The ant farm we purchased actually consists of gel, not dirt. The gel serves as their food, water, and home! This is a picture of our ant farm after we (very quickly!) dumped the ants in.
There are four beams of light from the base that make a great night light. The directions that came with the ant farm instruct you to 'poke' holes in the gel to help the ants get digging. You can see the beginning of the holes that we poked in the above photo.
Within 24 hours the ants had already started to tunnel in the direction of the light beams. Here is what it looked like.....
They tunnel very quickly! Here are some more pictures to show how fast they work. These are all within a week.
Pretty cool, huh? We love watching the progress. I am glad I took (too) many photos of these little guys! :)
There is a sad side to this story though. All the ants will eventually die, as they can not survive without a colony. This was a little difficult for the girls to understand and they did tear up when we told them.
But, having the ant farm has been a positive learning experience. We researched these particular ants and found out a lot of information on them. We printed photos out explaining all the ant parts and, Emma has been keeping an ant journal, too.
We are going on our fourth week with the ants. The longest they can survive is 3 months without a colony. We have noticed that they are starting to die off more rapidly now. :( So here are two more recent photos I took. These are from the back side of the farm because the ants are hard to see from the front. There are two ants on top if you look closely.
It still amazes me how much these ants work and work! And it doesn't surprise me that you can find their diligence in the Bible.
Go to the ant, thou sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise: Which having no guide, overseer, or ruler, Provideth her meat in the summer, and gathereth her food in the harvest. Proverbs 6:6-8
How much better could it get? A bible and science lesson in one!
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