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Funded! This project successfully raised its funding goal on March 31.

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A high class alternative to your plastic childhood ant farm, pre-loaded with space gel.

The Ant Jar comes in four variations, providing an elegant and fascinating addition to your work place, home, classroom, etc.

Color Pallets

The Ant Jar

I'm fascinated with social behavior and the work ethic of ants. I've had ant farms off and on through my life, but most consumer ant farms look cheap and I wanted something classy, so I made the Ant Jar.

Ants

We've given two options for obtaining ants: 1) get them yourself or 2) have us ship them with your Ant Jar. If you choose option two, we'll send the Ant Jar first and your ants a couple days later so you can be sure to have a place to put them once they arrive. We'll be using Harvester Ants, which is the species of choice for ant ecologies due to their large size and very active foraging habits.

If you're going to get ants yourself, you have a couple options. It is possible to simply catch ants roaming about and put them in an ant ecology. The efficacy and ease of this method will depend on your location. This can be very cool especially if you get your hands on a queen, as you'll be able to see them nest and care for their young.

Harvester Ants can also be purchased online. We recommend AntsAlive.com, as they are very practiced at getting ants to you... well, alive. Prices are as follows:

Regular ant supply (about 30 ants): $4.95

Super ant supply (about 60 ants): $6.98

Swarm Theory

Thought I'd share this for anyone interested in reading more about it:

"The Genius of Swarms

A single ant or bee isn't smart, but their colonies are. The study of swarm intelligence is providing insights that can help humans manage complex systems, from truck routing to military robots."

Article link: http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2007/07/swarms/miller-text

Construction

The process is relatively simple aside from setting the ant gel, which requires a semi-complicated boiling / dissolving method, but we've got it figured out. Ant Jars come with tiny holes in the lid for air exchange.

Risks and challenges Learn about accountability on Kickstarter

Supplies and basic construction are very simple with this project, but getting the ant gel to set correctly takes some finesse. The gel is also the most expensive component to the ant jar, so getting it right is crucial to the financial success of this project.

Our past failures in setting ant gel have made us wiser - we are anti-fragile, after all - and we expect that as we run through this process on an even larger scale we'll be able to work out inefficiencies quickly.

The largest risk to this project is shipping, as we're trying to ship glass jars around the country without incurring ridiculous shipping costs. We'll take reasonable precautions, but it is possible that jars will break during shipping, in which case we will replace them.

As always, unforeseen challenges may arise, however, we're confident that we can overcome them and are committed to transparency with our backers throughout the process.

FAQ

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68
Backers
$2,368
pledged of $2,000 goal
0
seconds to go

Funding period
Feb 20, 2013 - Mar 31, 2013

  • Pledge $2 or more

    5 backers

    Support fun scientific exploration!

    Estimated delivery: Apr 2013
  • Pledge $28 or more

    6 backers Limited (2 of 8 left)

    FIRST FIFTY: One Ant Jar. Shipping included. US and Canada only.

    Estimated delivery: May 2013
    Add $20 to ship outside the US
  • Pledge $28 or more

    15 backers Limited (2 of 17 left)

    FIRST FIFTY: One Ant Jar. Shipping included.

    Estimated delivery: May 2013
    Add $30 to ship outside the US
  • Pledge $31 or more

    2 backers

    CANADIANS: To cut down on shipping costs, we've added this "DIY kit" reward. You'll get an Ant Jar perforated lid, river rocks, and gel powder. Does not include the glass mason jar and you'll have to mix and set the gel yourself. US and CANADA ONLY. Total cost to Canadians comes to $46 instead of $62. Much better!

    Estimated delivery: May 2013
    Add $15 to ship outside the US
  • Pledge $32 or more

    1 backer

    One Ant Jar. Shipping included.

    Estimated delivery: May 2013
    Add $30 to ship outside the US
  • Pledge $38 or more

    26 backers All gone!

    FIRST FIFTY: One Ant Jar + 30 Harvester Ants (ants must be shipped separately, and will be shipped a couple days after the Ant Jar to ensure that the Ant Jar gets there first). Shipping included.

    Estimated delivery: May 2013
    Ships within the US only
  • Pledge $42 or more

    10 backers Limited (15 of 25 left)

    One Ant Jar + 30 Harvester Ants (ants must be shipped separately, and will be shipped a couple days after the Ant Jar to ensure that the Ant Jar gets there first). Shipping included.

    Estimated delivery: May 2013
    Ships within the US only
  • Pledge $46 or more

    0 backers

    One Ant Jar + 30 Harvester Ants (ants must be shipped separately, and will be shipped a couple days after the Ant Jar to ensure that the Ant Jar gets there first). Shipping included.

    Estimated delivery: May 2013
    Ships within the US only