Anthill in a Jar

Last year, we made an anthill in a jar. It was pretty neat to see them tunnel around and see the eggs appear all clustered together.

We got a great big pickle jar and put a smaller peanut butter jar in the middle- just to take up space. Then we put sand in between the two jars. This forces the ants to dig their tunnels up against the surface of the jar and not through the middle. Then we dug up an anthill and put it in with the sand. We put the lid on poked through with tiny holes and covered the entire jar to keep it in the dark. This also helps encourage the ants to tunnel against the jar. Daily we put a cotton ball soaked in water and some kind of food for them- a slice of apple works.

So neat to check on it regularly and see the new tunnels they had dug.