it doesn't include ants so I thought it was perfect because I want to make an ant colony with a queen. And the queen is a harvester ant queen and you can attract a queen ant with a UV light at night so at night I could lure a queen ant out of the nest. And the queen ant and a worker or two have a place to start. You can see it in the photos.

The ant set is easy to put together. Once you order your ants it is fun to watch them make tunnels. I am having a hard time with my sand going up to the top of the terrarium to the point it is hard to open to add food and water. The sliding top is hard to open and can stick at times. I am glad that this doesn't open easy so your ants won't get out. This came with stickers, a great information booklet to help you know lots of fun facts on ants, and a card helping you to know how to order ants. Overall a fun ant farm colony.

There is a bad review for this item that isn’t very fair or accurate- we just received the same item and I wanted to clear up any confusion- no. You don’t receive any ants in the package.. why would Amazon send live ants? As with any habitat (ant, butterfly, etc.) you get a coupon to send away for the ants and then they are sent via a special service to ensure they don’t die en route. There isn’t a queen included. If they sold the queen there would be thousands of ants and overrun the tiny ant colony- having an ant colony with a queen isn’t for a hobbyist or kid.. it’s for someone who knows what they are doing. With that said, the listing clearly states the ants are available via mail. So I wouldn’t worry about the review(s) who expected to open a box of ants in the colony? I don’t know. For someone who understands what they are getting, this is the ant colony we had as kids! It’s the sand kind, not gel, but that’s what I was actually looking for! The gel is cool but the sand ones last longer and look more accurate to what a colony underground is. I’m overall this is a quality product and accurately described!

It's OK... But like stated in other reviews,,, GREATLY misrepresented. VERY small, Pictures/ad makes it look much bigger. Shows sand, when it is Gel. Just not honestly represented and price is steep for what it actually is.

This is great for my son's age (7). It came with a coupon to get the harvester ants and now we enjoying watching. I am new to this so I was surprised to learn a couple of things. 1) the ants only last a few months without a queen and 2) Queen ants can't be purchased to ship across state lines. The farm itself is super simple to set up and really does capture his imagination. The price is great in a world full of inflation pricing. I highly recommend this as a way to introduce kiddos to something that will catch their attention and get them curious about what goes on in the outdoors.

I’ve been wanting an ant farm since I was a kid! This has been lots of fun for our 6 year old twins. It comes with a booklet full of interesting ant info (did you know some ants live up to 15 years? I didn’t). A couple small issues with setup—the top of of the plastic case is supposed to pop off to make it easy to put the sand in, but I couldn’t get it off and didn’t want to force it—so I just slowly poured the sand in the small opening at the top. The instructions also said it came with two bags of sand but there was only one. You need to order the ants for $5 extra—so be sure the kids aren’t too excited to see the action for 5-12 days. Better yet, open the box, order the ants with the discount code, then when they arrive, show everything to the kids so you can set it up ASAP. Not sure how long the ants will live but I’ll update if there any issues….

Store said it was included with ants. No ants!

First, who knew I would love this more than my kids? This kit has so much information about ants...all the do's and don'ts. The ants we ordered the first time didn't make it, ordering another set as I type. This little farm easily houses 25 ants. This kit comes with the farm itself, sand, information how to keep and maintain ants. Very low maintenance and something I feel my 9 year old daughter can handle by herself. I like the small frame and you can put it anywhere...doesn't take up space at all. Easy to assemble.

I have not used this ant farm yet and am unsure if I will. The one I got is all scratched up. Is this a common problem, or do we just have a bad one? I will see if this will affect viewing ants after I fill it up with sand. Otherwise, I did love everything that was included with this kit, and the price seems fair.

Great summer time activity. Easy to set up. Collecting the ants took a lot of work. The top has a tiny area to put the ants in. I had a few escape before I could shut the top. The ants began tunneling quickly after they are put in. The booklet included had a lot of interesting information about ants. Overall, a great learning experience for the kids.