New developments; escape attempts? links to web sites

Two new entrances to the left have appeared since yesterday. In Photo #1 above, you can see the beginning of the two most recent tunnels as seen yesterday around 5:30 p.m.

Photo #2 shows a view from the right front. To the right you can see two ants tunneling through the mound they've made from the gel balls. Also, that floor tunnel is extending toward the right... should be all the way over to the right side of habitat by tomorrow.

Photo #3 is a view more from the left front. Look at those mounds taking shape at the surface.

Photo #4 shows the back side view. You can really see the floor level tunnel taking shape. This is where they seem to congregate for resting and sleeping needs.

Also noticed this evening that there appears to be less laziness or less numbers of ants “doing nothing”. I wondered about that this morning as I drove to our Community Breakfast at Cedar Cliff UMC at 5:30 a.m.

It occurred to me that ants have jobs, and they have to learn their jobs. I read that somewhere. Perhaps the ants I observed doing nothing were in the process of learning their new skills, or perhaps they were skilled in an area that was not needed here, such as caring for eggs or feeding the Queen. My brother gave me that idea… I’ll keep researching… he may be right. Today, all the ants were very busy whether at the surface reconstructing the pile of gel balls or digging in the tunnels below.

I made a discovery this evening: the ants at the surface have piled the mound of gel balls so high on the left side of the surface that they are able to reach the white foam seal along the edge of the lid. The same seal that keeps the lid on snug, keeps the ants in, keeps other pests out. A couple of cell mates have been working steadily all day chewing away at the foam and it’s completely gone on the left side of the lid.

Another new discovery: They are now tunneling into the mounds they have created at the surface. Unfortunately, I had to gently knock down one of the mounds because of the damage they were doing to the lid. I didn’t hurt their tunnels, though.

Final observation: the majority of the ants have congregated in the very bottom tunnel. At the time of this writing, there are only three ants running around on the surface, and one of them is carrying a dead ant. There are two new dead ants at the surface. I will remove them tomorrow.

I’ve been busy looking for websites today to help interested readers link up to for more information. I hope you find them helpful, amusing, interesting.

https://www2.carolina.com  This is the Carolina Biological web site home page. When you get there, if you are interested in ordering an ant farm, or you just want ants for your self-created ant farm, here’s the path to take: in left box beneath Browse the Catalog, click on Elementary Science and Math >Animals > Insects and Spiders > Ant Farm, Giant. This final selection takes you to a page where you can see the item order numbers for the ant farm, refill sand and food, and replacement ants. Or, if you live in or near Burlington, North Carolina, you can call Carolina Biological (336-584-0381) and say you wish to place an order for Harvester Ants. You will be connected with someone who can help you. They offered me two sizes, one for 50 +/- ants, and one for 100 +/- ants. I ordered the smaller amount for $7.95 plus tax, drove to Whitsett the next day and picked up my ants. There was more than enough for two small ant farms in the smaller order.

http://fl.essortment.com/instructionshow_rgqk.htm  Here you can find instructions for making a simple ant farm out of a large glass jar, fish bowl, or aquarium tank. This is probably a convenient smaller version, and sounds easy to make. I haven’t tried it, though, because I’m not ready to dig up an ant hill to get the ants with a queen. (Remember, in the USA, ant farm suppliers cannot ship the queen ant with her brood. Against the law in the States.) You can order them on-line, or call Carolina Biological Supplies in Burlington, like I did.

http://www.pagewise.com/do-it-yourself-making-ant-farm.htm  This PageWise site is filled with answers to all sorts of questions. Thousands of experts contribute their research and writing of over 80,000 articles in various topic areas, including how to make your own ant farm. Also a great site to tag as a favorite for research projects.

http://www.discoverthis.com/ants-bugs.html   Here you will find a page of various ant farms to order on-line at Discover This. Prices range from $9.95 to $18.95. Shipping on order over $100 is free in US; other order flat rate of $5.00. If you have a little bug investigator in your home, you might find something he or she would enjoy on this page. Nothing you would find in the Wal-Mart toy section, that’s for sure.

http://www.antnest.co.uk/Keep.html I've mentioned it before, and I’ll mention it again. How to build an ant nest is the topic on this page of Myrm’s Ant Nest. This is not a kid’s website, mind you. Maybe a high schooler or industrious middle schooler could do this on their own. Think Science Project! I just love visiting this place! It’s one of my top five favorite websites. Here’s a guy who loves studying our tiny six-legged neighbors. He has five thriving colonies of ants, and he writes about them in his journals. He lives in England, and they can order queen ants there. Nothing to buy at this site, but it is a nice, ant-friendly web-site. You’ve got to check out the pictures of his huge, aquarium-sized ant farms!

