Review on 🔬 Optimized GeoSafari Factory Educational Insights 5145 by Michael Murphy

We bought this for my son for his 8th birthday because he said he wanted it when we told him he couldn't get a pet snake. I chose this ant farm because it got the best reviews. My son's birthday is November 8th so we went to get our ants the very next day. We received the ants on November 27th (the day before Thanksgiving). So it took me about 2.5 weeks to receive it. We filled the ant farm with wet sand, stuffed pieces of cotton into 3 holes to help them start their tunnels, then added the ants. The ants we got were reaper ants. I don't know how many there were, but only one didn't make it through the post, which surprised me. We live in Texas and it was cold there so I would recommend ordering when it's chilly. They definitely won't survive the heat! (They did look dead when I pulled them out of the mailbox, but they just become less active when they're cold, so they're taken to the ant farm.) A few hours later, the ants started digging tunnels. My son was fascinated! The next morning they had 3 very long tunnels. It's been a week now and they have a whole tunnel system including the upper level tunnels. Tomorrow he's taking him to school because his teacher really wants to see him. We also followed the instructions and made some black construction paper covers, although they don't seem to care. We fed her twice (apples and cereal) and added water frequently as directed and it worked VERY well. It's well built and it's easy to see how the ants work. Ants are thought to live "up to" 6 months, and then we'll see. So far it has been interesting to watch them with the whole family. This ant farm comes highly recommended. I almost went for the gel but with sand you can just throw it away and get more sand and more ants when they die. I don't know what you're doing with the gel. Also, the sand is more realistic. Watching ants carrying grains of sand is very exciting! (I know, I know you think I'm crazy looking at ants, but you'll see!)