26 replies to this topic

[Kotter]

I wouldn't feed dried insects (most ants won't take those anyway).

Pogonomyrmex love them. @Retroman, one of the most successful Pogonomyrmex keepers on this forum, uses them with great success.

I have two small colonies of Pseudomyrmex gracilis. They are fairly picky on insects and mostly only take fruit flies - anything larger they ingnore. I dropped a grub worm in once and they attacked it and killled it, but then left it once it was dead. I catch a lot male alates (not sure of species), which I generally just feed to my drosera species (honeydews, carnivorous plants). The other day I had a surplus of dead male alates so I decided to drop them in with the Pseudos to see what would happen. Within a short time the dead alates were all gone - and they weren’t in the “trash pile”, so I assume that the Pseudos took them to munch on.

I’d read that they like small dead insects which is why I tried it. It seems they will only take anything already small enough for them to grab and run back to the nest with.

[CoolColJ]

Queen does need some protein to lay eggs
Workers can only consume fluids.
Larvae eat insects on behalf of the adults and then produce a protein-rich liquid for their elders to eat.
Workers can suck this up and feed the queen via social stomach


I've seen others feed their colonies, only honey to reduce growth speed, and they still laid eggs and grew...

Edited by CoolColJ, August 19 2018 - 6:21 AM.

[Barristan]

I try to feed my colonies different kind of insects, since In nature ants feed on a huge variety of insects, dead mammals, dead birds etc.

 

However I doubt that there are any long term studies which check the long term consequences of one-sided nutrition. Prof Dr. Buschinger once told that he fed the colonies in his lab only with mealworms and diluted honey.

[ConcordAntman]

I still pose the question, can you overfeed a colony or will the colony self regulate?

[Barristan]

if the colony isn't hungry they will ignore food or just carry dead insects to the nest only to put them on their rubbish heap shortly after.

[DaveJay]

I still pose the question, can you overfeed a colony or will the colony self regulate?

I'm no ant expert but through reading the information on this forum as I understand it a possible problem might that excess food could be stored in the nest and spoil or go mouldy.

[ConcordAntman]

Thanks DaveJay,
My test tube setup has two test tubes connecting to an AntsCanada test tube portal. I use the portal as a “feeding chamber”. The meal of the day is placed in the feeding chamber on aluminum foil whatever is left I remove. For fruit flies, they’ve pretty much devoured everything so nothing is left in the tubes.