Thank you for visiting. Please come back. New updates daily. Don’t forget to leave a comment, tell me what you think, or about your ant farm.

Space Ants Websites

Here are a few websites of interest.

I had been wondering about the actual science experiment using the ants on the Space Shuttle in 2003, then it occurred to me... wasn't that the shuttle that burned up as it re-entered the atmosphere? I searched on the internet, and that's when I discovered it was. Shame on me for not remembering. I didn't realize that all those student experiments were on board during that mission.

Today, I did some research, and found STARS Academy, the website that lets you meet the students, the crew, learn about the mission, and the experiments.

http://www.starsacademy.com/sts107/index.html   Click here to go directly to the homepage of the STARS program website. To reach the page that features the Fowler High School experiment, Ants in Space, click on Learn About the Experiments, then click on the far right red picture of ants. There you can read the description of their experiment, and their interesting hypothesis. Once you are there, you can link to various other aspects of the STS107 mission such as meeting the crew, the students from USA, Israel, China, Australia, Japan, and Liechtenstein, who created the experiments. There were seven different student-designed experiments taking place on Columbia before its untimely end in February, 2003. When you visit this website, you cannot help but feel the hope and excitement for this mission among the youngest scientists and their teachers.

Then, for the kids I found these two sites with games and activities for kids of all ages.

http://www.nasa.gov/audience/forkids/home/index.html   Kids can go to this site for games and stories, art, activities, and more. Also, links to other NASA sites including Space Kids, NASA Quest, Space Place, StarChild, KSNN, and Astro-Venture. Check it out!!

http://games.funschool.com/game   This website has some commercial ties, but you can easily avoid the main advertisement by clicking where it tells you near the top. Then you select an appropriate grade level (pre-school through 6th grade) for your child. This will allow you to choose from several games designed for that particular grade level, but don’t let a lower grade level fool you ! I tried playing Bubble ball at third grade level and learned I have no timing! But the kids will excel here. My favorite games were Clean up the Environment, where the kids must seek and click on recyclable trash (plastic, glass, cans, paper) in the environment, then dump it in the correct recycle bin! The Downhill Slalom was fun until I got into the upper grade levels, then I kept crashing my skier into the trees. Animal Homes is really sweet, but I found some of the animals hard to identify.  Mostly, though,  I could match the animals to their homes. At K level I couldn’t figure out where to put the sea otter because I wasn’t sure what he was. I tried two different homes before I got it right. There are many other games at all grade levels. Just for fun. Check it out!

My ants have retired for the evening. I have a towel wrapped around them to give them the darkness they need. I won't peak until tomorrow.

Friends come to see the Ant Farm

3:30 p.m.   Friends Marlene and Stevie come over for a brief hour when they hear I have an ant farm. I really think they have nothing much to do, so looking at an ant farm might sound appealing. You know how it is with kids in the summer. Early August, vacation trip is over, school starts in a couple of weeks, and there isn’t much to do… at least, that’s what most kids say. But these two kids love the outdoors.

I know that after looking at the ant farm for five minutes, they will want to DO something. Looking at ants is okay for a little while, but finding ants and catching ants would be even more fun, so I give them each a bug container with magnifying lids and off into the woods we go on an ant search. I want them to experience the thrill of the hunt! Ant hunt, that is.

First, I tell them about the ant farm, and they are so curious about the blue gel. I enjoy explaining that the gel is their home, food, and water source. After I answer their several and relevant questions to the best of my ability(5th graders are so interested in living things!), we set off for the woods in front of the house, armed only with the bug containers, a cordless telephone, and my camera (you simply must keep the camera with you at all times. How many times have I missed a photo opportunity simply because the camera was not on me? Too many.)

