10 replies to this topic

[Saltynuts]

They won't touch sugar water.  Or honey.  Or seemingly anything else I give them sweet.  Anyone else find this?  I finally gave them some crickets that I ordered, as opposed to stuff like vienna sausage, spam, and wet cat food, which they never really seemed to like much, but would at least touch, and MAN do they love those crickets.  But still won't touch the sweet stuff haha.  Just wondering if anyone has had the same experience.

 

Thanks! 

[ultraex2]

Do you notice the colony dying off/slowing down or anything?  They should know when they need sugars so as long as they have it available I wouldn't worry too much about them not eating it.  Just make sure there is some honey/sugar water/etc. available.

[drtrmiller]

Something is wrong, and it's basically impossible to diagnose without knowing a lot more details about your colony and their environment.  A healthy and hungry colony will eat any palatable sweets without hesitation, especially Sunburst Ant Nectar.

[AntswerMe]

Yeah that doesn't sound good. Make sure the temperature is high enough and they are not being disturbed all the time. If the colony is small like some of mine and you put in a large drop of sweets, (like honey or sugar water) then they may actually drink some but leave most of the drop there and make it sort of look like they haven't touched it, even if they have. They may pile some garbage on the drop as well if they know of it's presence like mine do.

[Goldsystem]

My Pheidole were this way, so I decided to try sunburst ant nectar. It worked extremely well and continues to work, I would recommend it

[Serafine]

As long as they don't die or develop extremely slow I wouldn't be concerned. They may just get all they need from their prey items.
Otherwise try more different sugar sources like maple syrup, organic fruit juice, coconut flower syrup, etc.
Do you heat them? Invicta does really well at 30°C, so heating them might help.

[Ants_Texas]

That is very strange. Solenopsis in my backyard have an appitate for anything.. including me.

[nurbs]

Have u tasted the honey yourself? If it has gone bad, the ants will avoid it.

 

Also, why does the title of this thread end with a smiley face?

[drtrmiller]

Have u tasted the honey yourself? If it has gone bad, the ants will avoid it.

Indeed, honey is extremely hygroscopic, and isn't usually palatable for very long. When the water content increases, either by making honey water, or simply by letting it sit exposed to air, it becomes a sweet treat for the loads of naturally occurring bacteria and yeasts that were previously unable to thrive due to the low water content.

I once conducted a very scientific experiment by pouring an entire jar of very expensive Italian forest honey on my front porch to feed the billions of Argentine ants. They ate it for less than an hour, and there it stayed, a mess on my porch, for over a month until finally the rain washed it away and roaches would gather at night and lick the remaining residue.

Edited by drtrmiller, June 28 2017 - 11:04 PM.

[Saltynuts]

Haha, sorry guys, the smiley face was supposed to be a frowney face.  

 

I've actually tried the Sunburst Ant Nectar - ordered it off Amazon awhile ago.  I put drops of it (and other sweet items) in there, and they seem to remain completely untouched.  However, one colony where i purchased the queen does seem to be doing great, so I'm not worried about that one.  Lot's of new (although small) workers, and TONS of eggs.

 

My other colony is one I captured, and I wasn't thinking and disregarded tons of the ants other than the queen and say 50 additional ants.  They seem to have been shrinking in number pretty steadily.  If I put dead crickets in there, they freaking go to town on them.  But pretty much anything else at all, be it sweet stuff (including the Sunburst Ant Nectar, but I've tried other stuff as well), or any kind of non-insect protein.  The queen is still alive, and i see lots of eggs being carried around in their test tube (which is situated in a larger container, and kept in the dark, but they all seem to stay in the test tube except the few that come out looking for food).  

 

At first I thought their number might be shrinking because I had kept them in my garage, and even with the door open I'm sure it got 33 to 35 degrees C in there, probably too hot for even them, given that they are not surrounded by dirt to help regulate/cool the temperature.  But since I've moved them inside my air conditioned house, they seem to have continued shrinking in size.

 

Ordered some more live crickets - plan on feeding them a LOT more to try and get their numbers back up.

[ToeNhi]

I saw the same thing with a couple Tetramorium caespitum colonies I had. The colonies got to about 400+, but would ignore any of the sweats I provided them. They could not get enough of the live crickets I gave them.