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Yeah, some species of ants are big pests. Ironically, most of these were transported by us, few native species cause harm to humans. (Exception is Camponotus pennslyvanicus, the big black carpenter ant)
I own a toy store and we have ANTWORKS from Fascination.
these are the gel type containers that NASA use in one of their flights in outter space...
They(company?? can't remember the name) send the harvester ants, you pay a S/H fee of 3.75. They you get 25 ants all females or males(can't remember) in a vile.
You open up the gel container and add your ants, in 24hrs. they start to tunnel. The food and water supply is in the gel...
They only last about 3 months give or take...
But they were very cool to watch and the made some very cool tunnels.
Towards the end of the ant cycle, my son used to open up the top and blow into it...they used to scurry all over the place.
if you want more info, I'm going to the toy store at noon today, I have them there and can get you more info. I'll open a box to read the instruction.
VERY COOL PICS and interesting....kinda creepy too...
Melinda
I wouldn't be into ants without these types of ant farms. Uncle milton played a big part, but sadly he died several weeks ago at the ripe age of 97. I've owned several of these antworks antfarms, and with the lights, they make really interesting setups. The ants you get are females, males exist only to mate, have wings, and play no part in nest construction. Despite being good obseveration chambers for harvester ants, these make horrible setups for colonies. Smaller ants have a higher chance of getting stuck, brood drowns easily, and because larvae need protein (Insects), the medium molds very easily.
On another note, I captured a semi-mature colony of Pheidole flavens. Very small species. (Worker: 2 mms, Majors: 3 mms Queen: 4 mms) Better than nothing!