I warn them about the nature of red ants (they sting, even the littlest ones), and demonstrate a method I used for catching the bigger black wood ants a few days ago, then turn them loose. It isn’t long before each of them have found an ant to pursue. Marlene catches a black one, Stevie catches a red one. Soon, they are finding crickets and spiders, and their interests broadens to include all the little critters flying and crawling around us. They are enjoying the world of insects.

Even invisible spider webs don’t deter them. Girlish squeals are thankfully at a minimum. I’m impressed with their prolonged attention when we come to a spider web/funnel. The hole at the center of the web, about an inch or so in diameter, is at the base of a tree root, upturned during the last big hurricane. I remember when these girls would cringe to even look upon such a spider, yet, here they are moving in closer and closer. I warn them not to scare the spider away so I can take its picture (Photo #2 above: if anyone knows what kind of spider it is, leave me a comment below or email me). Stevie wants to catch it so she can observe it in her bug catcher. She makes several attempts, each time causing the spider to make a fast retreat. She finally accepts defeat, and we return to the house for some super sour lemonade.

Afterward, I show them Myrm’s website (included below) so they can learn more. I tell Marlene I will email my journal page to her so she can read it, too. They want me to post the pictures I took of them today, but I need parental permission first. Not today, girls. Sorry.

Ant Update: 4:15pm. There are many smaller branches being tunneled out from the main branch. One of the original tunnels has taken on a wider shape. It seems the ants have enlarged it just below the surface of the gel. It’s not quite a chamber, but is convenient. Several ants can stand in it side by side without blocking the main thoroughfare. It very much resembles one of those pull-off ramps you see in the mountains, a place for slower vehicles to pull over to let the faster traffic drive on by. Even ants recognize the need for efficient pathways as they build their community.

When an ant first digs a new tunnel, it is only as wide as the body of the one ant. The ant chews off a chunk of material, backs up until she is at a place wide enough to turn around in, then to the surface she goes. Meanwhile, another ant takes her place at the end of the tunnel. She bites off a chunk of blue gel, backs up, turns around at the intersection, then goes to the surface. The ants line up behind the tunneling ant, waiting for their turn to dig in. They are focused and patient.

Photo #1 above taken at 1738 hours. You can see a new tunnel extending up from the bottom near the left. 

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If you have time, check out these interesting websites related to ants, spiders, and super cool blue space gel.

http://http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2003/01/0129_030129_spaceants.html This page is a National Geographic article about the original experiment done on Space Shuttle Columbia back in 2003 when the super cool space-age gel was developed just for that purpose! Tells you all about the gel, what it is made of, how the ants were chosen for the experiment. The experiment was designed by high school kids in Syracuse,New York. Go, kids of science! I’d like to know, where are those kids now? Can you imagine the excitement generated by their involvement in something as big as NASA and Space Shuttle experiments?

http://www.cnn.com/2003/TECH/science/01/25/coolsc.spaceants/  Another article at CNN.com about the high school experiment involving the harvester ants. Good read. Why didn’t I notice this when it was going on??

http://http://www.antnest.co.uk/  I have Myrm’s permission to link to his website, so if you are an aspiring myrmecolgist (one who studies ants), this is THE place to go.

http://http://rufaman.proboards15.com/index.cgi?   This website is truly fANTastic for the person just starting out to get answers to ant farming problems. Also, ant enthusiasts share their experiences and advice here. To get the full benefit of this classy site, you must register. I spent an hour reading some of the questions and answers posted and learned so much, answering my own questions.

http://http://www.innovatoys.com/page/1/prod/antworks  This site will show you how to order the same kind of super cool space-age blue gel ant farm pictured in this journal, except they call it AntWorks. Check it out if you are interested in buying one for yourself or for your favorite student. Christmas or birthday gift idea? I highly recommend it to teachers in elementary school.

http://http://crawford.tardigrade.net/journal/index.html This is a great site for people interested in spiders and spider collecting!

http://http://www.washington.edu/burkemuseum/spidermyth/myths/identifying.html This site will debunk many of the spider myths you have heard.

