While moving a potted plant on my balcony one night, I discoverd a colony of ants. I had thought about making an ant farm for the longest time so this was a great opportunity to just do it. Taking an old Costo nut container and a plastic cup, I made a new home for the little creatures.
I started with an ordinary plastic nut container from Costco. The container is just the right size and is very rigid and sturdy. Be sure to remove the sticker and clean the container so you get a clear unobstructed view of the ants. I also used a clear hard plastic cup to serve as the center spacer for the ant farm. You want an object in the middle of the ant farm so as to force the ants to build their tunnels away from the center and more to the sides so you can see their activities better.
I first attached the plastic cup to the inside of the the container using a hot glue gun with the mouth of the cup facing the bottom of the container.
Since the plastic is fairly thick and hard, I drilled out some holes from the bottom of the container within the circumference of the cup in order to faciliate cutting out the bottom. Use a heavy duty razor blade to complete the cutting out of the hole. I wanted a hole in the bottom of the ant farm so I can also see the activities of the ants from the inside out.
The edge of the hole was fairly rough and sharp, so I used a mini-torch to melt and smooth it out.
The completed ant farm container.
Next, I filled the container with clean sand just to the top of the cup on the inside and added a little bit of water to stabilize it. Don't add too much water or else it will be too soggy for the ants.
It took only a little more than two hours to make the ant farm and get the ants inside. I was able to get about 30-40 full-grown ants and about 40 egg cases. I'm still not sure if I was able to get a queen. I originally used a piece of thick paper cloth to cover the ant farm but by the next morning, the ants had chewed their way through the paper and were moving out. I then had to use the orignal container lid to keep the ants inside.
I cut a hole in the lid and glued one half of a tea steaper on top to allow for ventilation. I also wrapped a piece of black construction paper around the outside to encourage the ants to tunnel near the wall of the container since they will tunnel away from light.
The ants immediately set up camp under a bottle cap I had placed inside to hold water. About five days after I placed the ants inside, I changed the bottle cap for one with clean water and the ants seemed upset that their roof had been disturbed. In about 30 minutes they moved their entire nest into some underground chambers that they had previously dug but until then were unoccupied. Now I can see their activities very clearly. Here, you can see the eggs of the ants stashed in an underground chamber. It's cool to be able to see their tunneling and caretaking activities.
