The world recently lost an man who may have done more than anyone else to spread the word about ugly animals - and was well paid back for his efforts.
Milton Levine invented Uncle Milton's Ant Farm in the 1950s. Since then, over 20 million have been sold, introducing countless children to the joys of creepy crawly creatures.
Levine, who died last week at the age of 97, sold his company last year for more than twenty million dollars. He once told the New York Times about one unique way he personally appreciated ants: “Their most amazing feat yet,” he said, was that “They put three kids through college.”
With sympathy,
Wombat (No Relation)
Wonder if they buried him in sand?
ReplyDeleteI've always wanted an ant farm, ...but how do you feed them? The thought of watching my farm slowly starve to death has stalled the progress of this goal.
ReplyDeleteI had an ant farm just like this when I was a kid, there's a closeable slot in the top where you can drop food in (I think I fed mine apple slices.)
ReplyDeleteThe thing that bummed me out the most about the ant farm, was that you get like two dozen or so worker ants, the ants you get just live out their life expectancy, if you want to keep the ant farm going you have to keep buying ants :\.
The US Department of Agriculture does not allow shipment of live queen ants, without a queen there is no colony, no baby ants, I lost interest in the ant farm quickly, it seemed like a waste of money to me, and a boring pointless life for the ants.
Even if you did have a queen ant, most ant farms like the one pictured are too small for a colony, although I think that mine had holes in the side, so that you could link multiple ant farms together.
I never asked for an ant farm as a kid. I was afraid that they would escape and I would find ants all over my room. I am sure I missed out on hours of entertainment due to my irrational fear. Oh, well. Maybe I will go out and get one for my 12 year old. Then we can share the joy together!
ReplyDeleteI use to have one of those when I was in elementary school. Never quite got the hang of it though because a couple of weeks after putting the ants in, they all died. Oh well. Hamsters were more fun anyway.
ReplyDelete