Typical Life Cycle of Gel Filled Ant Habitats

By Larry Murray

Many people seem to be uncertain what they can really expect when they purchase one of the modern “Nutrient Gel” ant habitats. With numerous models to choose from, and scores of sales pitches, it is understandable that some level of confusion might arise.

This article is intended to provide a glimpse into what the “typical” user can expect when purchasing and populating a gel filled ant habitat.

I have personally used gel habitats from multiple manufacturers, and while I have my own personal preferences, honesty compels me to state that I was unable to discern any appreciable difference in the way the ants interacted with any manufacturer’s habitat. For this reason, as well as to keep this article on focus, there will be no recommendations concerning the purchase of any specific habitat.

Where’s the Ants?

Once your habitat arrives, the first issue that normally arises is the lack of resident ants. To address the lack of residents, at least within North America, you have two options.

1. Purchase a supply of live ants from any of several online/mail-order vendors.
2. Gather your own ants from a local colony.

My personal experience has been entirely with ants I have gathered myself, and frankly from discussions with other habitat owners my experience has been better than the experience of many who have purchased their supply of ants.

Should I buy or gather my own?

The greatest benefit from purchasing ants is that you receive a reasonable quantity of ants and they are ready to add directly to your habitat. This is the no muss, no fuss solution if an Ant Safari seems to be more than you want to undertake.

The greatest downside to purchasing ants is that you have no control over what condition they will be in when they arrive. If properly and quickly handled by the postal service, your ants will arrive with few if any casualties and they will be ready and eager to start tunneling. If weather is inclement, either too hot or too cold, and especially if you leave the shipment sitting uncollected in your mail box for a few hours or even a few days, you can expect up to 100% of your ants to be dead on arrival.

The greatest benefit to collecting your own ants is that you can control how they are handled and you are virtually assured that your ants will be in good condition and ready to go to work. One hint on gathering ants, as much as possible, select the ants that are bringing materials out of the colony as opposed to those taking food back into the colony. This precaution can have a couple of benefits.

• It will help assure that the workers you collect are the ones that are actively involved in tunneling and maintenance within their current colony. Since they are already acclimatized to tunneling and maintenance, they should require less adaptation to get them tunneling in their new habitat.
• Ants functioning in the colony maintenance role are usually younger than the scouts and foragers. Collecting the younger workers will allow your ants to spend longer in their new habitat before succumbing to old age.

The greatest downside to collecting your own ants is that if you are unwary or careless, you can wind up experiencing for yourself what it feels like to be bitten and stung by upset ants!

There are a host of considerations that could go into your decision regarding purchasing or gathering your own local ants. Since this article is about the life cycle of a gel habitat, I will leave the exploration of the pros and cons of gathering ants to another article. For the sake of this discussion, I will assume you have collected 25 to 30 worker ants of a size and disposition comparable to Western Harvester ants.

Where to begin?

Before populating your gel habitat, you need to prepare some starter holes in the gel. Even the large mandibles of the Western Harvester ants have difficulty gaining purchase on and successfully cutting into the surface of undisturbed gel. Three or four starter holes will normally be sufficient for a population of 25 to 30 ants.

Now that your ants are available, you need to transfer them to your gel habitat. As always, try to minimize the handling and environmental shock to your ants. If your ants are very excited and active, you may find they start trying to climb the sides of your habitat before you can get them transferred and the cover securely in place. To aid in the transfer process, you can place your ants into your refrigerator (NOT in the freezer!) for 10 to 15 minutes to lower their body temperature. This slight cooling will slow down their movement without harming the ants and will allow you to move them easily from your holding container to your gel habitat.

Will they dig it?

Now comes the most critical step in assuring a successful experience with your gel ant habitat. Your ants need to acclimatize to their new environment and you need to get them actively tunneling within the first 24 to 72 hours. Depending on how lively and energetic your ants are, you may need to sooth their senses. Particularly if they are scurrying around, or climbing the sides of your habitat, it may be helpful to place a light blocking covering over the entire habitat. A properly sized cardboard box works well to block the light. In my experience, by removing the disorienting effects of light as it passes through the gel, you can speed how quickly your ants will acclimatize to their new environment.

If you have purchased an expandable habitat, I recommend you place no more than 25 to 30 ants in any given habitat. Overcrowding seems to further slow down the process of acclimatizing to their new environment.

Look at them go!

Once your ants start to actively tunnel, you can remove the light shielding. If you have a lighted habitat, you can probably even activate the light source without adversely affecting the ongoing tunneling activity. Since this early tunneling is the activity you most likely want to observe, don’t wait too long to remove the light shielding. The fact is, this early tunneling will most likely be the most sustained and energetic your colony will experience throughout its life cycle. You don’t want to miss it!

They’re workaholics!

Now comes a period in the life cycle of your gel habitat where the ants will actively move about in their new home. They will occasionally add new tunnels or they may simply enlarge some of the tunnels they have already created. You will find them gathering into rooms they have created or carrying bits of gel from place to place in the habitat. During this stage, if an ant dies, the remaining residents of the colony will carry the ant to the surface and will often bury the deceased ant in the gel crystals that they have excavated from their tunnels.

Are they On Strike?

Depending on the health and longevity of your ants, at some point your colony is likely to enter the next stage in the life cycle of your gel habitat colony. I call this stage “lethargy”. In my experience lethargy occurs sometime around 6 to 10 weeks after the ants are introduced into the gel habitat. In some cases I have seen lethargy occur in as little as 3 weeks but have never seen it take longer than 12 weeks.

