25 Live Red Harvester Ants for Ant Habitats - Live Arrival, Shipped Now - Perfect for Educational Science Projects & Interactive Ant Habitat Experience

Good ants

I ordered these for my daughter for our new gel ant farm last week, they were not supposed to be here until closer to her birthday, but they hot here sooner, after paying for ants ($7) and even more for shipping ($8), which they were only mailed 1st class USPS not overnight or even priority, which at that postal rate, it should have been priority, they were received in a bubble envelope, so nothing to protect them from cold or heat, they say they guarentee them during that 7 day period, but weather changes and the heat of inside a mail truck for days!!! Come on, really, so mine got here early, so the weather guarentee doesn't even apply here based off the supposed delivery date because you first can't rely on weather reports 2 weeks in advance, which is what I was expecting, but it got here today, so over a week early, so how was I supposed to predict the weather everywhere they are traveling in between the 2000 mile journey of the address in WA state???? YOU CAN'T!! IT'S NOT LOGICAL!! AND all but 4 were dead. The rest were just pieces and parts of ant bodies, so either they ate each other or they got shaken around so hard they fell apart! Not the way you should ship them, if it's in the summer or winter. Nor should you have to pay $8 for a $1 shipping first class USPS cost. They also need to put VENOMOUS right up top on order details. Now the ants I bought last week now cost over $26 now plus shipping, that's more than $1 per ant, at that price they better be overnighted with a refrigerated pak.

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!

Lots of dead ants upon arrival :(

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.

Ants Alive! (though I thought they were dead because they were cold). I was so worried I emailed the company but by the morning there were two tubes of angry looking little ants just waiting for the ant farm at the kids' science fair! I emailed the company back immediately to say they were fine and I got an email right back. Based on my experience this seems like a great way to order ants and a responsive company to deal with.