ANTSTORE World of Ants

[Bob]

We need to band together and have that f*$king Gel farm BANNED. How dare antworks produce something that it knows will make any ants placed in it die a slow lingering death? It's an inhumane money making scheme. antworks laughs all the way to the bank while unsuspecting and uninformed public buys the ant farms and places their precious ants in them only to tumble down the black hole that ant works has created. Wish we on this website could do something about it collectively.

[Lowth01]

I had one of these gel ant farms b4. I had 4 or 5 workers in it and they seemed fine but i wuldnt dream of putting a queen in one. A its inhumane B they tend to be way to small for a colony anyways and C way to expensive; get urself a glass basin or a ytong nest, u get more value for ur money and a nicer home for ur colony. Good luck with watever u decide to do.

[thomie]

Antworks is designed to put ants inside. The Gel gives the ants vuel to stay alive.
When you put a nest in the antworks gel the queen don't got enough food of the gel. She'll probably stay alive but won't produce any ants because of the simple fact; thear isn't the right food in the gel.
If i where you I'd put the test tube to a (ice cream? or another cheap box) box. It's very easy, drill a hole in the box and put the test tube inside.
When the nest grows you can connect the box with the antworks farm. The ants will dig into the antworks farm because thear is food (you still got the effect and didn't bought the antworks for no reason) if they want they can settle down. If they don't want to settle down let them stay in the test tube.

(i guess the antworks gel is only a sugar-water gel with blue color, !didn't read the antfarm posts!)

Hope you'll try it.

Gr,

Thomas

[JimmyVe]

Its an older post Thomie. It put here as a Sticky because some people think they can raise a colony in a antworks farm. It not made for that (as we explained) Nether to use like you said, as a peace of the farm. If you like keeping ants its best you don't do that in a antworks farm.

[thomie]

Okey, is thear a problem with the a chemical?? or is thear another reason?

[JimmyVe]

It is made to observe ants, but only a few of them (like 10) workers only, they could survive a few weeks in it and that is it. It is to small to hold a colony and the cell is not good for the ants, i mean not good enough to raise o colony with.
So if you think about it its pretty crewel, putting some ants without reason in such a farm. They have nothing to do so they just dig a bit and than sit there until they die...

[miszt]

Workers have only one purpose in life, to look after the colony.

I think that says it all as far as wether Gel Farms are good or not

They are digging to despratly try and find their queen, not because they find it fun, but because theres no other way out for them.

A bit like when prisoners try to dig a hole to get out of prison. Except the ants arent criminals.

[jcrusader]

i h8 gell farms bad for ants very expensive also the ants are miserrible in them i herd some speices cant even dig in them!

[jimjam]

I agree, i have seen the outcome of antworks first hand...the ants dig for a bit and then it seems like they realise they cant do no more and they just sit there.

I would not say no to a pettion to ban ant works and all gel farms!!
Plus after seeing how great and healthy my colony is at the moment in a normal set up i would never dream of getting antworks let alone putting a queen in one!

Plus where is the fun in antworks?!?!? What i mean is in my set up i have grown my own grass/small flowers, i have greek ruins in there, tubing for them to reach other sections, its intresting for the owner and the ants! Plus where is the fun in letting them eat just blue gel! I love trying diffrent food with them, fruits, insects, honey, jelly etc!!

So if you are looking to bye antworks.....DONT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[KiamCameron]

I got antworks for christmas but I will not put no ants in there atleast yet I will take out all the gel and have sand in there and connect it up with something soon

[Kurgan]

Ok so the bad news is I had just ordered an antworks farm and a Lassius niger queen before reading this thread. I had read some fairly positive recommendations elsewhere but i take full responsibility for obviously not doing my home work. It sounds like there will be no rush to rehome them from the test tube but is the antworks farm a total loss? If I remove the gel and fill it with sand/loam would it function as an adequate starter farm, with an expansion fitted at some point in the future? Is a foraging basin an absolute requirement straight away or could I feed at the top of the farm for now, untill next year that is. I'm assuming I will need to drill some holes to connect tubing to the antworks but will this really be worth the effort? I'm reluctant to write it off entirely as a loss but I'm damned if I will sell on such a clearly inadequate product. Finally what is the best way to make your own sand/loam mix at the garden centre (I'll sterilise it in the oven before use). Sorry for the stream of questions.

[badman]

the only problem if you feed from the top is that food will rot in there, I don't think those farms are wide enough to insert any kind of container so food/honey would have to go straight onto the sand, which will get dirty and rot very quickly. I would keep your queen in a small container e.g. tupperware until your farm is set up properly.

[SteveUK28]

Kurgan, if i was you id either A, Send it back.. or B, Sell it on ebay... or here in the auction. Its completly usless if you ask me and your much better doing what badman said for now.. i keep all my ants in there test tube in a tub untill they have well over 50 workers.

[JimmyVe]

Hello Kurgan and welcome to the forum.

Well there is nothing lost for now, except the money you spend and the antworks. There are fine to use if you like to study ants for a few days. And you only keep workers in there.
They are not meant to keep colonies in.
Just keep them in the tube (with a small out world) until you have a good farm for them.

[Kurgan]

Ok thanks for the advice guys - I'm going to send it back under the distance selling rules, which seems fairer to me than selling it on to another sucker on ebay. I will keep you informed about my set up but for now i'll just put the tube in a small tub - how escape proof is a tupperware container really?

Edit:
What would the consensus be about this product:
http://www.antstore.net/shop/product_in ... arena.html
Smallish but much easier to expand when required.