Ants are amazing! They build in
with artistic as well as sound
engineering balance.
To
find more about how to use your Ant Farm
and care for your ants, read
on.
To fill your ant
farm, follow these steps:
- Turn the farm upside down and remove
the base.
- Attach the base to the top of the
farm as a stand
- Cut off a small penny sized corner
of
the special sand bag
- Pour sand into the farm to fill one
half of the container (pour sand till it is up to the top of the
section being filled.)
- Replace the base to cover the filled
section
- Turn the container right side up --
houses on top.
- Slowly add about 2/3 cup or 0.18
liter
of clear drinking water. The sand should be damp throughout but not
soggy.
- Using the stick provided, push the
cotton halfway into the sand to start tunnels.
- Replace the top on the container.
Caution:
Never hold or touch ants
directly. You are much LARGER than they are, and may scare them. Even
though small, some kinds of ants can bite or sting.
To stock your farm with ants, fill out your Ant Farm
Certificate for live ants as the form instructs, and mail it in to the
address on the certificate. The ant farm is certified to raise and ship
you your live ants. There are certain seasons that ants are not
shipped, including when the weather is very cold in your location.
Please be patient. Your ants will arrive when the weather is warm
enough for them to be shipped to you.
You can also stock the ant farm with ants
from your
own backyard. Look for ants that are too big fit through the small
holes in the top of the farm, and let them crawl up on a pencil, or rod
that fits into the top of the ant farm. Remove the top of the farm and
carefully shake or tap the stick till the ants fall in. Note: Ants move
more slowly when it is cool making them easier to handle.
When your ants arrive in the mail, they will not
have
eaten for a few days. It is a good idea to add a couple of drops of
sugared water to help them get started. You can also put the tube of
ants in the refrigerator -- not the freezer -- for fifteen minutes to
make the ants more easy to transfer to the ant farm.
Put the ant farm in a dark place the first night
and
within a day or two, the ants should be hard at work making tunnels and
farming away.
Some of the ants you receive may have died in
shipping. This is normal since ants live only forty days to two months,
and that means that every day an ant lives is a bit like a whole year
of life for you and me.
Fighting ants means you have ants from different
colonies. If you have many dead ants within a day or two after adding
more ants to your farm, it may mean you have added ants from different
colonies. Ants from the same colony can be found in the same area
working and living together, and they will work well together in the
ant farm. Ants from different colonies instinctively disagree and will
not live together in your ant farm.
Feeding: Ants love eating, but they are teeny
critters. Feed your ants only two or three grains of ant food every
week. The ant food provided has been scientifically blended with
vitamins and minerals for the best ant health.
Watering: You should add about five drops of
clear
fresh drinking water for your ants with the provided dropper every two
days. The sand should be kept just a bit damp, but never soggy.
Occasionally some water drops or moisture
condenses
inside the ant farm. This is normal and the ants will just work around
it.
Warning:
Direct sunlight can overheat
your ant farm. Just like a car on a hot summer day, if you leave an ant
farm in the sun -- even indoors -- you can give your ants heat
exhaustion. Your ants will do their best at 60 to 75 degrees F, or 15
to 25 degrees C.
Respect your ants. If they are shaken or
disturbed too
much, they may survive long. Watch your ants for personality and
intelligence traits and see if you can tell which is which. You can
even give each one a name.
There are feeder ants to gather food, and worker
ants
to dig just to name a couple of types. Some colonies even have ants
that gather seeds and let the seeds grow! Wow!
Ants are very clean and will move all their junk
as
well as dead ants away from their tunnels.
For further information, see Uncle Milton's
Questions and Answers
About Ants
which is available at our store.
