Uncle Milton Ant Farm Gel Colony - Manual (Page 4)

3. The ants may seem inactive for the first few hours. That is because they are not
yet used to their new home. Put the habitat in a dark, quiet place overnight to
let the ants become accustomed. In a few days you should begin see some
tunnels. Widen the starter holes a bit if you do not see any tunnels after a week.
On average, your ants will live one to three months.
Restocking Your Gel Colony
If you want to put new ants in your Gel Colony, be sure to remove as many of the
original occupants as possible. Also remove as much litter as you can. There is no
need to add new gel. The new ants will explore existing tunnels and build new
ones. Please visit www.unclemilton.com (click on “customer service”) for
information on ordering ants and supplies.
Don’t Start a War!
Don’t ever mix your ants or you will start a war. While ants in a colony are very
cooperative with each other, they will fight with ants from another colony.
The ants we send you will all be from the same colony, so they will all get along.
If you gather your own ants, be sure they all come from the same place or they will
fight. When you find a big group of ants all living and working together, they are
most likely from the same colony.
Don’t Bake Your Ants!
When the sun shines directly on your ant habitat it becomes like an oven, and
your ants could perish from the heat. Keep the habitat away from any window
where the sun shines directly on it.
Don’t freeze your ants either, by leaving the habitat outside in cold weather.
Ants don’t like extremes in temperature. A room temperature between 68˚ to 72˚F
(20˚ to 22˚C) is ideal.
Ants Are Neat
Ants are very clean creatures. You will see them grooming themselves and each
other. They use stiff hairs on their forelegs like brushes to clean their antennae,
heads and other parts of their bodies. While cleaning themselves and each other,
they leave a scent that identifies members of the same colony. Ants can tell the
difference between a nestmate and an unwelcome visitor by their scent.
Ants do not allow litter to pile up inside their nest. All the waste from the colony is
gathered up regularly and hauled away by nest-keeping ants to a dump site.