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The Ant Life Cycle

Click here for LIVE ANTS! for your ant farm

Without getting too technical we need to know that, as far as life history goes, insects come in two types. Those that produce larvae and those that produce nymphs. Your ants are of the type that produce larvae. Ok, if you really want to know, these are the Holometabolous insects. The other type, such as grasshoppers and cockroaches are called Hemimetabolous insects. You won't need to know any of this to enjoy your ant farm!

Get them a toy they can enjoy AND learn from!

Ant farms tick all the boxes when it comes to kids! They can learn from them (and there's a lot they can learn), it keeps them interested and they can gain a sense of responsibility by looking after their little pets too!

For your peace of mind, we'd also like you to know that everything we show at Ant Farm Central comes with a full 100% Guarantee.

Great for a school project or just to have on your nature table. The four stages of the ant life cycle. Eggs, larvae, cocoon and a very cute adult!
See the box on the right to get an idea of how the different stages relate to each other. You get the same life cycle in butterflies and moths but because they are so much larger, the familiar larval stage, the caterpillar is much more obvious to us. Ok, it might not be everyone's idea of a gift but this year you can be confident that no-one's bought the same gift as you!

Ant Life Cycle Figurines - Just $5.95!

As with many insects, the ant life cycle can be broken down into four stages. Firstly the egg: as you would expect with an insect the size of an ant, the eggs are tiny, roughly about 1mm in length and oval in shape. If the egg is destined to become a queen it is considerably bigger than this.

The eggs hatch into larvae and resemble small maggots. They are eyeless and legless. They are fed by the worker ants and, as they grow, they will shed their skin numerous times.
When it is big enough to survive on its body food stores, the larva spins a cocoon, like a caterpillar would, in order to pupate. In some ways, the body reoganisation that takes place during puation is still a mystery but eventually the insect emerges from the pupa in adult form.

Superb Ant Paperweight.

A 2" x 1.25" block of crystal clear resin that encases three real ants of different species. Just like modern day amber! The ants in question are the Big-Head Ant, Red-Head Bow Ant and the Black Carpenter Ant.

Ant Paperweight - $9.95

GIANT Ant Life Cycle Puzzle

Remember all that stuff I was talking about before? You know eggs, pupae etc.?

Well, it's all here in a giant 20" x 30" foam puzzle that gives you the whole story! For ages 4+ (but you can always play with it after the kids have gone to bed!)

GIANT Ant Life Cyle Puzzle - $17.95

This type of Ant Farm was devised by NASA scientists when they wanted to understand how ants responded to weightlessness in space!

THE VERY LATEST IN ANT FARM TECHNOLOGY! CHRISTMAS SPECIAL

Lighted Blue Gel Ant Farm with Mail-In Certificate for Ants - $29.95

You can see from the picture how the ants carve themselves an intricate network of tunnels that imitates those found inside a real ants nest. The gel contains nutrients and water, so you don't even need to feed them! This has to be the ultimate in maintenance-free pet keeping!

Lighted Blue Gel Ant Farm complete with LIVE ANTS - $35.95

LIVE ANTS TOO!

You don't need to wait for weeks, these are the ants you need, RIGHT NOW!

These are the ideal ants for your ant farm. They're Western Harvester Ants Pogonomyrmex occidentalis. These worker ants are 5-6mm long and easily big enough to watch as they go about their daily routine of tunnelling, cleaning up, feeding and communicating with each other. 'Pogon' in their scientific name means beard, and if you look closely you can see that these ants have small whiskers on their chins. Hence the name!

Other creatures too! There's a whole world of interesting animals for your kids to explore! Just click on the cirlcles!


Ant farms	Butterflies	Frog kits	Hermit crabs	Ladybugs	Worm farm	Exotic plants	Crayfish

The lifecycle of the ants nest
There are many thousands of species of ant and some of them have life cycles rather different from the one described here. But this one is one that is typical of the great majority. We have deliberately kept it simple, but there are many mechanisms operating within the nest that control just how and when different events occur. We'll gloss over these for now.

Because it's a cycle, we can start anywhere in the loop, so let's start with a newly-mated queen. She has recently left her nest, on the wing, along with many other would-be queens and males. She has mated with one or more males during her flight and now searches out a suitable nest site. Depending on what species she is it could vary, from open sandy areas to soil or trees in dense woodland.

She then installs herself in a sealed chamber and lays a small batch of eggs. These soon hatch into larvae and the queen looks after them and feeds them on small unfertilised eggs that she lays especially for the purpose. The larvae then pupate, and ultimately hatch as the first cohort of workers. They soon leave the nest and start finding food to bring back to the nest for themselves and the queen.

The queen continues to lay eggs but now the responsibility for caring for them lies with the workers. They make sure the eggs, larvae and pupae are well ventilated, cleaned and fed. From now on, the queen's sole job is to lay eggs. Most of the time, all of these eggs develop into workers. The workers attend to her every need and she never leaves the nest again. The queen is the only ant in the nest that is capable of laying eggs, all the workers are sterile.

Depending on the size of the nest, the time of year, and the temperature among other things, the queen will now begin to lay a different type of egg. These eggs will develop into new queens and males. Once they have developed, they will wait in the nest until the right combination of temperature, wind and also pheromones from other nearby nests takes place. Then these new queens and males will leave their nest and begin the cycle that we started with.

Some nests can be very long lived, maybe ten years or more, and are always dependent on an individual queen. Typically the workers live between 45 and 60 days so the ants in your ant farm will ultimately have to be replenished because ant farms have no queen.

HAVE FUN WITH YOUR ANTS!

PS - Remember, buying an ant farm and watching your ants perform their daily miracles of strength and skill is just the start - there's so much more to find out about the world of insects...and plenty of different kits to learn from! And if you're interested in something a little bigger than ants, check out these top-selling pet guides from geckos to guinea pigs!

All material provided on this web site is intended solely for informational or educational purposes.
'ANT FARM' is a registered mark of Uncle Milton Industries, Inc., creator of the original ANT FARM ant habitat