I have some theories concerning what causes this lethargic condition but nothing that I have been able to scientifically prove. The condition is marked by a greatly reduced level of activity throughout the colony. Ants will congregate in groups and will stay that way for days at a time as opposed to the minutes or hours such groups spent together during the early stages of the colony. In addition, any ants that expire are left in place rather than being carried to the surface of the gel block. Lethargy can also affect some members of the colony while other members may continue to exhibit normal activity for days or even weeks after lethargy first manifests in the colony.

I have had Western Harvester ants survive in the “lethargy” state for nearly a year. Because of this longevity, I personally do not believe that illness is a major contributing factor. I tend to think the problem is one of boredom which is brought on by a controlled and unchallenging environment.

The end is a new beginning.

At some point you will decide it is time to retire your existing colony. This may be due to all of your residents expiring, or to the entire colony entering and sustaining a lethargic condition. Regardless of the reason, you are likely to find that you have dead ants and ant waste accumulations throughout your habitat.

Before attempting to reuse your habitat you need to clean the gel block. To begin, rinse your habitat out with cool running water. (Do not use warm water as it will dissolve the nutrient gel.) Your objective is to remove the gel bits, dead ants and any other loose material from the habitat. Once you can no longer remove loose debris from the habitat, fill the habitat with water and then turn it upside down in your sink.

Once upside down, the nutrient gel block will actually slide out of the habitat and you can then carefully finish rinsing the gel block under cool running water. Be sure to remove all deceased ants and any mold or fungus that may be present. I have found that a flexible piece of insulated copper wire works great for removing lodged bits of mold, ants, etc. from deep inside the tunnels in the gel. Form a small rounded loop on the end of the wire. The loop should be smaller than the tightest passage in the tunnels. Such a loop will allow you to gently scrape out the tunnels without being aggressive or sharp enough to damage the gel walls. I prefer wire in the range of 22 gauge or smaller. You want it stiff enough to hold it shape but flexible enough that it won’t gouge the gel as you move the wire through the tunnels. Keep water flowing through the tunnels to flush out any debris dislodged by your cleaning wire.

Once you are satisfied with the cleaning job you have performed, allow the gel to drain for a half hour or so before carefully reinserting it into the habitat enclosure. Reinstall the lid on the habitat so the gel does not dry out. At this point you are ready to introduce new residents to your gel habitat.

The one down side to reusing the gel in this manner is that it already contains tunnels. As a consequence, in my experience, there is usually less activity and tunneling by subsequent ant colonies. You will also find that eventually the gel will begin to settle and dry as more and more tunnels are excavated. As of April 2008, at least in North America, there are no sources for replacement nutrient gel. As a consequence, although you can reuse the gel several times, at some point you will need to entirely replace the habitat in order to maintain a viable environment for your ants.

Recycling is no longer an option.

When you determine it is time to replace your habitat, you have some different options you may want to consider. In some instances, such as the AntWorks habitats, the connecting and illuminated habitats are more expensive than the plain habitat. If you own a more expensive expandable habitat or an illuminator, you can purchase a less expensive original habitat and use the gel block to replace the gel in your existing habitat. This simple substitution will save you from $5.00 to $10.00 on each habitat.

Ant artwork?

One other option you may want to consider for your retiring gel habitat is the Sculpture Kit which is available for AntWorks habitats. This amazing kit allows you to fill the tunnels in your habitat with a liquid resin. The resin is chemically activated two part material that sets up after being mixed and poured into your habitat. Once the resin sets, the remaining gel is removed using warm water and you are left with a tunnel sculpture cast in transparent resin. The Sculpture Kit allows you to permanently capture the intricate tunnels created by your ants so that you can enjoy the result for years to come.

If you choose to use the Sculpture Kit, you will probably want to do so after a single evolution of ants in your habitat. Each ensuing colony of ants will remove more gel material and will eventually leave you will little more than a solid block of resin with little or no artistic beauty. The Sculpture Kit and its resulting tunnel casting is especially valuable in educational settings where you may want to document the results of each year’s colony for reference by ensuing students or classes.

Her majesty, the Queen!

In conclusion, the life cycle I have described is a natural and repetitive cycle based upon populations of worker ants. In the event you are lucky enough to capture a queen ant the dynamic in your habitat will be completely altered and your experiences are likely to be much different!

While not answering every question, I hope this article helps you understand the general experiences that await you as you populate and observe your chosen gel filled ant habitat. Like myself and countless other ant watchers, I hope you thoroughly enjoy your hours of observation as you watch these dynamic natural engineers we call “Ants”!

About the Author: Larry Murray is an amateur Myrmecologist who enjoys not only observing ants but delights in sharing his personal observations and experience. As with any scientific topic, theories and conclusions grow with our increased knowledge and understanding. Learn more about ants and ant habitats on the world wide web. Share your knowledge or ask questions at the Insect University, part of Ant Farm Universe at http://www.antfarmu.com.

Copyright © 2008 Larry C. Murray. All rights reserved. (Permission for limited distribution of this article is granted for noncommercial use, as long as the article is transmitted and displayed in its entirety, including this copyright notice. Such limited noncommercial distribution must be without fee or cost.)

Used with permission by Interface Network Inc., DBA Ant Farm Universe.