Antworks

A 21st Century look at the typical "ant farm," Antworks is based on a 2003 NASA Space Shuttle experiment to study animal life in space and test how ants successfully tunnel in microgravity.

The Antworks gel serves as both habitat and nutrition for your ants - allowing you to watch in awe as they turn a brick of aqua-blue gel into a fascinating colony of tunnels.

Ants are easy to care for, they need no food or water (unlike Fido or Fluffy) and while they don't provide much companionship, they're fun to watch!

The ant life expectancy is approximately 6 months. Worker ants will conveniently carry their late brethren to the top of the gel for easy disposal. How nice!

Three interesting facts about ants:

1. Ants are one of the oldest living creatures on earth. Like sharks, they haven't changed much in millions of years. Nature got it right first time, proving the old axiom "if it ain't broke, don't fix it".

2. Ants are the world's strongest creature in relation to their size. They can carry 10-20 times their bodyweight. They are also the longest living of all insects.

3. At any given moment, there are at least (10 to the 15th power) ants living on earth. That's 10 Quadrillion ants, representing 0.1% of all the planet's insects.

Available at ThinkGeek for $19.99.