This ant farm is awesome. It’s huge and comes with detailed instructions on how to keep the farm in good health. I think my wife and I love it more than the kids. We can spend hours looking at this creatures working constantly building tunnels. We research the ins and outs and have been successful keeping them alive. I waited several weeks to post the review to make sure they were not dying right away. I found a great and inexpensive ant distributor online. Definitely worth the price we paid for this farm. Highly recommend it!
This classic ant farm does everything it's supposed to do--allows you to set it up, add ants, and observe their habits. I learned a lot about ants in the week or so I had it up and running. But, there are things you must do correctly and you must have realistic expectations about how long these ants can keep it up in their artificial habitat. It is a very interesting science project for kids from preschool thru elementary. They really enjoy watching the ants. I used it with my kindergarten class and found equally enthusiastic students in grades 2-3.
After your farm has run its course, you can sift the sand and put it away for another time. Reuse is easy. You just need a fresh batch of ants.
No ants have escaped! Although, you should not put small ants in it, because they will escape. The type of ants you get from this company (which you have to send in for) are the perfect size.
Our first shipment of ants froze because my husband didn't bring the mail in and it was 28 F outside. We just got a refill package (50 ants) and they are doing well.
I bought this as a Christmas present for my 4 year old son who loves ants. It came with everything we needed to get started except the ants. It is so neat! All of our friends and family spend hours watching them. I ordered the ants on Christmas day, and received them last week. I knew it would be a long wait on the ants. In the instructions, it CLEARLY states they have to wait for the weather to reach an ideal temperature before shipping. If it is too hot or too cold, the ants will die before you get them. They kept me updated with emails about the status of my ants. Only 1 ant died in the tube we received. There are also very specific instructions on how to set up the farm before you add the ants. The sand is not supposed to fill the farm all the way. You have to give the ants some room to start working! I see a lot of comments about their ants dying after a few days. We have only had 3 die, so you probably didn't care for them right. Also, just an FYI, you can use plain ants from your yard. They just have to be bigger than the air holes. I recommend this for all ages. The ant farm itself has cool graphics and seems very durable so far.
This ant farm is awesome. I got this for my 5 year old and we love it. It's fun and interesting to watch throughout the day, going on many days now. The white sand really allows my child to see the brown ants in action and see their tunnels clearly. Set-up was so easy and quick, literally like 3 steps. The only worrisome item at first was that the recommended ants arrived and were "pincher/stinging" ants. I was worried why this type of ant would be recommended for a kids product. But I quickly realized it was because they are great little worker ants and they use their "pinchers" to dig out their tunnels. After we got them in the ant farm, I had no worry about them getting out or causing any harm.