Ant Farm

So Mira got one of these ant farm things for a present -- it's a little plastic hill with some special sand inside it on one side so you can see them dig tunnels. You send away for a vial full of little harvester ants and you poke a little stick down into the sand to give them a starter tunnel to dig other tunnels in.

When our ants came and we dumped them in, the first thing they did was they had a big conference on the outside of the plastic hill. Then they took all the loose sand lying around and piled it up on top of the hole we had poked in the sand instead of digging more tunnels in it.

These little guys didn't seem to understand the concept. I feared maybe our batch of ants had subpar intelligence or something. Maybe they needed a queen to sit around barking orders at them. Maybe it was a form of silent protest. For 3 days they just sulked on top of the plastic hill.

Finally, an intrepid genius in the group took the initiative and started digging, and then everyone joined in and now we have a proper ant farm. The little guys only have a lifespan of about 2 weeks, but it's pretty cool.