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Don't forget to leave a comment, or even a related website I should visit. Thanks, bg

Third Day Morning Reflections

7:20 a.m.  Look at the pictures above in the order presented. Here is some text to go with each picture. I don't know how to do tags yet, or even if I can do tags with these pictures

#1)   Do you see the six tunnels? Each one reaches to the surface. Look at the bottom for a clear first time view of the joining of the left tunnel with the right tunnel! As of yesterday afternoon, I didn't see the slightest indication that they were going off in that direction. Again, I ask, how did they know? Is this a standard ant tunnel pattern? I am very curious about this tunnel skill of theirs.

#2)  An even better view with the early morning sun filtering through the blue gel. Note the brown stains at top right in the mounds... wastes? I'm not sure, but think that is possible. Also, at the surface to the left, see three ants? The one in the middle is dead. I think. Will wait a few hours before removing him to make sure. Don't want to discard anyone who's sleeping posture is unusual!

#3)  Side view of far left tunnel. I added this to the album because it clearly shows a new direction in one of the branches of the far left tunnel. It is reaching back up to the surface. Soon there will be seven tunnel entrances at the top.

                         ________________________

This is the third day since the red Harvester Ants became of great interest to me. Finding the dead ants cause me some anxiety because I don't know if it is because they haven't eaten the gel, they are stressed, they picked up a disease, or they were weak and old. There's no way for me to know. I remove them as I find them on the surface. There is one still in the bottom left tunnel, of which I wrote about in last night's entry. I remove one from the surface this morning.

Another thought: I'm beginning to think that not all the ants are tunnelers. Many of them, about half of them, seem to do nothing but hang out at the surface or in the tunnels. Yesterday I thought perhaps they were sleeping. But from one time of day to another, I don't know if the  ants that do nothing in the morning are the same ants doing nothing in the afternoon.

My question to the myrmecologist is this: Could some of my ants have other skills which are not being used at this time because this is not a true colony? Could this be why they appear to be idle? Or are they possibly sleeping? Do ants take naps?

What if they do take naps? That would go against what we think about insects like ants and bees, though, wouldn't it? They're always busy, industrious, focused on their jobs. We admire that trait as a society. They give to their community, they keep giving until they die. Life goes on, the community thrives as long as the Queen is laying her eggs, and as long as the colony is healthy.

Ants are polite creatures. I followed, through a magnifying glass, the goings-on of one particular ant. She dug at the furthest end of the main right tunnel, where she is just centimeters from breaking through to the left tunnel. Does she see it through the blue gel? She picks up a chunk of gel in her huge mandibles, turns, and touches each ant gently that she passes. There are about seven ants right in front of her, blocking her way, but she pauses, taps them with her antennae, they tap back and move aside. She continues to do this all the way back up through the surface, touching, tapping, moving forward slowly. Sometimes an ant blocking her way backs up into another branch so she can pass by easily, another ant steps aside and clings to a wall while she walks by on the floor of the tunnel. She passes by the mysterious sleeper ants, and they lazily step aside.

There is a traffic jam in the main right tunnel! The ants are about to chew through the thin gel barrier that separates east from west... they all seem to know that it is about to take place.

News flash! It is 9:20 a.m. and the bottom tunnels are now joined! I saw an ant run completely through from one side through the other. Where they connect is at the point of a 45 degree angle. Interesting! It's no less amazing than the joining of the Union Pacific Railroad with the Central Pacific at Promontory, Utah, in 1869! Ants don't have mathemeticians and map makers and surveyors to assist in their tunneling, yet look what they do! What lowly ant? 

I haven't had many visitors to this sight. I really don't know for sure, though, unless someone makes a comment. The count at the left of the screen does not reflect visitors. There is no spell check with this program, so if I just enter directly, like I am doing now, I don't notice my errors until after I save the entry. When I re-read it in its final format, that's when the errors jump right out. To correct them, I have to go back to the original text, make changes, then come back to finished page. Each time I come back to this finished page, it is counted as a visit! So, it's really a count of all the times I have had to edit an entry. And the few people who have tried to read my verbiose accounts.

Solution: I can type my entry up in the word processor first, do spell check, then copy into this journal.

