Here are the Best Ant Farms available in the market for educational, learning as well as hobby or pastime.
Today’s post is unlike our usual articles that focus on getting rid of ants and other pests. We’ve decided to put this together after receiving requests from a few readers and did some YouTube research to find that there are actually quite a few positive effects of starting an ant farm. [May: my nephew actually raise ants as a hobby and has an extensive ant farm at home].
If you have always been fascinated with insects, or have caught a few ants at home and would like to give ant farm a shot, either for fun or for education purposes, we would say go ahead.
Starting an ant farm with your kids can also add tons of fun and some quality time together. In the process, both you and your kids might just learn much more about these hardworking tiny little insects.
1) Ant-Cosmo Blue Gel Ant Farm by Evviva Science (with LED Light)
The Ant-Cosmo Blue Gel Ant Farm by Evviva Science features glowing LED lights that not only beautifies the ant farm but also encourages your ants to dig further. It also increases visibility when you and your kids are observing the ants.
Each purchase comes with a cool magnifying glass to help observe the ants at work and a little stick to help ants to start digging.
The container is made of clear acrylic which allows visibility. It has a lid with a vent and comes filled with clear blue gel that serves as the nutrition and hydration for the ants. The enhanced nutrients in the blue gel help the ants live longer and encourages them to dig more elaborate tunnels.
The cord and the base can be detached for easy transporting (Kids will easily to take to school for show and tell).
Evvival offers 100% Money back Guarantee or Replacement of the farm.
- Transparent gel for clear observation
- Magnifying glass included
- LED light design
- Free educational e-book
- Money back guarantee
- Ants not included
- Not designed for ants to start a real colony
2) Light-up Ant Farm Gel Habitat
This Light-up Ant farm Gel Habitat features a removable blue LED lighting that glows up the nutrient gel base, allowing you to clearly see the movements of your ants.
Each purchase also comes with an instruction booklet with some interesting ant facts for your kids to read.
Tip 2: Put ant farm into your freezer 10 to 15 mins prior to cleaning the gel content. This will cause the ants to enter deeper into the gel instead of getting onto the surface.
- LED makes the tunnel movement clear
- Comes with magnifying glass
- Compact design that doesn’t takes up much space
- Good to double as a decor item
- Not suitable for stronger ants species (i.e. carpenter ants)
3) Sand Formicarium Ant Farm – By Anthouse
Similar to the previous artfarm by Anthouse, the Sand Ant Farm is an acrylic tank that focuses not only on the living backdrop space of the ants, but also have a nice display frontage to view your ants in action.
This kit is ideal for raising of ants with its queen, and also comes with everything you need to get started.
It’s regular shape design can be easily placed in any corner around the house. Its all around acrylic casing allows viewing of the tank from all 360 degree.
- Regular shape design
- Comes with everything (other than live ants)
- Natural and Ecological
- No ants are included
>> Read Article: Best Ant Sprays
4) Mini Wilderness Ant Farm by Empire of Ants
The Mini Wilderness Ant Farm Nest by Empire of Ants is the perfect formicarium for keeping small to medium sized ant species.
It comes with a decorated outworld on the ‘surface’ of the farm tank and has a nesting area at the bottom of the ant farm.
>>Read Article: Best Ant Baits
What’s unique about this ant farm is that it has connection ports on both sides that allows you to expand the ant farm by connecting it to another ant nest as your ant colony grows. Some ant collectors also use this ant farm as a temporary containment when they want to try out something new or do some shifting around.
- Ideal for small – medium sized ants
- Have side connection ports for future expansion
5) Formicarium Educational Ant Farm
This Formicarium by AntHouse is an Educational Ant Farm is designed for both keeping of professional ant colony while presenting educational opportunities.
This 20cm x 10cm x 1cm art farm is ideal for a medium sized ant colony with great living conditions to ensure the survival of your ants. It suits all species of ants, but make sure to avoid ant species that are too big or super tiny.
This ant farm features a foraging box built-into it and both sides of the ant farms is designed with a humidity system function. Its anchors can be removed to allow easy cleaning.
- Well built and Sturdy
- Duo function/ purpose
- Easy to maintain
- Modern & uniquely designed
- Not for expansion to huge colonies
- Ants sold separately
6) Big T Ant Farm Formicarium
This large 25cm by 20cm by 1.5cm T-sharp Ant Farm by Anthouse is designed for hardcore ant lover who are into breeding ants and starting large ant colony. On top of allowing ants to comfortably build their nest, its body allows you to view the movement that happens ‘underground’ clearly (i.e. how the ants dig their tunnel, move around and transfer food from one point to the other).
This unique ant farm is ideal for ant hobbyist who are looking for something that’s different from the norm where the layout is usually flat on the ground.
Each purchase comes with everything (except live ants) you need to get started with growing your colony. It has an Acrylic main box with an opening on the side to allow placement of food.
It comes with a 500g pack of sand and clay to be set as the base for the ant farm. It also has stone granules for decorating purposed and protein syrup as the ant’s food.
- Unique design that’s vertical
- Nice and tasteful
- Allows breeding of ants
- Comes with everything to get started
Final thoughts
There are many types of ant farms in the market. Some of which is purely for short-term observation as well as study. These are usually made with man-made gel (like the Ant-Cosmo by Evviva Science) and is not designed for ant colony building or expansion. If you are looking to get something for your kids to play with where you know there will not be a long term commitment to it, these are the ones to go for.
The other type of ant farms are the ones that allow ants to build a full colony, where there are real sand and materials involved for the colony to work and function in the long term (do note that these usually require time, effort and more reading for knowledge). If you are certain about start something as a side hobby where you and your kids have something in common to nurture and observe, these ant farms will be your choice.
Are you currently farming any ant colony at home? Do you like it? Is it a lot of on-going maintenance work? Feel free to leave a comment to share with us.