6 replies to this topic

[futurebird]

Mealworms are the food all my ants eat, but none really get that excited about it. But, they are easy to keep. And since I have gotten my first batch of baby worms ... those have proven to be VERY popular. 

 

I cut up the larger worms. But with the babies I can just remove the head and the ants do the rest. 

 

ANYWAY.

 

I kept seeing "super worms" and decided to try those too. The big issue with superworms is they will fowl up their bedding MUCH faster than meal worms. So I kept needing to add more bedding... and my ants didn't like them much, just bigger mealworms and they don't like the big ones.

 

I tried feeding a superworm beetle, and it was rejected by the Pogonomyrmex who eat everything. 

 

So my advice is if you have a bunch of colonies get meal worms, keep a small bin of them and feed them from time to time for variety. 

 

Don't even bother with super worms it's not worth it. 

 

 

[Antkeeper01]

did you try them with all of your colonies? I've heard ants love these.

[nurbs]

Depends on the species and also the colony's age. Some absolutely love them over regular mealworms.

[cocdeshijie]

just starve them, they'll eat anything when they are starved enough

[Roy3]

Meal worms are best for ants and they keep longer than superworms. With meal worms you can also refrigerate them and they keep even longer, it slows down their molting and growth process. Super worms and other worms you can't do that, it kills them. When the beetles are roaming around I just leave them. Sometimes throw them in my scorpion tank, but they make the baby worms. And those babies I just throw them in with my crematogasters and they love them. It gives them something to fight with and the size of the babies is perfect for 2 or 3 ants to tackle on their own, and having about 5 baby worms in there, its just fun for the ants. With adult meal worms I do cut them into 3rds.

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[cap_backfire]

My Camponotus Discolor LOVE Superworms cut into thirds.   They get a short little battle tackling the "head" as it tries desperately to get away.  The best part is watching a few isopods show up to take down the exoskeleton.   My girls are NOT very cleanly and basically leave trash where it lies unless it's INSIDE the nest.   

 

So for ME superworms are pretty well received.  Even the adult beetles, once killed.   Actually my discolor will eat just about anythingg freshly killed, without reservation.   Prepared foods... not so much.   

[azzaaazzzz00]

For my colonies, superworms worked pretty well. Different colonies have diffrent food prefrences, it's probably just that.