I got this cool little book from the library and one of the ideas was to make your own ant farm. I have always been fascinated by these little guys and the paths they make so I wanted to try it.
You put a soda can inside a widemouth jar. I would recommend covering the hole of the can with tape. Fill the rest of the space with dirt. The can keeps the dirt to the edges so you'll actually be able to see the ant paths. Add ants from an anthill. Make sure you use only one hill. If you mix ants, they will eat each other (or so the book says).
Put a small piece of damp sponge and a few small food scraps on the top of the can. Cover the lid of the jar with a piece of cloth and secure with a rubberband. Wrap dark paper around the jar or put in a dark place. This will encourage the ants to built along the edge of the jar.
After just a day we had some trails in our jar. It's been a week and those little guys have quite a system in there. I think we only ended up with 10 or so ants. It doesn't take many!
Fun project, but I think I would pass on this one right now. I am trying to get ants out of my house, not bring them in! :)
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