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: We may never know how the ant farm works!
Summary: 1 Stars
If you are considering ordering this or any ant farm, BEWARE!
Like other reviewers, I don't have any remarks to make - positive or negative - about the ant farm, itself. You see, you really can't evaluate it WITHOUT ANTS!!! We gave my six year old son this ant farm for Christmas and placed an online order with Life Studies (the information was included in the box) on January 1, 2007. We did receive a tube of ants on January 17, 2007 which was a Tuesday after the Martin Luther King holiday weekend. Also, it was an exceptionally cold week, previously. It was not surprising to find that our ants had not survived the trip from Utah to Arizona.
However, since Life Studies packaged their ants with a warning that this could happen along with promises that the ants would be replaced, I emailed them that same day. As of February 9, we still had not received any new ants nor had we heard from Life Studies. I've tried to call them several times during their office hours but have never reached anything other than their answering machine. Today is March 7, 2007 and we are still ant-less. I left a message on their machine today but, frankly, I have little hope. Even more frustrating, they seem to be the only game in town. I haven't been able to find anyone else who will supply Harvester ants for ant farms unless I can produce a USDA license.
The ant farm is probably great fun but unless we can find a way to capture our own ants, we may never know.
Customer Review: AWESOME
Summary: 5 Stars
I had one of those old sand-filled ant farms and tried to collect ants from my neighborhood to fill it and they all died cause I put them in the freezer instead of the fridge. Then I decided to get this futuristic blue ant farm and I am amazed! I followed the directions and ordered the correct ants online for like 5 bucks. They came pretty quick and there were 40 of them. I plugged in the ant farm, poked a few starter holes in the gel, put the ants in (after having them in the fridge for 9 minutes), closed the lid and viola! After less than 24 hours they started digging tunnels with the starter holes I made. They just keep on digging and digging and now my ant farm looks like it does on the packaging. They are fascinating to watch. This comes with the ant farm, a magnifying glass, a tiny super magnifying lens, a stick to poke starter tunnels with, and a handy booklet. When you plug it in, it lights up with a cool blue hue and it's a great conversation piece. You don't ever need to do anything to take care of it, the gel inside is their food and water and what they dig tunnels with. Every week you just lift the lid for a few seconds to give them fresh air (they don't breathe, they instead just absorb Oxygen through their skin). I've had them for awhile and I'm so glad I got this thing. Good for kids, or for classrooms, or for adults. Well made and fun, and for 22 bucks, it is definitely worth it.Customer Review: Helpful Tips!!!
Summary: 5 Stars
The Antworks antfarm is by far the best antfarm available. Forget about buying an antfarm with dirt or sand. With Antworks you can see right through the gel for optimal observation. Here are some helpful tips to make your ant watching experience the best possible!
Order your ants from Life Studies as suggested in other posts. However, go to http://www.infowest.com/life/ants.htm and order them online. I ordered them online and received them in 6 days! If you use the form that comes with Antworks, it will take longer, and there is nothing worse than staring at your Antworks with no ants!
The directions tell you to poke 4 holes in the gel with the included stick. Poke the holes in the gel next to the glass. This will assure that the ants will stay next to the glass when tunneling. With the tunnels next to the glass, you can see much better detail!
The directions tell you to open the top for a few seconds each week to allow new Oxygen inside. BE CAREFULL - the ants will swarm to the opening, so do it when no ants are near the top.
The ants are huge!! THEY WILL BITE!! Once you get your vile of ants, make sure they are on the bottom of the vile. Open the Antworks, open the vile, and tap them hard to drop them inside. If one falls outside of the Antworks, dont try to pick it up. It is probably best to just squash it!
Sit back and watch you ants build their world!
Customer Review: No Problems at All Yet
Summary: 5 Stars
My sons got this for Christmas. About 1 to 2 weeks before Christmas, my husband ordered the ants online from antsalive.com and selected for the ants to "arrive shortly after Christmas". Well, we got them the DAY after Christmas. We were VERY surprised. To let you know, we live in Montana. When we opened the package, the ants in the vial appeared DEAD. However, let me assure you, they are very much alive. I was ready to throw them away and start sending my email to "deadants@antsalive.com" as instructed. But my husband said to just dump them in and see what happens. Within 30 minutes, most of the ants were moving all around the habitat. By 1 hour, they were ALL alive but ONE ant. I picked him out with tweezers and tossed him, and now we have 24 very much alive AND tunneling ants. I had no problems whatsoever with antsalive. And I know those ants sat in the cold somewhere over Christmas Day because there was no mail that day and they arrived here from Utah the next day. My only complaint is that the ant habitat itself is much smaller than I was expecting, but my children don't care. We are enjoying this, and when the ants die (1-3 months it says), we will just spend a whopping $4 and get some more. Big Deal!Customer Review: Even adults love this one!!
Summary: 5 Stars
My son is obsessed with ants, so Grandma ordered him this ant habitat for his birthday. it is everything that Grandma and I had hoped for!! My son had no clue that ant habitats were even available, so he was pleasantly surprised!
-The unit comes with the gel already in place. All you have to do is order the ants--ordering was quick and easy. I ordered them from the company online (it costs $1 more than if you mail in the coupon from the box, but I figured it was much faster) and had them in 3 days after ordering.
- Adding the ants to the habitat was easy since they were cold from being in the mailbox. Once they "warmed up", we were pleased to find that all of them survived shipment!!
-It includes a LED light and a magnifying glass to really study the ant's activities.
-The ants took 2 days to start tunneling, so don't be alarmed if they are just walking around on the top for a while
-The lid is very secure, I don't think my 4 y/o would be able to take it off because it has a rubber seal that makes it pretty sealed off.
I would recommend adding the book "Ant Cities" which explains the habits of ants in their natural habitat to make this even more meaningful.