Toy Review - Uncle Milton Ant Farm Gel Colony
August 9th, 2008 | by admin |
I set up one of these ant farms back in the spring and have to say that despite all the negative reviews it’s gotten on Amazon, it really was pretty fun. I think ant farms in general are some of the more educational toys you can buy, but I think this one just brought the toy into the 21st century. Granted, there’s nothing wrong with the original and the vintage ant farm, but the gel substrate just sets this one apart.
One thing that I really like about this one is that with the nutrient-rich gel substrate, you’ll never have to water or feed your ants. Plus, with the see-through gel, you’ll actually see the ants’ tunnels in 3D. A handful of ants will make this one very attractive display.
Back when we set this up, we actually connected two ant farms: the ant farm gel colony and one of the original ones. I did this mainly because we had too many ants for just one habitat, but also because I wanted to see which substrate the ants preferred– the gel or the original sand-type mix. It turns out they didn’t seem to care but I don’t recommend mixing two different types of ant farms (with the two substrates) as after a while, they got all mixed and it just created kind of a mess. That’s not saying anything negative about the toy, just that I used it in a way it wasn’t intended.
Overall, a great buy for about $26 US, and it was, and still is, one of the more fun science toys we’ve looked at.
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