Hurrah! Hurrah!
…And they all go marching down, around, and upside down!
You might have guessed it already, but we’ve got ants in our store right now! Real, live, creepy crawly ants! YUCK! Luckily they’re all safe and sound (and very securely closed up tight) in one of our Antworks Ant Farms. The little critters just arrived today – and while the whole Team was inspecting them, we realized that we didn’t know very much about ants at all…
The ants we use in our ant farm are called Red Harvester Ants – but the scientific name is “pogonomyrmex barbatus” (please don’t ask me to pronounce that!). Harvester Ants are great for ant farms for a few reasons: they’re big enough to see all the parts on the ants, even with a small magnifier; they dig tunnels VERY quickly, which keeps kids interested in the project; and they like to build their nests in exposed areas, which means they shouldn’t mind having eyeballs and noses up against the glass checking them out all day! Some of these exposed nests in nature can be up to 4.6 meters (almost 14 feet) deep & be home-sweet-home for 10,000 ants!
Red Harvester Ants
Speaking of unbelievable ant-facts (check out the bottom of this post for links for even more fun information)…
- Ants can lift from 20-50 times their own body weight!
- Ants don’t have ears, but hear (and smell) through their antennae; but they DO have eyes, called “compound eyes” made up of smaller eyes all clumped together.
- In most colonies, pretty much all the ants you see are female – the males are only used for mating, and sometimes taking care of baby ants. The queen ant is the only one who lays eggs, and all of the workers are females!
- Ants live on average for only a few months – and even less time once they have been separated from their queen.
- While its hard to find an exact number, its estimated that ants out-number people by at least 1,500,000 to 1!
The ant farms we sell at Learning Express are 100% self-contained – they use the same gel that the astronauts used when they took ants into space in 2003! That’s right, ants have actually been up in space! Check out our Facebook Page for pictures of how our ants are doing, and to get a look at how our Ant Works Ant Farms look.
Space Age Gel for Harvester Ants
Are you interested in being crafty, thrifty and old-fashioned? Why not make your own ant farm? The instructions on this site are actually geared for a kid-friendly project, and seem simple enough – and can be made with products you should have around the house! If you can’t find any ants in your backyard, there are websites you can order live ants from after you’ve gotten your home-made, or store-bought ant farm ready for your new roommates!
If you find that your kids are really interested in figuring out which ants are taking on certain jobs within the colony, or maybe they just want to name a few and keep them straight – why not let them mark the ants just like scientists do when they’re studying ant behavior? Regular acrylic paints won’t harm the ants, and by placing the critters in the fridge or freezer for just a few minutes, they’ll slow down enough to let you drop a small dot of colored paint on their backs. This information and more can be found on the Ant Blog.
Well, we all certainly feel more “ant-aware”, and hopefully you do too! If you want more information about our interesting six-legged friends, please visit these websites:
- Ants: Facts About Ants
- Pestworldforkids.org – Facts About Ants
- Antweb.org – Ant Blog
- Globio.org – Harvester Ants
Thanks for stopping by, see you soon!
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