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!

Seeking People with Ant Farm Experience

My darling daughter really, really wants an ant farm from Santa. Now, Santa thinks she should get this ant farm from a place called "Ant Farm Central". (Click on the cute ant if you'd like to see the site. )

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I have NO personal experience with Ant Farm Central, or for that matter, with ant farms in general. I am mysteriously drawn to the blue gel farm- it looks cool and the ants get all the nutrients they need from the gel (no feeding--> bonus).

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The main thing I'm trying to decide is whether to get the ants WITH the kit, or get the kit with a mail-in rebate for the ants. I can't really puzzle this out- I mean, why would I wait on the ants? Might they die before Santa delivers the gift? That would be kind of a buzz kill. Have any of you Santas out there done the ant farm thing? I'm open to all advice and opinions from those more informed!!