Here's a link for those interested in reading about the  history of the U.S. railroad system. It's quite informative, more for the older reader.

www.memory.loc.gov/ammem/gmdhtml/rrhtml/rrintro.html

and one for the kids reading pleasure on same topic:

www.kids.net.au/encyclopedia-wiki/fi/First_Transcontinental_Railroad

For a cool picture of that historic day, go to the following site. I tried to copy the picture for you, but would not permit me to:

http://www.cprr.org/Museum/

Come back again, please! and leave your thoughts with me. BG

Sleeping, or Dead, and other behaviors

Photos: The pictures above were taken around 5:30 pm same day as this entry. Notice how much the tunnels have grown since this morning's photos? The first photo is a back view, so the tunnel you see on the right is really the tunnel on the left when seen from the front view. Also notice the incredible mounds taking shape at either end of their confines.

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This is only my second day with the Harvester Ants, and already I’ve noticed some work and sleep habits or behaviors, and also I’ve learned to recognize their posture of death.

As they go about their day, though I only check on them from time to time as I pass by them, is that they don’t all tunnel at the same time. It seems that half of the group works, while the other half rests. It’s like they work in shifts. I don’t know what time during the morning they actually “woke” up and got back to work, but I did notice that during the night, they all were sleeping. At least when I looked in on them they were.

So I wondered, is this what ants in their native habitat do? Do they sleep all through the dark hours, then rise with the sun and get back to work? Also, I can’t tell from watching these ants because of the artificial medium they live in, but when do ants eat? In this particular ant farm, the blue gel is their nutrition. I really can’t tell when they are eating the gel for nourishment, or when they are simply tunneling. There is one clue, however. When they tunnel, I can see each ant carry a gel ball in their mandibles all the way out of the tunnel and out to one of their mounds. But I haven’t noticed any one ant just eating one of the gel balls. Perhaps I haven’t sat still long enough to notice?

Another thing I noticed is that ants take breaks during their workday. No matter where they are, they just stop what they are doing. They cling to the floor, wall, or ceiling of the tunnel while other workers walk right on by them or over them. At one point I noticed about ten to fifteen ants in the big tunnel napping (or something close to stillness), though only moments earlier they had been focused on creating a third tunnel up to the surface. This was midday . They were notdoing anything in the tunnel. Just sitting there. Meanwhile, at surface, the other ants were busy, and still others working in other tunnels, moving pieces of gel from the tunnels to the pile at the surface. So, it seems they pace themselves, or they just work for whatever length of time, then rest.

A sleeping ant looks entirely different from a dead ant. Two days ago I wouldn’t have been able to describe that to you. A dead ant curls up into a U-shape with its legs in a posture of support. Its head and its abdomen point in the same direction. A sleeping ant looks like a working ant minus leg movement.

I had to remove two dead ants this afternoon. The ant information I have tells me to do this to prevent bacteria from infecting the other ants in the colony. To do this, I put the ant farm in the fridge for a few minutes so they won't feel like scampering out while I have the lid off. Still, when I did open the lid, the fresh air must have immediately revived them for they began to run toward the top. None of them made it, though, sliding down the sides. It’s good to open the lid occasionally to give them fresh air. I read somewhere that ants produce formic acid, and it’s not good for them to be in a closed area for too long, so every day I plan to open the lid and let in some fresh air.

There is still one dead ant in the very bottom of the far left tunnel. I’m waiting to see if its comrades will carry it up to the surface so I can remove it. So far, the workers continue to walk around it as best they can. The dead one is actually blocking a main intersection, and causing the working ants some concern. One particular ant stays longer by its side, touching the dead one with its antennae and mandibles. It seems to be cleaning it. At 6:25 p.m. I see that one ant is struggling to carry the dead one out. A minute later, she has abandoned the job and left her sister at the bottom of the tunnel, but at least it’s not blocking the intersection any longer. Maybe later one of them will carry it up into the open.

Linda has her ants now. I showed her my ant farm. She was as amazed as I was that they had tunneled so much in just one day.

This super cool space-age gel ant farm looks like a work of art in progress, engraved or sculpted from the inside. Ants have been called architects in almost every documentary I’ve seen. I can see why when I look upon their finger-like tunnels, reaching all the way to the bottom of the container, then arching back up, or going in another direction entirely, and I understand why when I watch their minute bodies moving industriously about inside those tunnels. Is art a process or a product? Here, I have both!

