9 replies to this topic

[smares]

Most of my tetramorium colonies like to bury liquid sweets. I've tried putting the liquid on wax paper and in feeders. They just want to pile debris and sand on it or at the opening. I have found dead ants in the liquids before so maybe it is a learned behavior?
Anyone have solutions or suggestions? Does anyone use plain, undissolved, sugar?

[Zeiss]

Ants usually do this if it is too close to the nest or if they just don't want it anymore.  Try giving it to them less often, or take it out when they show no more interest.  If using a feeder, just put it farther away from the nest entrance and see what they do.

Edited by Zeiss, March 19 2019 - 10:11 PM.

[drtrmiller]

Ants usually do this if it is too close to the nest or if they just don't want it anymore.  Try giving it too them less often, or take it out when they show no more interest.  If using a feeder, just put it farther away from the nest entrance and see what they do.

 

A+

Edited by drtrmiller, March 19 2019 - 9:54 PM.

[smares]

Thanks!

[ANTdrew]

I drank the proverbial "Kool-Ade" and bought some Sunburst Ant Nectar for my Tetramorium. When I filled up their liquid feeder, they mobbed it and actually kept drinking it until it was EMPTY. What I found interesting is that they didn't stick any sand on the feeder like they usually did when I put honey water, perhaps because none leaked due to fermentation?

[drtrmiller]

I drank the proverbial "Kool-Ade" and bought some Sunburst Ant Nectar for my Tetramorium. When I filled up their liquid feeder, they mobbed it and actually kept drinking it until it was EMPTY. What I found interesting is that they didn't stick any sand on the feeder like they usually did when I put honey water, perhaps because none leaked due to fermentation?

 

byFormica liquid feeders are a semi-closed system and dispense liquids in a similar sort of way to the capillary action that occurs in stacked acrylic nests where water permeates the places the acrylic is touching, except in the feeders case, feeding occurs where the rim of the glass vial contacts the plastic.  Under normal circumstances, there is almost no exposed liquid, and ants can only locate the liquid by probing with their antennae.

It could be that fermenting honey water was exposing more liquid onto which the ants could stick particles of dirt, or it could just be that they found Sunburst tastier.

[AntJohnny]

I am having that same problem with my small Camponotus pennsylvanicus colony. After they eat or drink anything sweet, they cover it with there substrate. So I used a small round Tupperware and made a second out world for them further from there nest. They haven't covered anything in there yet. It's only been a free days thought.

[Serafine]

The byFormica feeders work very well unless your ants are seriously trying to ruin your efforts.

They work fabulously for my Camponotus barbaricus and my Lasius niger and they did work well even for my Solenopsis fugax until they passed 1k workers and started to turn their enclosure upside down (they burried the ENTIRE 1ml feeder until only the top of the glass stuck out).

 

A word of warning though: Those feeders don't work well with honey water during hot weather. Honey water starts fermentation processes pretty quickly which produces gas bubbles that can push the liquid out of the feeder (that's not a problem of the feeder, you will have the same issue with any gravity-assisted feeders like bird water feeders if you fill them with honey water).

Just use sugar water, diluted maple syrup or Sunburst instead and you won't have these issues. (Both sugar water and maple syrup should last for around 4-5 during hot weather, Sunburst lasts for around 2-3 weeks but you may have to add a few drops of water after a week or so as the evaporation makes it viscous and sticky. Yes, I've tested all of this at room temps of around 30°C. And no, you usually shouldn't fill the feeders to a level where the ants take more than a few days to empty them, although with Sunburst and large feeders - or a small test tube - you CAN do that if you're going on vacation for a week.)

Edited by Serafine, April 1 2019 - 11:22 AM.

[drtrmiller]

I am having that same problem with my small Camponotus pennsylvanicus colony. After they eat or drink anything sweet, they cover it with there substrate. So I used a small round Tupperware and made a second out world for them further from there nest. They haven't covered anything in there yet. It's only been a free days thought.

Are you using byFormica feeders, or something else? My colonies of the same species do not do this, but they are also in an environment where the only particulates are waste from insects and cocoons (no dirt).

The byFormica feeders work very well unless your ants are seriously trying to ruin your efforts.
 
Sunburst lasts for around 2-3 weeks but you may have to add a few drops of water after a week or so as the evaporation makes it viscous and sticky.

 
Adding water to Sunburst to replenish the water lost by evaporation is something I tried years ago, but not since all my recent shelf-life studies which take a more holistic view of how the composition changes over time (at a minimum, pH decreases due to CO₂ exposure, and specific gravity increases due to evaporation).
 
Consequently, new tests should be carried out to determine whether this is a practice I can recommend, and if so, what limits or conditions there may be for recommending it.

Edited by drtrmiller, April 1 2019 - 2:52 PM.

[AntJohnny]

I'm not sure what brand of feeder I'm using. I have two C pennsylvanicus colonies. One with 100 or so workers, in a aquarium with a natural setup. Plants dried chunks of wood etc. Then I have a smaller colony with 30 or more workers and about 80 eggs larva and pupa. They are still in a test tube. That's placed in a high quality water tight Rubbermaid bin. And I did have reptile substrate in it really small white rough pebbles. I really like it for substrate.It makes the ants stand out alot, but it's hard to see the eggs in the test tube with white substrate. That's what they would use to cover there food and sweets. I replaced the reptile substrate with a very fine white sand. I think it's too fine now for them to carry it around, and it's completely dry. Along with adding a second container on top with tubing, and placing there food in that. Has stopped them from covering anything. I really didn't mind though it just took longer to clean and replace the sugar water in the feeder.