Published: November 08, 2009 09:59 pm      

Web designer has online ant farm

MYERSVILLE (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.