Wednesday, December 22, 2010

Ant Farm Update

Woohoo! The ant farm arrived last week! Here is the sticker on the outside of the box; this prompted us to give Sophie her present a little early. Worse than getting an ant farm with no ants would be getting an ant farm with dead ants.
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Here is the box for the one we chose. It shows all the different colors that the LED light cycles through. You can also stop it on any of the colors or shut the light off altogether.
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These are called harvester ants- boy are they big! They arrived in a test tube with a piece of carrot, and the instructions told us to put them in the refrigerator for 10 minutes prior to transfer. The cold makes them slower so that they are less likely to escape or bite.
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While we read that it can take up to 2 days for the ants to orient themselves and begin tunneling, we quickly realized that we have some very advanced ants. (proud ant-parents, lol) Ours started "digging" in the gel within a couple of hours. This is way more entertaining than I ever dreamed. Whenever we get home, Sophie runs over to the farm screeching, "I've gotta check on my ants!" So far it's two thumbs up on the ant farm... feel free to ask us any questions you may have!

9 comments:

Runs With Scissors said...

How cool is this? I want one! Um, where can I put it?

Thanks for the update, I have been wondering!

Jennie said...

Get one, Karen! It is really small... we have ours on the kitchen table :)

Donna -Little Tiny Stitches said...

Oh my goodness, these look really cool Jennie :)
The ants look huge though!
So pleased Sophie love them though, it's a great present for children.
If i don't speak to you before jennie, do have a wonderful Christmas :0)
Take care Jennie.
Donna x

CelticKnot said...

Too adorable! I'm so glad everyone loves it. :-)

- said...

Great for kids but I have enough in my own yard all summer I could not take any more!

Have a Merry Christmas!

Ribbons Undone said...

Wow--that is some cool ant farm! I was thinking you were going to get one of those old school plastic farms (with farm motif) filled with sand. I should have known better--you always do it up right!

Merry Christmas--I hope Santa is good to all! Love, Victoria

Minx's Den said...

That is the coolest thing ever!!!! where did you get that ant farm?? are they costly? I want one now!!!

Jennie said...

Hah, Lauren- you crack me up. It really IS the coolest thing ever! I ordered it from the antfarmcentral.com website... it's a link back to a store called bird and butterfly or nature's gifts or something. They shipped very quickly, are attentive to the note you can write in to them, and you can pay with Paypal, too! I think ours was around $35 including the ants- worth every penny, I say!

ma said...

What a great educational gift you found! I know Sophie is having such fun with it....and learning as well! Can't beat that combo! Great gift choice!