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I see a lot of your colonies randomly curl up and die 40-50 workers a week in some cases, well there may be an answer, something that as ant keepers you are over looking.
Aspartame A.K.A. E955, this is an additive used in loads of foods but something I found interesting is the fact it is used in thousands of vitamin supplement tables, drinks and powders. Adding the vitamin supplements to your ant colony that contain E955 will cause weird deaths in ants. Aspartame is a neuropoison which will cause the ants to act very weird, in sense paralyzing them causing brain malfunctions, slowing them down until they come to a total stop and then die.
Aspartame is deadly to ants ;) Equal, NutraSweet, Splenda and Canderel are all examples of sweeteners that use it and it is used in over 6000 bought foods and drinks. If anything has Aspartame in it then DON'T feed it to any species of ants, in fact there are a lot of roomers that it harms humans too :)
DON'T GIVE ANTS FOODS OR VITAMINS CONTAINING ASPARTAME
Sourced from: Wikipedia, Own research into aspartame, Girlfriends biology knowledge.
Regards
MrNixy
At least theres a theory on why this is happening. We don't know the biology of an ant when it comes down to diseases. I would say that this is the best idea for it and very plausible. I my shelf never feed my ants processed goods. Fruit, sugar, natural honey and insects are the best things for them as they are what they tend to eat in the wild.
I personally agree with this theory but would like to hear something from a professional.
cheers for the info mrNixy :)
This information has been studied by many entomologists, they study the sweetener because food scientist believe it may harm humans, the effect it has on ants is death, this is one of many reasons why this may be happening, but hey, its a start :D
Anyway if its not causing the Myrmica Rubra issues, at least its useful info that needs to be known.
Regards.
I recall Splenda was recalled or something a while ago because the found something in to caused cancer.
Good work.
K so some of you may think this is not Humane but hell with it, I have carried out some test on small L. Niger colonies I keep.
Splenda, Sainsbury Vitamin Tablets and NutraSweet have so far caused worker deaths, the colonies where all fine before the food is the only change.
I have witnessed some VERY weird behavior, only what I can describe as zombie like, the ants that have eaten the Aspartame are killing other workers... this may be a co-incidents it has only happened in one colony. I will keep you updated.
It may be effecting them like flukes?
(Flukes http://www.weichtiere.at/Mollusks/Schnecken/parasitismus/dicrocoelium.html)
Good theory. And I believe there is something on it.
However it does not explain strange behaviour of my Manica rubida colony. All the food that was feed to them was "tested" on other colonies and they are OK.
I only feed my colony with honey watter and insects. I got honey from a friend who is a beekeeper and I can say that this honey is 100% natural. Non refined with no additives and chemical sh*t in it.
I only feed my colony with honey watter and insects. I got honey from a friend who is a beekeeper and I can say that this honey is 100% natural. Non refined with no additives and chemical sh*t in it.
How do you know? Sure, you're friend doesn't do it, but if he doesn't live in the middle of a big wood or between miles of unused fields the farmers will use pesticide and such. these you'll find in your honey.
greetings
Interesting discussion, keep us post on your test MrNixy
pesticides and various other chemicals used by farmers are easily leaking into the food chain, a prime example is when a certain pesticide made its way into rabbits and the birds that hunted these rabbits then passed the chemical on to there chicks and in many cases they were born deformed so nothing nowadays is 100% natural pesticides have made it into that food source one way or another.
but it is still best to buy organic food.
Sithmaster676