Past DC man, NASA web designer has online ant farm

November 8, 2009 - 2:41pm

MYERSVILLE, Md. (AP) - Rockville native Steve Chambers bought a Quikcam in 1994, but he wasn't sure what the best use of streaming video would be.

Fifteen years and more than 1.2 million views later, Chambers said his virtual ant farm is still drawing attention. He created StevesAntFarm.com after he remembered the times as a boy when he'd watch ants _ without the Internet.

"People come visit the virtual ant farm. They reminisce when they were a kid," Chambers said. "Kids are fascinated by the ants. It's sort of a scientific toy."

The 54-year-old who designed NASA.gov with his wife a year after creating the virtual ant farm moved to Frederick County in 2002 to have room for their two horses.

The NASA site "was the first Web site we ever designed after founding our graphic design company in 1988," Chambers said.

He met Lynn Van Der Veer at a Rockville advertising agency and they soon lived together and bought a house in D.C. However, they wanted a place to keep their horses so they moved to Gambrill Park Road north of Gambrill State Park near Myersville.

"The only reason we moved was to get a piece of property near public land to ride the horses on," Chambers said.

Their streaming video of the ant farm _ which sits on the 54-year-old's desk _ relies solely on the Quikcam.

"I started this in 1994," Chambers said. "How it came about was, a company made a product called a Quikcam."

Thanks to the camera and his Web knowledge, his unique site captured an entomologist's attention, prompting the fan of ants to write Chambers a poem.

"At that point I wanted to take my e-mail off the site," Chambers said.

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Information from: The Frederick (Md.) News-Post, http://www.fredericknewspost.com