Questions

This story was a conceptual gem. Late seventies to early eighties. You know concept stories — years later they’re still grabbing you, but you’ve forgotten the author. The story was about some ants from another planet (there is space-travel now) who can be bought and had as pets. You put them in your living room in a giant ant-farm terrarium and the ants, who are large, begin making glubular bricks and building an enormous statue of you, very life-like, which they commence to bow down to and bring ceremonial gifts to every day.
The protagonist mistreats his ants, and slowly, over time, his statue gets less and less flattering, and finally turns ugly or something.
- beingagood1

The short story is about a man who likes to buy exotic pets and one day obtains some kind of alien insect. He puts them in a terrarium with sand and they form, i think, four different little tribes. as he cares for them and such they grow, they war with each other, etc. He has some friends over one day and has the insects face a new threat, i think it was either a very large insect or a small animal. the insects win, however, iirc, his friends are very off put with this display of violence. Eventualy they get bigger and bigger, and at some point he attacks them, and they regard him as an evil god. Finaly, the insects escape from his house and move into the outside world, where they eventual capture and possibly kill him.

The short story was found inside a book of short stories with an exotic green alien female, sitting profile to the reader.
- carterhawk001