Bring out the cotton swabs

Sadly, we have had our first ant casualty. I noticed that an ant on the surface of the gel had been lying there for a little too long. So I swept it out of there. It's really not too bad that we only now have had a dead ant. It's been about 3 weeks since they arrived, and they supposedly only last 1-3 months, plus they had to go through the trauma of flying from England.

Actually, I think we have another dead ant to dispose of, but it's stuck down a hole so I can't reach it. The manual says they carry out dead ants to the surface if they die in the tunnels, but this one isn't in their main tunnel, it's in one of the holes we poked in the gel and not many ants go in it. Also, it's a very vertical hole, so I'm not sure an ant could lift another ant out of there. I watched an ant one day trying to climb out of that hole, but it kept falling back down. Maybe it's the one that died in there. Which is really sad. Why don't they tell you to make the holes at an angle?!