Have you ever wanted to examine ants? The way in which they construct a nest, look after their offspring and feed? If you have then you could get an ant farm. However, you cannot just build your ant farm, stock it and then walk away.
Having an ant farm is similar to having a tropical fish tank, you need to take care of your ants. Fortunately, looking after ants is not as tricky as looking after tropical fish, it fact it is really quite easy once you get the gist of it.
Once you have assembled your ant farm and filled it up to the level with soil or sand, you will require our first piece of advice, which is about to get your ants into the nest. Well, first let us assume that you have bought your ants from the pet shop and you are ready to offer them to their new home.
The ants will run all over the place as soon as you take the lid off the box. That is classic ant behaviour, they have to examine everything and everywhere. They will be running up your arms, escaping onto the floor and you may even get a few into the ant farm.
Now ants, being cold-blooded creatures, become very languid when they are cold, they barely move around at all, so a shrewd tactic would be to put your ants in the fridge for a few minutes. Three of four minutes should do the job.
While you are waiting, roll a sheet of paper into a funnel and sellotape it so that it does not unfurl. Then take the ants out of the fridge and pour them down the funnel into your ant farm. That way you will not misplace any of them.
The ants will warm up naturally and they will soon be running around exploring their new home. The next pieces of advice relate to feeding and watering your ants. Maybe you thought that these wild ants could look after themselves. Well, they could in the outdoors, but since you took them out of their natural environment, you are going to have to take care of them every day.
First the watering: get a dropper, like an eye-dropper and drip a few drops of water into one place. They will find it soon enough. Do not cause a puddle, only a few drops. Once a week you could really give them a luxury and add a few grains of sugar to a teaspoon of water and pour that in for them. It will really spark them up. and give them plenty of energy to work on their new colony.
The type of food that your ants require depends on the species of ants that you are keeping. However, the most common ants for ant farms are harvester ants, because they are easy. Do not give them anything gluey like a half-sucked wine gum.
They will like it, but many will get stuck on it and die. The best food is a couple of small bits of lettuce, carrot or celery. Not much. Remove any uneaten food after the second day and feed again the subsequent day.
Old food has to be removed to stop mold and yeasts, some of which attack ants too. In this manner you should have a vigorous and interesting ant farm.
Owen Jones, the author of this piece writes on many subjects, but is currently concerned with Getting Rid Of Carpenter Ants. If you would like to know more or check out some great offers, please go to our website at Killing Carpenter Ants.
categories: ants,insects,pests,home improvement,home repairs,animals,gardening,landscaping,pets,biology,science,outdoors,other,uncategorised
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