Ants are very hard working and social insects. They are very organized and divide their work by designating tasks to each set of labors. It’s very interesting to see ants at work, how they build colonies, collect food and perform various other activities in a structured way.

An ant farm is a man made artificial ant colony which is built either as a hobby or for research. Many children build ant farms as they find it intriguing to watch ants go about their daily activities.

It’s quite simple to build an ant farm. So if your child wants to build one then make sure you assist them as there can be risk of ant bites. If you are building ant farms for the first time then avoid using dangerous types of ants such as fire ants or harvesting ants.

You can either buy or build an ant farm container. If you are building it then you can use tennis ball containers. It should have a tight fitting lid. You also need garden soil or dampened sand or composite, depending on the color of the ants used for easy viewing.

You need to collect ants. You can get them from under dried logs or you could order them. All you need to do is drop sugar syrup in a jar and wait for ants to arrive. Then you need to capture the queen. They are much larger than the worker ants and are often surrounded by larvae. It can be difficult to capture queen as it involved ant bites. So keep children away from ants.

You can locate the ant farm in your yard. Place the soil or composite along with ants into the container. Then you need to feed your ants. You can feed them sweet sugary syrup like maple syrup, honey or sugar mixed in water.

Ants can go without food for a while but they’ll die overnight without water. Ants need water to survive so always keep the soil damp in the ant farm and keep away from direct sunlight.

Do not flood the colony with water as they will kill the ants. Secure the ant farm with a tight lid so that the ants don’t escape. You can open the lids once a day to allow fresh air or punch pin holes for air circulation, but make sure the holes are very tiny. If you do not want to cover the ant farm then smear Vaseline on the edges to prevent ants from leaving the farm.