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How to Catch Ants for an AntWorks

AntWorks gel-based ant farms come with everything you need to study and watch ants at work -- except the ants themselves. The kit includes a form for buying live ants through the mail, but you can catch some yourself. Ants thrive in almost all climates and should not be hard to find. If you have an ant colony in your yard you can just poke it with a stick and drop some ants from the stick into a jar. But if no ant colonies are to be found, you will have to make the ants come to you.

Things You'll Need

Large container with lid
Small jar
Sugar water

Instructions

- 1
  Place a small amount of sugar water in a small jar. Leave the jar open.
- 2
  Place the small jar in a larger container that has a lid. Leave the lid off the larger container.
- 3
  Place the larger container (with the small jar inside) outside where it will not be disturbed.
- 4
  Check the container periodically to see if any ants have crawled inside to get to the sugar water. It may take a couple of days for ants to find the bait.
- 5
  Place the lid on the large container when ants are inside. You only need about 15 ants for your ant farm, so release some ants if you have too many. Wear gloves during this stage if you are afraid of getting bitten.
- 6
  Place the container in the refrigerator for about 10 minutes to make the ants move more slowly.
- 7
  Poke a few holes in the top of your ant farm, drop the ants inside and close the top of the ant farm.

Insects & Science