If you like the fun of having pets, but hate all the time and money it takes to take care of them, then have I got the solution for you! It’s called the Lil’ World in a Jar©®, and it combines the fun of pet ownership with the omnipotence of playing God to your tiny world. It has the added benefit of being able to teach you a thing or two about eco-systems, and all the interactions that take place in them. Here is how to make your very own Lil’ World in a Jar.

Get yourself a smooth-sided glass jar. Pickle-jar-size will do. You want smooth sides so that dirt doesn’t settle on the ridges of the inside of the jar.

Grab your jar and go find a swamp or pond or lake. Look for a lot of plants in shallow water; there will be a lot of plants and animals in areas like that.

Using a cup, scoop some of the pond mud into your jar. Add water and swamp mess until your jar is almost full. Be sure to leave some room for air.

Seal up the jar, and bring it back to your house. Put it in a good, sunny window. The sunnier, the better.

What Will Happen?

Over the next couple days, you will hopefully be able to see tiny creatures swimming back and forth. Some plants might even begin to grow. As time goes on, you might observe strange creatures and their habits, or you might see plants grow to dominate this lil’ world. There are many different variations as to what you could see, so the only way to know for sure is to go out and do this experiment.

As for my world in a jar, I came home one day to find that one of my cats had murderously knocked it off the windowsill and onto the floor. Everything in it was in abject chaos. After waterboarding the cat to punish it, I set the lil’ world in a jar back up, but all that has grown since that disaster has been algae. Hopefully you’ll have better luck with this. Good luck to anyone trying this out; it should turn out pretty cool.