My Ant Farm just arrived. I’m happy the blue gel goes so well with my sage green walls. (just kidding!! sort of) It not only doesn’t look like a kindergarten science project it really does look like a piece of art. It’s small - about six inches wide and a couple inches deep. Very modern art looking. Very desktop conversation piece looking too. You might want to get one of these for work - tell the boss you want to be inspired to work like nature’s little type A (”A” for Ants) personalities.

Seriously. It takes up a little more room than a large rolodex and is much more interesting to have next to your computer.

The ants have not arrived. When they do they’ll come 25 to a tube and will probably be glad to move from such cramped quarters to this thing. The accompanying booklet reassures me they’ll have food, water and nutrients and no predators to worry about. Since some people think it’s cruel to “trap” ants in a farm rather than letting them roam free in the yard…I thought wow, it’s cruel for people to work in a cubicle all day, but they adapt.

I got the gel rather than the sand because I wanted to see the entire tunnel and this system will do it. NASA apparently created this gel so astronauts could study ants in space without the dirt collapsing on entry or exit in space. The company takes full advantage of this and calls it “A Space Age Habitat For Ants!” with a smiling, friendly looking cartoon ant waving from the cover. Don’t be fooled however.

The Harvester Ants I ordered (upon the manufacturer’s recommendation) are larger with “large mandibles” - all the better to move bites of gel with my pretty!!! Female or not, these are supposed to be some pretty imposing ants. We’ll see. Inside this instruction book I learn that I should never allow ants to touch my bare skin. Some ants sting, others bite, some spray formic acid! Ouch!

Once again the branding is at odds with the reality. I think if I worked as hard as ants do I’d be irritable and bite, sting and spray acid as well!

All working ants are female. No surprise there. The male ants exist to get the Queen pregnant - and once that’s accomplished, they die. The Queen creates male ants once a year - and solely for mating purposes.

I’m looking for any “lesson” here aside from the facts - some metaphor for life and work. I’m not coming up with any right off the bat. I hope you enjoy the journey with me. Trust me, it won’t be all about ants, but figure a couple of posts a week anyway.