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Ants have long been kept as pets, with ant farms standing as a popular “entry level” option for future entomologists to take care and maintain.

The Pixar hit A Bug’s Life successfully managed to revive the childhood fascination of keeping ant farms, drawing young and old alike into investing into the highly organized world of ants.

Formally known as Myrmecology – the studying and keeping of ants - maintaining an ant farm is not really all that challenging, offering an in depth look at what life is like for a colony of ants.

Ant Farms – Fascinating Pets to Have

The rewards of having an ant farm is far from that of having a cat or dog, but seeing a colony grow from scratch would be one.

The most challenging aspect in starting up an ant colony would take shape in fining a queen, given that most ant farms (typically those available in mail-orders) don’t come with queens, but with worker ants.

Asking for the aid of pet shop experts would come as great help for firing up an ant colony with the search of a queen, and it is highly advised that future ant farm owners should do so. Once a queen is found and settles in an ant farm enclosure, the relative ease of maintaining an ant farm is what’s up ahead.

The thing with ant farms is that feeding is quite easy. Ants would consume nearly anything, from table scraps to bits and pieces of dog food. Though certain ant species have a thing for particular diets, water and any type of food would do for most ant farms.

The occasional dead insect would even be seen as a treat for most ant colonies.

As feeding is easy for ant farms/colonies, the only thing which keepers should watch out for is ants escaping from enclosures. Other than that, the upkeep of ant farms is very easy, and their growth is rewarding and fun to witness.

Though it’s not really something for everyone, ant farms are quite fun to have, especially for those who appreciate seeing growth and progress happening in its varied and diverse forms.

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Ant

True Wild LIfe | Ant | The ant is a small sized invertebrate that is found all around the world, with the exception of the polar regions including the Arctic Circle and Antarctica. As with many other species of insect, there are numerous ant species inhabiting many different environments all around the world. There are more than 12,000 recognised species of ant worldwide, but there are estimated to be nearly 14,000 in total. Ants are thought to have developed from wasp like creatures 100 million years ago after blooming flowers appeared on Earth.

 

Ants are found in many different sizes and vary in colour depending on the species of ant. Some species of ant even have wings so are able to fly which only extends the range of their territory. In the more humid environment of the tropical jungles of the Southern Hemisphere, the ants are generally of the bigger species, often reaching more than a few centimetres long. Ants are extremely sociable insects and have a complex social structure where every ant individual has a purpose (effectively a job). Ants live in colonies and have a social structure from the worker ants that gather the materials and food, as well as nursing and caring for the ant larvae (the babies), to the queen ant that runs the nest and is the only female that reproduces in her colony.

 

The queen ant often can live for over a year which is considerably longer than the lives of the worker ants which only really last for a couple of months. The queen ant produces between 800 and 1,500 eggs per day which are fertilised by the sperm of the male ants which is present in the nest. Remarkably, ant eggs that have not been fertilised will still hatch but produce sterile female ants that become worker ants as they cannot reproduce. Ants are omnivorous animals and therefore eat a mixture of both plant and animal matter. The diet of the ant primarily consists of leaves, fungi, honey, nectar, small insects and dead animals, although the exact diet of the ant depends on the species. Some ants species have a more herbivorous diet, where other species of ant mainly eat meat.

 

Due to their abundance and small size, ants have numerous animals that prey on them from tiny insects to reptiles, mammals and fish, and even certain species of plant have also developed ways in which they can digest them. An ant is said to be able lift up to 50 times its own body weight, and be able to be pull more than 30 times it own body weight. This is the equivalent of an average human adult lifting a fully grown African elephant!