 

7:50pm: I look up from my work and notice that the second extension of the first tunnel on the right is only ½ inch from the surface. Meanwhile, other ants have started a tunnel from the surface reaching down to that second extension. Are they going to join the two? If so, how did they know to do that? How do they know where to start from the surface to make it align with the one being dug from below?

I’m betting that they’ll align right up and join. In the classroom, we call that making a prediction. So, I predict the two tunnels will meet. I further predict it will be completed by 8:15pm. I’d take a picture of this awesome event except there just isn’t enough light to get a clear shot, and I’m not as skilled with my new digital camera as I’d like to be. I tried taking a picture but kept getting too much flash reflection. I’ll have to wait until tomorrow to take a photo by early morning sunlight.

The following link will take you to an article about Harvester Ants from Dallas Museum of Natural History. This is for the person who  wants to learn a little more. Myrmecology anyone? Tomorrow, I hope to have a link to the gentleman in England who has a great website I'd love to link to. Waiting for his permission.

http://www.dallasdino.org/information/newsletters/articles/ant_farm.asp

 

The tunnels have begun!

"I'm so excited! and I just can't hide it!...I'm about to lose control and I.... well, not exactly lose control, but I didn't know how excited I would be a week ago when I bought this super cool space-age gel ant farm. I checked on the little critters last night around midnight, you know, to see what ants do at night.

Do you know what ants do at night? Well, after the stressful day they had yesterday being transferred then nearly froze to death, they slept. I peeked in on them. I say peeked because I had placed a towel over the ant farm unit to make sure they got the darkness they needed. I just figured they'd probably appreciate some genuine, below-the-ground kind of darkness. I remember throwing a towel over my birdcage at night when I was a teenager. It helped calm the parrot down, and he slept like a baby.

I have always wondered what ants do at night. Do they sleep in their tunnels, each in their own little family unit? Do they sleep in one big communal room? So, before I went to bed last night, I peeked under the towel, my flashlight covered in red tissue paper so as not to disturb them too much. I was surprised, to say the least.

Imagine you have just moved into a new home. Walls for rooms are not finished. No furniture, no toilets. No running water. Nothing. But you are so happy to have the house, and you start working right away to fix the place up. You start putting up the walls. Then, at night time, it's time to sleep. It's cold. It's strange. So, do you all spread out into your own rooms? Remember, there are no rooms. Or do you all sleep together in the biggest room?

Well, the ants are community folk all the way. They were all huddled together on the top of the gel because their tunnels weren't finished, I suppose. They looked so sweet sleeping all close together like a big, happy family. I went to bed feeling pretty warm about the day despite they are still without a Queen. I tried to put all thoughts of their future out of my head so I could sleep.

This morning at 7:30 a.m., I woke up and before I even brushed my teeth, I trotted to the dining room to check on my six-legged guests. I wondered as I headed down the hall if they had already started their day without me. I lifted up the towel, and lo and behold, my little ones had a beautiful tunnel masterpiece started. I almost cried!

Kodak moment! I thought, as I ran to get my camera, and carried the ant farm out into the sun. The first three pictures above show what I saw at roughly 7:30 a.m. Well, I took several pictures, three of which made it to this site. Aren't they amazing!

Well, I had to get ready for a 9a.m. doctor appointment. So, I gave some attention to my dogs, Max and Misty, who are very concerned over my newfound interest. They can't seem to understand why I spend so much time either at the computer, or looking at the critters in the plastic box. Max wanted to sniff it, but no results. Misty just looked at me with sad eyes. So I gave them both a Greenie, patted them on the heads, and left.

It's not that I have too much time on my hands... it's that everything else is taking a back seat right now.

The doctor tells me it's time for lots of other tests now that I am 50-something, and I say to her questions, "No, I haven't had that one yet." "Haven't had that one either." "A what? I don't think so...." By the time school starts in two weeks, I should be all cleared away.

Soon, I am on my way home and can't wait to see what my little critters have done for me. The last three pictures show the progress they made by 12:30. Aren't they wonderful?

