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Q and JT got an ant farm for Christmas. It’s actually described as an Ant Habitat and it doesn’t look like the old sand-filled ant farms. This one is filled with a gel that the ants burrow into and the gel also serves as their food.

 

We sent away for the ants and received a little vial full of dead ants. It’s been cold. We tried again. We received a second vial filled with about 20 ants.

 

Now, these are not your garden variety neighborhood ants. These are harvester ants. Think of the little house ant but on steroids.

 

They have huge pincers and the instructions say that they can “inflict a painful sting… that causes local swelling and itching”. OK, this definitely requires a little parental supervision.

 

It seemed easy enough. I read the first part of the instructions. Q and I poked a few holds in the habitat gel to help the ants start their tunnels. Next, we took the stopper off of the little vial containing the ants. I carefully tipped the little vial of ants into the habitat so that the learning experience could begin and …ANTS EVERYWHERE!!!

 

Some ants fell into the habitat but others just crawled out of the little vial and up my hand. I tried to shake them loose. Meanwhile, the ones that had fallen into the habitat had organized and decided to make a break for it.

 

“Papi, there getting out” Q yelled as he started running around.

 

I put down the vial and proceeded to flick most of the ants off my hand and into the habitat. But the other escapees had made it onto the table.

 

Not only that, but the vial I had put down still had a few of our little friends in it and they were heading in another direction.

 

“Papi, they’re on the floor,” I heard Q yell as he reached for one.

 

An odd thing about these ants was that they didn’t just crawl along the edge of the table like other ants. When they got to the edge they’d just drop to the floor, “Plunk!”

 

As Q reached for an ant all I saw were its big pincers open wide.

 

“No son, it’ll bite you,” I said.  Q froze. 

 

I put the top back on the habitat to keep in the ants that were still there and we started the round up. 

 

Q scouted the area and pointed out the runners. 

 

I had a plastic cup handy and started scooping ants into it as we found them. One got a hold of my finger but luckily I have calluses on my fingertips from playing guitar so he couldn’t get a good hold.

 

Soon we had them all. I think.

 

The ones we’d put into the plastic cup couldn’t crawl up the slippery sides so it worked great as a temporary holding facility.

 

Getting them back into the habitat was a little challenging because right away the others wanted to crawl out. We decided to wait until they settled down.

 

Eventually everyone was in. Q seemed to find the whole experience very entertaining. We found a good place for the habitat in the boy’s bedroom and a little while ago I put Q down for a nap.

 

I just finished reading the rest of the instructions that came with the ants:

 

To transfer the ants without getting stung, we suggest placing the vial of ants in the refrigerator (not the freezer) for about 10 minutes…the cold will make the ants move slowly. You may want to wear gloves for added protection.