Fascinations AntWorks Illuminated Blue
by Fascinations
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List Price: Our Price: $20.00 You Save: $12.99 (39%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Category: Toy See more product details |
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Toys and Games Reviews of Fascinations AntWorks Illuminated Blue
Customer Review: best gift ever
Summary: 5 Stars
My husband joked a couple months ago that he wanted to get an ant farm, specifically a Facinations Antworks blue one he saw in a catalogue. When Christmas came I got him this one instead, it's the same color but came with LED lights underneath, which I knew he would like. Using the order form that came with the farm, I also got him ants from antsalive, getting the "ants just before Christmas" ants. (You can get "ants after Christmas" or "ants right now", too.) Ordering online was easy. The ants arrived 3 days before Christmas, all of them alive. I suspect that if they'd arrived a day later, they might not have made it because the weather turned very cold.
The assembly was easy as was poking holes in the gel. The ants were great, but note they are larger harvester ants, about 1 to 1.25 cm long, all female, so if larger ants creep you out you may not like this so much. They were easy to pop into the farm by putting the ants and the tube they came in into the fridge for about 3 minutes. They slow down and you can just dump them into the farm without any escaping.
The ants started tunneling after about 12 hours in the farm, and they made at least 12 tunnels, all interlinking. It only took them about 10 days to tunnel, since then they've been exploring and huddling together in the little room they made at the bottom. The lid fits really well and we haven't had any trouble keeping it on. The only difficulty is opening the lid to give them air. They are FAST and will zip right out of there when you open the lid. My husband solved this by using an old aquarium pump and GENTLY pumping in a little air through one of the air holes on either side of the lid. We also give them light with a low-watt reading lamp, making sure the temp doesn't get over about 77F. So far they've all survived almost 20 days, and the booklet said they could survive up to 3 months.
I love this gift, it was by far my husband's favorite, too. We'll be getting more ants and another farm in the spring.
Customer Review: Amazing entertainment
Summary: 5 Stars
The ant farm is truly a wonder. Smaller than expected, and the ants did take a long time to arrive, but well worth all the time invested.
There is one warning I would pass along, avoid ant bites at all costs. I would recommend the following ant loading technique:
1,Ants arrive in small test tube
2. open lid of ant works
3 open vial of ants and immediately place horizontally in antworks
4 CLOSE LID OF ANTWORKS !
5 wait until ants have calmed down to retrieve vial ( next day)
A harvester ant bite on my finger was instantly painful, just as one would imagine a bite by a pair of mandibles the size of an insects head would be. But that initial shock and pain paled in comparison with what was to come. Stoic Dad played down the initial pain in front of my 6 year old, but within the hour I knew that the little ant that my child had identified as the culprit had made a mess of my evening. A dull throbbing pain was creeping up my arm, my chest was feeling strange on my right side. What began as a little bite at 6:00pm, was by 10:00pm a fully engrossed groaning pain and paranoia as I lay completely collapsed into the couch. Retiring to bed was unthinkable as the pain alternated from dull throb to burning spear.
Finally laying in bed holding a bag of ice was quite the joke on me, $20 of ant farm was a far cry from where I was at the moment. Deep in my hand was the throbbing burning pain of certain stigmata. By morning thankfully , all symptoms were gone,(and no evidence of the aforementioned ) and the excited screamings of my six year old as to the ants progress was well worth the pain I had endured. ( And I am not allergic to bee stings )
PAy attention to the slip of paper that accompanies the ants, the sting is about 1000 times as painful as that sliver of paper can possibly warn of.
cheers and happy ant farming.
Customer Review: Lots of fun for all ages!
Summary: 4 Stars
We bought this for our ant-obsessed son, and the whole family and all visitors have loved watching the ants work.
A couple of notes:
The life-span of the ants is about 3 months -- it's been exactly 3 months and we have about 4 living ants left.
The ants bite - at a science store where we bought the habitat, they had one on display. The cashier was trying to show me how you would clean out any dead ants, and when he lifted the lid, the ants swarmed out and a few bit him. I taped the lid shut to deter any kids from trying to open it.
If you refrigerate the habitat for 15 minutes, that will make the ants sluggish, and you can clean out any dead ants or excess gel that the ants bring to the surface. However, set a timer! Once I left the poor ants in the refrigerator for 2 hours and when I retrieved them they were all huddled at the bottom of the habitat. Fortunately, they all survived (although perhaps you should take the 3 month life-span with a grain of salt, given the extreme conditions they faced early in their habitat life).
Due to health and mortality concerns, my son would not allow me to put a drop of nail polish on the back of one ant so that we could name him and chart his/her progress. I think that would have made the habitat even more interesting, to be able to track one specific ant.
Also, the clerk at the science store said the gel is reusable, that is, when the old ants all die, I can add more ants. That would also be interesting - would they close off the old tunnels and build new ones? Would they use the ones that exist? Too bad I've misplaced the order form...
All in all, a very worthwhile $20.
Customer Review: Great conversation piece for the office
Summary: 5 Stars
My son gave me this ant farm for Christmas this year. I ordered the ants the next day and then started waiting. The unused ant farm sat in my office and my coworkers all wanted to know what it was. Their first comment was "it didn't come with the ants?" The answer is "of course not, they would be dead by the time someone bought it." You have to order your ants and it can take a long time for them to come in, especially in the winter.
It took several weeks for the ants to arrive. They come in a small brown pouch containing one vial of ants and are delivered via the post office. I carefully read the instructions as the ants had large mandibles and didn't look too happy about being in such a small space. Into the refrigerator they went for just a few minutes and they I easily popped them into the habitat. It's been almost two months now and they have created a lot of tunnels and most are still alive. The gel in which they live is also their food. This is a nice feature since I don't like lifting the lid any more than I have to. These little guys want out.
In case you are wondering, you DO NOT get a queen so the ants will live their life expectancy and then die. You don't get baby ants without a queen.
The kit comes with instructions for collecting ants yourself, but I live in Texas where the only ants are fire ants. The instruction book tells you to NOT collect fire ants, nor army ants. The book that comes with the habitat has some basic ant info and was a fun read. If you are going to give this as a gift to a child, order the ants in advance because it could take a month to 6 weeks for your ants to arrive.
Customer Review: Great conversation piece for the office
Summary: 5 Stars
My son gave me this ant farm for Christmas this year. I ordered the ants the next day and then started waiting. The unused ant farm sat in my office and my coworkers all wanted to know what it was. Their first comment was "it didn't come with the ants?" The answer is "of course not, they would be dead by the time someone bought it." You have to order your ants and it can take a long time for them to come in, especially in the winter.
It took several weeks for the ants to arrive. They come in a small brown pouch containing one vial of ants and are delivered via the post office. I carefully read the instructions as the ants had large mandibles and didn't look too happy about being in such a small space. Into the refrigerator they went for just a few minutes and they I easily popped them into the habitat. It's been almost two months now and they have created a lot of tunnels and most are still alive. The gel in which they live is also their food. This is a nice feature since I don't like lifting the lid any more than I have to. These little guys want out.
In case you are wondering, you DO NOT get a queen so the ants will live their life expectancy and then die. You don't get baby ants without a queen.
The kit comes with instructions for collecting ants yourself, but I live in Texas where the only ants are fire ants. The instruction book tells you to NOT collect fire ants, nor army ants. The book that comes with the habitat has some basic ant info and was a fun read. If you are going to give this as a gift to a child, order the ants in advance because it could take a month to 6 weeks for your ants to arrive.