There seems to be no end in what you can buy through the mail. Ants, butterflies, frogs and ladybirds can be delivered to your door in secure packages. Ready to be dropped into your readymade bug habitat brought from your local toyshop or possible also delivered by the mailman.

As cities get bigger and nature gets further away we are bringing it back to live in our living rooms. Also it might be something to do with us, the parents, trying to recapture our childhood, reliving our experience with our ant farms that we had 20 to 30 years ago.

The ant farms nowadays are amazing contraptions, nothing like the glass cases with a book on top to keep the ants in. But they still do the same thing. That is to provide a living experience for our kids. Everything comes in the mail, ants delivered separately.

The main drawback from buying an ant farm is the time it takes to get your ants. After buying the farm and setting it up you send your certificate back to the company and then your ants are delivered. You cannot buy the whole thing ready to go sort of thing. It is a two-stage process. And this waiting game kind of takes the excitement out of the project.

As ants are temperature sensitive the companies usually only post the ants when the weather is favorable. That means if it gets too cold you end up with a packet of dead ants. Also there is no queen ant with the colony so the ants are short lived. They can