Dave’s Cool Toys Blog

Our ants didn’t sleep much last night.

Overnight our ants were quite busy. They began two tunnels from the starter holes I created last night. One tunnel goes straight to the bottom and the other curves behind the first one. I’m not sure at this point if they are going to break through to the other tunnel, or continue on behind it.

You can see all the little chunks of gel they have removed from the tunnel and deposited on the surface at the top. Oddly, they are also taking the gel chunks up the walls and sticking them there. Wonder how they know that will work.

The instructions tell you to open the lid now and then and give them some fresh air. When I did that today, they got very excited and started running all around. There are air holes in the lid, but apparently they like getting fresh air. On the right of this photo you can still see the other two starter holes in the gel. I don’t think they are holes any longer from the top because they seem to have buried them in the gel chunks.

	They seem to have made a little room at the bottom of the tunnel

Other than removing the lid for a "few seconds every week or so", there isn’t much more you need to do to care for your ants. The gel is their food and water, so you don’t need to find food for them or give them a drink. Other than that, you just need to keep them out of direct sunlight because ants prefer shade. I also suspect AntWorks would heat up pretty much in sunlight and cook the ants in their gel. That would be bad. The ants prefer room temperature between 58 and 74 degrees Fahrenheit.

This basically leaves you to watch your ants at work. And they are busy. Ants do sleep, but I haven’t seen any that seem to be sleeping yet. They all seem busy. The manual says that some ants sleep while others work, so there is activity 24/7.

The whole family is enjoying watching our new buddies building their tunnels and scurrying around.

I should point out that AntWorks is not meant to be an ant colony. That is, it is not meant for long-term ant populations with a queen and breeding. It is meant to house about 20-30 ants for their lifetime and give kids and adults an opportunity to get to know these incredible creatures. The gel makes the entire tunnel system, and the ants activities, available to a degree that an ant farm with dirt could not. But it is not meant for long-term sustainability of a colony.

A close up of the ants in their tunnels.