Insect Lore Ant Hill

by Insect Lore

Product Features

• This AntHill is the world's first living ant habitat designed like a real ant's home
• Features realistic double-sided viewing area, wide base for super stability, escape-proof locking lid,
• Ant certificate must be returned to receive your live ants
• Features special AntHill sand, fun ant activities and complete instructions

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 11.8 x 6 x 9.8 inches ; 1.1 ounces
• Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B000065AEY
• Item model number: 5510
• Manufacturer recommended age: 8 years and up
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #34,458 in Toys & Games (See Top 100 in Toys & Games)
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (18 customer reviews)

Product Description

Amazon.com Hands-On Review

Give your children the gift of nature with the Ant Hill from Insect Lore. This kit is the first ant habitat designed like the real thing. The dome-shaped, see-through home offers a crosscut view, so kids can easily view ants burrowing and tunneling through the sand and foraging for food above ground. This kit comes with a coupon to send away for live ants through the mail, and it is recommended for kids ages six and up with adult supervision.

Ant Hill At a Glance: Age: 6 years and up, with adult supervision Requirements: Ants, which are available with the included mail-in coupon ($5 shipping and handling required; ships to Canada and all U.S. states except Hawaii). Warranty: Insect Lore guarantees that ants will arrive alive.

Watch the ants burrow, tunnel, and eat! View larger.

Harvester Ants Direct to You from the Wild
When you redeem your mail-in coupon, a vial of 25 harvester ants will be sent to you. These ants are gathered by ant wranglers in the hills of the American Southwest.

Insect Lore does not recommend using ants from your backyard--the Ant Hill is designed especially to keep harvester ants enclosed. Care must be taken with harvester ants, as their bites may cause stinging and swelling. Adult supervision is advised.

Crosscut view View larger.

Watch Ants Create a Network of Tunnels
The fun begins once you receive your ants and put them into the Ant Hill. The included special sand makes ants feel right at home. Just like they do in the wild, the ants will dig through the sand to create an interesting network of burrows and tunnels, and they will emerge at the top of the hill to forage for food and water.

The Ant Hill's transparent, crosscut design lets you see the inside of the hill from top to bottom, so you can get the best view of your ants' hard work.

Have Fun Caring for Your Ants
In addition to watching ants build tunnels, children will love caring for the ants and feeding them fresh fruits and vegetables. A little bit of food goes a long way--you only need a popcorn kernel-sized morsel of an apple or carrot to feed 25 ants for three days. To keep your ants healthy, you will also need to give them a few drops of fresh water every few days.

Harvester ants will live for two to four weeks in the Ant Hill.

What's in the Box
Ant Hill habitat, sand, certificate to order live ants, and fact and activity book

Product Description

Watch as these hard-working critters burrow underground to create an amazing network of subterranean tunnels, walkways and secret chambers. Features a realistic double-sided viewing area, wide base for super stability, escape-proof locking lid, special AntHill fill sand, fun ant activities and complete instructions. Note: Ant certificate must be returned to receive your live ants. Extra $4.00 required for ant shipping.

See all Product Description

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

29 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great product!, December 5, 2004

By 

Mother of Two (Anchorage, AK USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Insect Lore Ant Hill (Toy)

We bought this ant hill at the Imaginarium and ordered the ants with the prepaid form. When the ants arrived the majority of them were dead with only ten out of fifty survived the trip to Alaska. I immediately emailed the company and didn't hear back from them. A week later another set of ants arrived. It would have been nice to have a reply to the email but they were very quick in sending the replacement ants at no charge. Both my kids, 5 and 2 years old, love to watch them digging their tunnels and talking about what they are up to. Unfortunately because of the cold weather for mailing our ant hill sits empty waiting for spring. I would definitely recommend this product to anyone with an interest in bugs.

21 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars AntHill - Where was this when I was a kid, dangit?, April 18, 2008

By 

Hedge "All-Around Nice Guy" (Bakersfield, CA) - See all my reviews

= Durability:5.0 out of 5 stars  = Fun:5.0 out of 5 stars  = Educational:5.0 out of 5 stars 

This review is from: Insect Lore Ant Hill (Toy)

I remember doing that old ant farm kit when I was little (too long ago now, I know) and saw this new-style ant hill next to that ant farm on a store shelf. That old ant farm hasn't changed in (okay, I'm admitting it here) over 30 years! The new dome-like style of this one, and the idea that we could see what the ants were doing both above ground and below ground appealed to us. We did buy both styles though - my kids wanted to try them all (the AntHill was the better of the two, even though I admit to rooting for the old-school style out of pure nostalgia. I won't say anything bad about the ant farm one here, I'm not here to knock it. The ants lived a lot longer in the AntHill, is all). The ants tunneled out the flat "underground" side of the habitat, and foraged for the food we put in on the rounded "aboveground" side. Very cool! The instructions had some ant facts and a few good links to information on ants and insects on the web. Our ants lived to finish tunneling, and were just kind of resting with their project all completed, so we planned a picnic-trip to the park and released them there with one last chunks-of-sandwiches buffet. Fun, educational and interesting - everything I was hoping for when I opened my wallet to buy this one.

18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars yikes!, December 1, 2005

By 

Sonny L (New Mexico) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Insect Lore Ant Hill (Toy)

Having live stinging ants in my home is definitely outside my comfort zone. That being said, this was a great product for my kids. All of them, 2 to teen loved watching the ants dig and tunnel. Even my squeamish self enjoyed watching the tunnels develop. Ants are truly amazing workers. Among the ants that arrived only two were dead. The one draw back was this. The product said the ants would live 2 to 4 weeks. They survived much longer, necessitating caring for them longer than I expected.