Adventures

Oh, how the ant habitat has changed since my last post over a month ago. The ant habitat went from being an interesting conversation piece at work with my coworkers asking "Did they make any new tunnels today?" to a graveyard where my coworkers ask "So how many are still alive today?"

Yes, it's true. The ants are dying off in large numbers now. Since these ants only live 2-3 months and we're sixty-seven days into The Ant Project, a massacre was inevitable. I had to do major damage control in the Ant Farm today, taking my tweezers and delicately pulling out ant carcasses left and right.

( Pictures this way )

Today, we tried a little experiment with the ants.

We turned their world upside-down.

( Click for pictures! )

Day Twenty was uneventful. Until...someone decided to reappear from the depths of the gel beads!

( Guess who's back?! )

Our internets was down last night so I didn't get to post an ant update.

( Day Fourteen )

( Day Fifteen )

( Day Sixteen )

They still love to gather at the bottom. It's like their mecca or something. It's so cool to watch them gather down there because it'll sometimes be so crowded that some of them have to hang upside-down!

( And now for something completely different )

Day Eleven's progress
( Under the cut )

Now to answer some of your most burning questions! Or at least, questions you asked after I kept begging you to give me some. *grin*

Question: How do you tell them all apart?
Answer: Before I put them into their ant habitat I tattooed them with a tiny, tiny ink gun. Each ant has a little letter written on its thorax. Except for AA. She has two letters.

Question: What is their lifespan?
Answer: Two or three months. Although it seems that some are giving into the process of natural selection at a higher rate than others. P's lifespan was less than two days from the time she was in the ant farm to the time she left this world. H lasted a mere six days, God bless her soul. She was a fighter, though, through and through.

Question: What do they eat? Do they eat the gel? How can that stuff keep 'em alive?
Answer: They eat the gel. Unlike humans, they eat, live, and poo in the same exact substance. According to the website, it is a "clear, non-toxic gel specially formulated for the nutritional needs of ants." I'm glad they specified it was non-toxic because my co-worker tasted a little bit of it the other day!

Question: Do they need water?
Answer: Nope! The gel is all they need to eat to survive. It has enough moisture in it to keep them hydrated.

Question: So, the mess at the top of the enclosure is gel from the paths they've been digging?
Answer: Yep, it is! When the ants tunnel through the gel, they take a giant bite of it in their mandibles and carry the clump of gel up to the top. Or they'll hand it off to another ant who will carry it to the top. Most recently, they've started tunneling in the gel at the top, too, although it's harder to capture in a photograph. I tried, and here's the result:
( Under the cut )

Question: What are they DOING? What is the purpose of all this digging? How do they know what the best plan of digging/tunneling will be? Is there an ant overseer? Do they have instinctual architecture skills?
Answer: They're digging tunnels, duh. The ant overseer, as deemed by my coworkers and I based upon the first letter that appeared in tunnel formation, is "U." I believe their mad tunneling skillz are instinctual; they know which way to tunnel and how to get to where they need to go. They certainly are excited when they connect two tunnels- they all crawl into the second tunnel and I swear I've seen them give each other high fives before...

Question: Is there a social structure outside of queen/workers?
Answer: Yes. Ants are divided into "sub-fertile, and more commonly sterile, females ("workers"), fertile males ("drones"), and fertile females (queens)." I currently have sterile, female workers in my colony. I'm in the market for some drones and a queen, though, in order to pimp this ant farm out.
An odd fact: When I searched for "Western Harvester ant," the species of my ants, on Wikipedia, no entries were returned. However, a "relevant" entry that Wiki linked me to was "List of animals displaying homosexual behavior". And suddenly it dawned on me: I've raised lesbian ants!

Question: Can we place bets on which ant survives the longest? How about voting as to which ant gets removed from the habitat?
Answer: Contracts are in the works. I'm having a hard time getting a few of them to sign to it, but hopefully the grand prize of being set free will be enough to persuade them to join the game.

Question: Do ants eat each other?
Answer: I wish! That would be so wickedly awesome! Unfortunately, they haven't shown any signs of eating each other. Yet. Perhaps when/if I introduce a couple of "foreigners" into the colony, they'll start to fight. I have to check with my county ordinance first, though, to make sure ant fighting isn't illegal like cock fighting.

Question: Are you turning into the crazy ant lady?
Answer: Yes.
( Click here to see proof )

This is going to be a quick post because I'm working on a software deadline (our release is tomorrow and I still have one report left to test by midnight! ACK!). But never fear- a fun post is coming soon! ( Pictures of today's progress )

The ant habitat didn't really change much today. However, there was tragedy last night...

( Pictures under the cut )

Today is day three of my ant habitat. Days one and two were very impressive, but I have to say, I was shocked at what I saw them do today:

( Pictures under the cut )

About two weeks ago, I went over to my parents house and I discovered the most wonderful, fascinating toy ever.

An ant farm.

But not just any boring old ant farm! This ant farm was made out of pretty blue gel enclosed in a plastic container, derived from a 2003 NASA space shuttle experiment to study animal life in space and test how ants successfully tunnel in microgravity. The gel, unlike sand, does not collapse on the ants during lift-off and re-entry of the space shuttle. The gel is also a nutritious supplement that the ants can eat. The enclosed habitat is a perfect ant farm. It's also a fascinating thing to watch.

I HAD to have one. That night, I went home and researched these ant farms. There are so many different kinds! The Antquarium, the regular Ant gel farm, the green gel ant farm, the tunnel vision ant farm where you can connect several of them together!. I finally found the perfect ant habitat for me: The AntWorks2 Illuminated! It feeds the ants! It habitats them! And best of all...it GLOWS! I immediately bought it and started biting my fingernails, waiting for it to arrive.

Now, the ant habitat does not come with ants. You have to buy those separately to ensure that they're fresh and alive. After several frantic e-mails to my mom regarding the shipment time of her ants, I ordered my ants before my ant habitat arrived. It was a bold move, I know. What if the ants arrived before the habitat? Where would I put them? How would they survive? But I was willing to take the chance. Approximately 25 Western Harvester ants were mine for only $4.00.

On Monday, my ant farm arrived. Yesterday, my ants arrived in a small plastic tube in a small brown padded envelope. I was ready to begin.

I dumped the ants into the gel and Dustin and I were immediately captivated. After a few minutes of scoping out their new environment, they started digging with their mandibles. And digging. And digging. It was so entrancing that for two hours last night, Dustin and I laid in bed with the ant habitat in front of us, watching them dig, move beads of gel, pass it on to other ants, and eat. Yes, I know this is a sad way to spend a four-year anniversary and as my co-worker Kristin told me today, "Newlyweds should NOT be doing THAT in bed, Elizabeth!", but we just couldn't help it. *grin*

The ants went to work with me today. They'll generally be a "work toy," like the Jimmy Carter head, but since they're so new and fascinating, I'm bringing them home at night right now. At least until Dustin and I get an ant habitat for the apartment.

As we close in on the first 24-hours of the ants being in the ant habitat, I've taken a few pictures. I'm going to try to take pictures of the ant habitat each day, or at least every other day, and post them to show y'all their progress.

( Pictures under the cut! )