Now I've got to go deliver the remainder of those ants I bought yesterday to another teacher at my school also has a super cool space-age gel ant farm. Can't wait to tell her all about. I might even bring my ant farm to show her.

Evening report will probably be posted after 9pm tonite.

PS: are there any mymecologists out there? Can you tell me if these are really Harvester Ants? Email me if they're not. Thanks.

Introducing the Harvester Ants

  I drive 30 miles to Carolina Biological and buy the $8.00 package of Harvester ants... they are definitely red ants. They are packaged generously into a little plastic container like the kind used for chicken salad or pimiento cheese spread . The woman gives me an information booklet. I estimate there are well over 50 ants in the container. Although I need only 25 ants, I plan to give the remainder to Linda, another teacher who bought an ant farm during our workshop last week.   I read in the booklet that I can keep them in the fridge for up to 2 weeks before putting them in the ant farm... so, I put them in the fridge for an hour while I do some more on-line research.  

 I check on them, and they all look dead! They are curled up into little red ant balls. I tip the container, and their little bodies slide around, making soft clicking sounds as they drop from one side to the other.  

I have killed them!

  Then I think, maybe that's what they look like when they are cold, because I know if someone stuck me in a huge freezer, I'd probably curl up into a ball trying to stay warm... quickly I turn over the ant farm and dump out the two original Carpenter ants, giving them their freedom since they weren't doing what they were supposed to do! Then I gently shake the dead red ants into the ant farm. It is easy to transfer them like this. They fall softly, like little crumbs. No bites, no stings, no arguments, no escaping.  

I blow gently on them and say "Wake up! Wake up, little ants." (I really say that. I talk to myself frequently, especially when trying to solve a problem, and talking to dead ants doesn't seem any different.)   I see an antennae move ever so slightly. I can't believe how much I want them to be alive... I feel like Peter Pan asking the children to clap their hands if they believe, to keep Tinker Bell alive.  

I believe! I believe... let them be alive! I see a leg move, then another. I keep blowing softly, as much to circulate fresh air as to warm them up. I am worried that the previous occupants might have left too much of their own formic acid about and cause these new inhabitants much concern.   As the new occupants come around, thaw out, or wake up, I watch with curiosity to see their first reactions to their new environment.

 Imagine, one minute you are imprisoned in a small, dark plastic place with pieces of cardboard, and it's very crowded. Then, suddenly, you feel cold, and fall asleep. You wake up, and you are in this magical blue place with lots of light, and this strange damp stuff everywhere. You have no idea how you got there. You look around, and all your sisters are just waking up too. You take care of what's important first, and in this case, that's cleaning yourself up. You clean your legs, your abdomen, your antennae. Then you get to work.  

As you can see by the first picture, the ants are alive and well despite their frigid ordeal. You can see the tools that came with the kit, a magnifying glass, a plastic stick to start the tunnels, and the little cylinder thing to the left (I'm not sure yet what it is). It seems to be another magnifying device.   If you enlarge the picture, you can see the tunnels better. These are the ones I started with the blue stick. The ants haven't done much yet, but even as I make this entry, they are busy chewing their way through the gouged out corner to the left, deepening it. I believe they are working on a tunnel. I have had them only three hours and already they are creating their tunnels.  

In the second picture, you can see the tunnel in the corner taking shape. I wish they would crawl into the tunnel I started for them to the right.  

In the third picture, you see a body part left over from the previous occupants, remnant of the ferocious battle that took place when I added two black ants to the two that were already inside. Since that brings back bad memories, I won't retell that horrific event. If you want to know more about that, you'll have to read the previous journal entry. The leg is caught between the gel and the wall, and I can't reach it to remove it, especially now that the red ants are living there. I'll deal with that problem tomorrow when the population has settled down somewhat.

All in all, I am glad that I bought the ants. Catching them was taking too long. My main concern now is their life expectancy. The booklet I picked up today tells me that they will probably live for only 3 - 4 weeks. That means they might all be dead by the time school starts. 

I apologize for the fuzziness of the pictures. Had trouble taking the closeups. But you get the idea. I hope by tomorrow there will be a recognizable tunnel. I really want to see those tunnels, and the ants running through their tunnels as they go about their duties.