25 Active Live Ants for Ant Farms (1 Tube), Live Arrival, Shipped Now | Active tunneling Harvester ants, exciting colony action, native western harvester ants, guaranteed live arrival

Holy hell. I’m giving 5 stars because I bought ants & I received a tube of living ants. But these bastards are HUGE. I read the reviews &, knew to be careful as to not get stung/bit by them. But, we tried the paper funnel and refrigeration method. Neither worked, they did not become less active after being cold and they CLIMBED OUT THE PAPER FUNNEL. Spent 20minutes picking them up with tweezers after they climbed up and out of the paper funnel while trying to move them into the ant farm &, 1 had a stand off with my cat. These ants are insane. They all died within 2 weeks &, never tunneled but I’d be willing to bet that was my fault and not the ants themselves.

dead on arrival temps were good half of the vile was dead on arrival I checked the temps that week and were all good so im genuinely disappointed also just a little FYI mention they are stinger ants lol....

Great seller. I ordered these at the same time as I ordered the ant habitat (didn't wait for the coupon) and they arrrived a few days later. I was paying close attention to the temperature but my first vial arrived with all the ants dead. Seller prompty shipped a replacement order and gave me TWO vials to ensure good results. We had only one dead ant in each, which I consider to be very good! I carefully read all of these reviews, as well as the reviews for the sand habitat I chose, and kept the ants in the fridge until they weren't moving. For me, that was 35 minutes. They don't have much mass so they warm up quickly, and when I brought them out and checked them at 20 minutes they got so warm they woke up completely and thus the second 15 minutes. Having read all of the reviews, I saw so many mentions of stings and ants escaping, I came up with a plan. I placed the ant farm in the BATHTUB before I opened the vial to put them in the paper funnel. I also wore leather gardening gloves. Everything everyone says about them crawling up the paper funnel is true. It is also the case that they wake up at different times. There's definitely a delay between the first ant coming out of the vial and the last. I made the funnel long and tall and jammed it all the way down (making sure it was wide enough that they could still get through it) and even put tape on the side so it would keep its shape. But having to bounce the funnel up and down to knock down the ants that were climbing up destroyed the opening at the narrow end, and they couldn't get out it anymore. So it didn't really work out! In messing with the funnel I noted that the few ants that fell into the tub couldn't climb its walls. So I felt safe (and, besides, should things really go south I could always turn on the faucet and dispose of them... but they couldn't climb the walls and that wasn't necessary). And ultimately I dispensed with the paper funnel idea and had my leather gloves and the vial and the ant farm-in-bathtub setup, and just took off the cap and tipped and tapped them into the opening. The ants that fell outside the habitat ran around my bathtub merrily and I scooped them up at a time at my leisure using the tip of the vial, and then tapped them from the vial into the opening. Every once in a while I would switch to a different opening, so that they were dispersed evenly. Having them run around harmessly was easy, and my five year old could stand outside the tub and watch from a safe distance. I don't know if everyone's bathtub would work as well, but I thought I'd pass the suggestion along. For us, it was a success!

I have ordered a total of 4 vials and only about 10 ants were alive

We ordered these for our kindergarten classrooms and the first batch arrived mostly dead and then the survivors were all dead within 2 or 3 days. They grew a white mold immediately after dying so I emailed the company and told them I thought the colony might have been infected before they even arrived to me. I was understanding because live creatures can't always be guaranteed. They quickly sent me replacement tubes and we tried again. This batch is not dying as fast, but I do lose to 1 or 2 a day, which has not happened before and I've been doing an in kindergarten for 10 years. I followed the directions and made sure the habitat was/is set up correctly. For now, the ants are doing okay and my class is enjoying them, but they are also fairly stagnant ants. They've barely built one tunnel all week. I would try this company again because they were responsive and helpful, but I'm mixed on whether or not these are the best ants.

Although the tracking indicated the package was delivered to my front porch, USPS actually left it in the mailbox. By the time I retrieved it, I had lost about 5–10 ants; however, the rest were alive and active. The ants were easy to remove from the vial, which luckily included enough food for the transport. My kids are absolutely loving the ant farm. It is fascinating to watch, and we are very happy with the purchase.

The ants don't survive the trip. The first time I ordered them I had 3 alive. This time they are all dead not worth the money.

First, we got the uncle Milton large ant farm which is a good size. We chose it as the “medium” option between the traditional and another much larger one. I wouldn’t go smaller and would probably rather get two of these for $40 total and link them together with the included tube than do 1 bigger one. But VERY important - if you’re tempted to get two tubes, don’t! Another reviewer said the same and saved me from over doing it. Ordered this in order to have ants for the ant farm on Christmas. We waited too long and they arrived on the 26th, but it was better this way. Putting the ants in the farm is an event worth allocating a decent amount of time for and is very fun watching them get going. I wouldn’t worry about giving the farm and ants together, although 2-5 weeks is a long time to wait. The instructions say you can keep them in the tube in the fridge for up to 7 days. We put them in the fridge for a day. We put them in the bathtub as suggested but it wasn’t really necessary. However, I wouldn’t take chances! They’re bigger than I expected and 3 were fairly active right away. I think they all arrived alive. It appears there might be dead ant parts or seed pods they’re busily moving around - I can’t tell. But there are around 25 live ones. All in all I can’t give anything but 5 stars because everything is as promised.