Our New Pets: Ants!
The eerie blue glow from the corner of my sons' bedroom is a familiar sight each night. While the rest of us are awake, asleep, here, and even away, a flurry of activity is going on inside the sealed plastic container, illuminated by four small lights on the underside, shining up through a sea of blue gel. It is a peaceful image from the outside, and my sons will sit forever and watch it. It is their new passion. It is their ant farm.
It wasn't always this way. I was out of the pet business and had been for a while. We had reclaimed our backyard after our aging canine friends went to "doggie heaven", and pets were not something I was looking to take on at the moment. But, children have an agenda of their own, at least mine do. And getting a new pet - of any kind - was tops on the list.
We had been through all the possibilities - fish (which we did end up getting), rabbits, mice (um, NO), birds, and lizards. I offered to let them adopt a Chia pet or even a battery operated animal, but they were firm in their demands. They wanted something alive, something interesting, and something none of their friends had. I just wanted something that I didn't have to feed or clean up after.
And that's how we found our ant farm.
It isn't just ANY ant farm, though. This is the cream of the crop. It is made with a special transparent gel that contains all of the nutrients the little buggers need to survive. Actually, it is modeled after an experiment from a space shuttle mission to study the effects of micro-gravity on ants. Everything the ants need to build and live is included in the "farm". And, from the moment you introduce them to their new home, you are hooked.
It takes them a short while to get started (they have to check out their new digs first), but once the tunnel building begins, you realize how worth it this is to house about 30 insects in your home - WILLINGLY. Harvester ants are the best; they have large mandibles and make massive tunnels. Their size makes them easy to watch. And, the more you watch, the more you learn about ants and how they work. They communicate, they have a routine, they are efficient. It is an entire community at work. With the illuminated ant farm that we have, we can see everything the ants are doing, and the more tunnels there are, the cooler it looks when it is lighted up!
Our ant farm is clearly one of the top picks from my boys, and I have to admit, it is probably one of my most favorite "pet ideas" so far. Of course, you have to get over the fact that you are purposefully housing and caring for the very pests that you are trying to annihilate in your yard, but once you get past that, you find that the ant farm is definitely learning and fun all in one self-contained community.
Kathleen Stevenson contributes to the toy website WonderBrains (http://www.wonderbrains.com) and is an avid ant farm enthusiast.
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