25 Active Live Ants for Ant Farms (1 Tube), Live Arrival, Shipped Now

Great seller. I ordered these at the same time as I ordered the ant habitat (didn't wait for the coupon) and they arrrived a few days later. I was paying close attention to the temperature but my first vial arrived with all the ants dead. Seller prompty shipped a replacement order and gave me TWO vials to ensure good results. We had only one dead ant in each, which I consider to be very good! I carefully read all of these reviews, as well as the reviews for the sand habitat I chose, and kept the ants in the fridge until they weren't moving. For me, that was 35 minutes. They don't have much mass so they warm up quickly, and when I brought them out and checked them at 20 minutes they got so warm they woke up completely and thus the second 15 minutes. Having read all of the reviews, I saw so many mentions of stings and ants escaping, I came up with a plan. I placed the ant farm in the BATHTUB before I opened the vial to put them in the paper funnel. I also wore leather gardening gloves. Everything everyone says about them crawling up the paper funnel is true. It is also the case that they wake up at different times. There's definitely a delay between the first ant coming out of the vial and the last. I made the funnel long and tall and jammed it all the way down (making sure it was wide enough that they could still get through it) and even put tape on the side so it would keep its shape. But having to bounce the funnel up and down to knock down the ants that were climbing up destroyed the opening at the narrow end, and they couldn't get out it anymore. So it didn't really work out! In messing with the funnel I noted that the few ants that fell into the tub couldn't climb its walls. So I felt safe (and, besides, should things really go south I could always turn on the faucet and dispose of them... but they couldn't climb the walls and that wasn't necessary). And ultimately I dispensed with the paper funnel idea and had my leather gloves and the vial and the ant farm-in-bathtub setup, and just took off the cap and tipped and tapped them into the opening. The ants that fell outside the habitat ran around my bathtub merrily and I scooped them up at a time at my leisure using the tip of the vial, and then tapped them from the vial into the opening. Every once in a while I would switch to a different opening, so that they were dispersed evenly. Having them run around harmessly was easy, and my five year old could stand outside the tub and watch from a safe distance. I don't know if everyone's bathtub would work as well, but I thought I'd pass the suggestion along. For us, it was a success!

We ordered these ants to go with my daughters Treehouse Ant Farm kit. When they came all but two were alive(which is great!) but when I read the directions it states that they are stinging antsand not to let any of them touch you. I was not aware that they were dangerous ants and I have no clue why they would send us ants to live in kids ant farms. We followed all directions and it was incredibly difficult to get the ants in the ant farm. That might have been just the ant farm we bought, possibly others would have been easier but I do not know. Finally after doing it outside I was able to get all but three or four in the ant farm. It has now been three days since we received them and all of the ants have killed each other. There is one left alive. So out of 20 or so and we have one three days later. They had food and water yet we could still look in and watch them kill each other. These are a giant waste of time and extremely dangerous. It states that if there are any one allergic to insect bites that these could cause serious trouble. I did not know that until I got the ants. It was in those instructions.

Although the tracking indicated the package was delivered to my front porch, USPS actually left it in the mailbox. By the time I retrieved it, I had lost about 5–10 ants; however, the rest were alive and active. The ants were easy to remove from the vial, which luckily included enough food for the transport. My kids are absolutely loving the ant farm. It is fascinating to watch, and we are very happy with the purchase.

I've had ant farms for a while, and have renewed my joy in them. These ants did arrive vibrant and active, however even though I promptly opened the package when it arrived, 5 of the ants were very dismembered and dead. This was unusual in my experience, and I'm not sure reflects on the quality of the product. I have had ants arrive in slightly larger tubes before with no dead, and I don't know it crowding has any factor. All in all, so far, it was a good product, but wish a few more ants had arrived alive. They do really well in the gel medium also.

So I am guilty of skimming through the description. I didn't realize I had ordered BITING, STINGING, ants. They were ordered when the high temperature was in the 70s here and arrived pretty active and maybe all but one or two were alive. I stuck them in the fridge for 15-20 minutes. They didn't seem to be moving when I pulled the stopper to dump them in the ant farm, but man as soon as I started tapping the tube to get them to slide out into the recommended paper funnel they were right back to life. The funnel idea did not work well at all for these honking dudes. They were too large for the opening of the farm unless they fell in just right. Over half escaped by crawling up and out of the paper funnel while I was trying to get the rest shook out. Next was freaking out because giant STINGING ants were escaping into my kitchen while I tried to round them up. I did manage not to be bitten or stung, but there were some casualties on their end. I ended up putting the ole ant farm outside, just in case. Just a great time all around so far. I guess my cautionary would be to double check that they are really, REALLY, zonked out before attempting to transfer them. Shake the tube a little to make sure they're in hibernation mode, because having ants with venom that could provoke an allergic reaction escaping inside the house is absolutely the last thing you will hope to get from this experience. I will say they did arrive quickly and vastly alive. My troubles are mostly my own, but still deducting a star because they are really too large to get in the standard old ant farm; plus why send biting stinging ants to our homes with just a little disclaimer in the bottom of the description about it...They are shipped on a big yellow paper with a warning that goes into detail about how they can be dangerous. I wish that had been given greater attention in the description because I honestly would have chosen differently knowing I wanted to keep these in my house with little ones. By little ones I mean unreasonable cats :)

First, we got the uncle Milton large ant farm which is a good size. We chose it as the “medium” option between the traditional and another much larger one. I wouldn’t go smaller and would probably rather get two of these for $40 total and link them together with the included tube than do 1 bigger one. But VERY important - if you’re tempted to get two tubes, don’t! Another reviewer said the same and saved me from over doing it. Ordered this in order to have ants for the ant farm on Christmas. We waited too long and they arrived on the 26th, but it was better this way. Putting the ants in the farm is an event worth allocating a decent amount of time for and is very fun watching them get going. I wouldn’t worry about giving the farm and ants together, although 2-5 weeks is a long time to wait. The instructions say you can keep them in the tube in the fridge for up to 7 days. We put them in the fridge for a day. We put them in the bathtub as suggested but it wasn’t really necessary. However, I wouldn’t take chances! They’re bigger than I expected and 3 were fairly active right away. I think they all arrived alive. It appears there might be dead ant parts or seed pods they’re busily moving around - I can’t tell. But there are around 25 live ones. All in all I can’t give anything but 5 stars because everything is as promised.

The ants don't survive the trip. The first time I ordered them I had 3 alive. This time they are all dead not worth the money.

Happy, healthy ants (all alive and active). They came quickly and the instructions were detailed. They’re now happily thriving in their farm and my 8 year old is mesmerized.