My nearly 4yo dd loves ants. We currently are dealing with an ant problem in my house, and while it is is mostly cleared up on in a while a stray ant or two wanders into our bathroom. My dd likes to catch them, and gets a little upset when I tell her we have to put it outside. Her birthday is coming up, and I was thinking she might get a kick out of an ant farm. (Plus, I really like things like that, so it would be a good thing for us to do together.)
I found two that I liked... One is completely enclosed, and made with a gel instead of dirt for the ants. It is supposedly inescapable, and no maintainance as the ants eat the gel they tunnel in. It also lights up, which could mean it would be an awesome nightlight.
The other one is just a run of the mill ant farm. The only reason I am considering it over the oer is that you can open it to feed them. (With a locking latch, so kids can't open it without parental supervision.) I think it would be really cool, and a lot more entertaining, to watch how ants take things apart, how much they can carry, etc. plus, it would be good to learn a little scientific approach. (What kind of food do you think they will like more? Then give them two things and see which attracts them more...)
Soooo... Which would you go with? :)
Yeah, ants without a queen don't live very long... I would expect to keep replacing them (you can replace them with ants you catch yourself instead of buying them...)
I was looking into it a bit more, and I think I will go with the gel one just because she would be able to pick it up and look at them, without worrying about collapsing the tunnels. :)
My son has had both. The sand lasted longer but when you drop in the food it gets gross and molds.
The gel is pretty cool but the ants only lasted about a month.
I would go with the least expensive.
I used the non-gel farm. I love ant farms. I don't think the gel kind was available back then. If they die, that's fine, the novelty will wear off after a month anyway.
I think it would be fun to get the one that opens to feed them; I don't think you have to worry about them getting out.
I know exactly what you are talking about with the gel ant farm! We actually had one! It was really neat and my son loved it. The problem? It only lasted about a month before the ants all started to die. I don't think it was worth it. My son got really bored after the initial excitement wore off.
I had one as a kid, I remember it having white sand. We fed them sugar water out of a medicine dropper. I remember a couple of them escaping and having no idea where they were getting out. It was neat watching the tunnels they built but it was pretty short lived, I think they only lasted a couple of weeks before dying.
We had the gel farm a while back. It was really cool. If I remember correctly, it was tough getting the little buggers in the farm at first. I just remember scrambling all over the garage trying to scoop them in. I do remember the tunnels were fun to see. I also remember the ants dying off one by one.
