have just as easily been Leroy, Sally or peter drama. Or any of them, or none of them, like i said, ya can't tell em apart. Although i can say for sure that some ants are lazier that others, like dude, that other ant is carrying a huge piece of gel and you have that little tiny piece. Step up your gel carrying game, son!