Have you ever wanted to study ants? The method in which they make a nest, look after their young and feed? If you have then you could get an ant farm. However, you cannot just build your ant farm, stock it and then leave it.

Having an ant farm is similar to having a tropical fish tank, you have to take care of your ants. Luckily, looking after ants is not as difficult as looking after tropical fish, it fact it is really quite easy once you get the gist of it.

Once you have constructed your ant farm and filled it up to the level with soil or sand, you will require our first bit of advice, which is about to get your ants into the nest. Well, first let us presume that you have bought your ants from the pet shop and you are ready to introduce them to their new home.

The ants will run everywhere as soon as you take the top off the box. That is classic ant behaviour, they have to investigate everything and everywhere. They will be running up your arms, escaping onto the floor and you may even get a couple into the ant farm.

Now ants, being cold-blooded animals, become very indolent when they are cold, they barely move around at all, so a shrewd tactic would be to put your ants in the fridge for a few minutes. Three of four minutes should do the job.

While you are waiting, roll a sheet of paper into a funnel and sellotape it so that it does not unfurl. Then take the ants out of the fridge and tip them down the funnel into your ant farm. That way you will not lose any of them.

The ants will warm up naturally and they will soon be running around exploring their new home. The next pieces of advice relate to feeding and watering your ants. Maybe you reckoned that these wild ants could look after themselves. Well, they could in the outdoors, but since you took them out of their natural environment, you are going to have to take care of them every day.

First the watering: get a dropper, like an eye-dropper and dribble a few drops of water into one place. They will find it quickly enough. Do not make a puddle, only a few drops. Once a week you could really give them a treat and add a few grains of sugar to a teaspoon of water and tip that in for them. It will really liven them up. and give them plenty of energy to work on their new nest.

The kind of food that your ants require depends on the variety of ants that you are keeping. However, the most frequent ants for ant farms are harvester ants, because they are straightforward. Do not give them anything sticky like a half-sucked boiled sweet.

They will like it, but many will get stuck on it and die. The best food is a couple of small bits of lettuce, carrot or celery. Not much. Take out any uneaten food after the second day and feed again the following day.

Old food has to be removed to stop mold and yeasts, some of which attack ants too. In this manner you should have a vigorous and interesting ant farm.

Owen Jones, the author of this piece writes on many topics, but is at present concerned with Getting Rid Of Carpenter Ants. If you would like to know more or check out some great offers, please go to our website at Killing Carpenter Ants.