7 replies to this topic

[Temperateants]

Hi, 

Weird question, but if you froze and boiled grain mites, could you feed them to your ants? The most mature ones look about as meaty as D. Melanogaster, and they are practically indestructible and breed at lightning fast speeds. Seems like a pretty good feeder in small amounts for founding colonies, and in big amounts for big colonies of small ants. I think the biggest issue is containment and keeping them away from other feeders.

Edited by Temperateants, April 14 2021 - 4:17 PM.

[ANTdrew]

NOOOOOOOOOO

[Temperateants]

NOOOOOOOOOO

It's gross, but with the exception of infestations, what are other downsides?

[ANTdrew]

They would be impossible to contain and would likely explode in numbers. They’d cover everything and might even start infesting your kitchen and cupboards. I also don’t think ants have any interest in eating them even if dead. If they did, they wouldn’t infest setups so exponentially.

[dspdrew]

They would be impossible to contain and would likely explode in numbers. They’d cover everything and might even start infesting your kitchen and cupboards. I also don’t think ants have any interest in eating them even if dead. If they did, they wouldn’t infest setups so exponentially.

 

I feel the same way about those things. They are soooo hard to contain. You wouldn't believe the lengths I went through to eradicate them after having a few small infestations. I was afraid they would spread to other places too. I did lots of tests on the specific ones I had, and they can't see to live more than a day in less than 50 percent humidity. Luckily my apartment is rarely over 40 percent humidity.

[drtrmiller]

I've seen small ants predate on the biggest, fattest ones.  Don't think they would freeze and thaw well, but I've never tried.

[Fatatoille]

I have not heard of many ant species predating on mites as a food source aside from a few cryptic ants like strumigenys, not to say most ants wouldn't accept them in captivity, but it seems likely enough to say most captive colonies won't. I'm also dubious that their nutritional value would be much good either, even larger grain mites. They would probably only be useful for feeding cryptic species and even then springtails are most likely a better alternative. In general, grain mites just seem like too much of a niche food source to warrant even trying to keep them, especially given the difficulty of containing them.

[Temperateants]

I have not heard of many ant species predating on mites as a food source aside from a few cryptic ants like strumigenys, not to say most ants wouldn't accept them in captivity, but it seems likely enough to say most captive colonies won't. I'm also dubious that their nutritional value would be much good either, even larger grain mites. They would probably only be useful for feeding cryptic species and even then springtails are most likely a better alternative. In general, grain mites just seem like too much of a niche food source to warrant even trying to keep them, especially given the difficulty of containing them.

Thanks! All good points everyone!