The good:
1. Seeing the ants make and use the tunnels, and seeing how ant colonies work is really neat.
2. The lights provide a wonderful, colorful nightlight. I am not sure if the ants really appreciate them, but they are aesthetically pleasing for humans to look at. There isn't much instruction on how to change between the 2 modes (keeping it on one color or letting the colors rotate) in the instructions but it was easy to figure out by myself.
3. The construction seems to be pretty durable. It has been dropped at least once onto a tile floor and it survived without any cracks. We also have not had any problems with the light and it has been on for weeks.
The learning curve:
1. I tried collecting my own ants, but they were too small and they would escape out of the air vents before I could get more than five of them into the habitat. I resorted to ordering them and the escape problem was solved. The ants I received were a lot larger and kind of neat to look at. You can distinctly see all the little parts, which is a great teaching aid.
2. The gel is a foreign substance to the ants and they don't realize that they are supposed to dig into and eat the gel. You are supposed to encourage digging by priming the gel (putting a few holes into the gel before you put the ants in). I did so, but after the ants were in the habitat and were not tunneling, I realized the holes were probably too small. I attempted to make them bigger, but the ants went into attack mode and the top quickly went back on. It took 3-4 days before the ants realized that they were supposed to dig into the stuff. In the mean time, about half of the colony died.
The bad:
The gel can only be used twice. I am hoping that the next colony will utilize the pre made tunnels and realize what they are supposed to do a bit quicker before half the colony dies. I also hope that I can find a refill of the clear gel. I have found where to get the blue gel but I am not sure how the lights will look with the blue gel.
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I bought this for my 5 year old son! Best gift ever! He loves it. I ordered one for my niece and nephew and my sister ordered one for some friends of hers! These are awesome and durable! Highly recommended!Best Deals for Fascinations AntWorks Colors of Life
I bought this for my 10 year old and my 4 year old has dropped it twice so far on day two of having the ants in it! The ants lived and the top didn't even pop off!!!! It's awesome. Some of the colors are almost too bright to look at, but you have the option to keep it on one color if you want. I had to pay $14 for ants because of winter, but they are only 6 in the summer. I know that sounds like a lot, but it is worth it! It is so cool to see the ants digging in the gel:)Honest reviews on Fascinations AntWorks Colors of Life
I bought this for my daughter's 9th birthday after she had said she wanted an ant farm. She was thrilled with the lights and had it plugged in for the entire week that we waited for out ants to arrive. The lights are very cool they either cycle rainbow colors or you can stop it on your favorite color, all with an optical sensor that you only have to wave your finger in front of! If you leave your ant farm in a sunny place (which you aren't supposed to because I think the ants don't like full sun) the sunlight is enough to trigger the sensor.So after less than a week of anxiously waiting our ants arrived. We ordered the harvester ants, which are recommended because they are good tunnelers and they have giant mandibles that are much easier to see. I placed my order from Life Studies. It was $5 and they arrived pretty quickly. I was seriously scared of those ants because they looked like they could inflict some serious pain. Within one hour of having them in the habitat, they had started to dig up and move some gel. Within 3 hours we could see a good start on their first tunnel. The instructions say to poke some holes in the gel and they even give you a special tool for it so that the ants can start tunneling there. Oddly enough, our ants chose their own spot and ignored our poke holes completely.
For the entire first week we would check on the habitat every couple hours. Our house was filled with someone shouting "Hey you guys come look at the ants now!" I also bought The Life and Times of the Ant which proved to be a wonderful reference, and actually explained why the ants did some of the things that we would have otherwise thought weird.
We did experience the light not working, but after an email to the company the problem was resolved within a day. Great customer service!
The only thing that I can complain about is the size of the habitat. It seemed like our ants dug most around the sides and bottom. They spent a lot of time at the bottom, like maybe they wanted to be able to dig deeper. I felt a little sorry for them. They also tried to tunnel upwards and were able to chew off the corners of the rubber seal. I do not feel like they would be able to get out of the habitat without the seal though.
Most of the ants lived for about a month and a half (there is still one ant alive after 2 months), but most of the excitement happened in the first couple weeks. I absolutely plan to order ants again soon, and I'll probably order a gel refill kit at some point too. Our entire family, from parents to 2 year old, loved seeing the progress and I think we all learned a little something too!
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