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I have Myrmica r ubra, 4 Queens and about 40 workers in a Ytong setup with an attached foraging tank, Some Queens are laying eggs, they seem happy to eat just about anything I put in, dried mealworm, dried bloodworm, honey and sugar water etc, but when I drop in flightless live fruit flies the ants chase them down, kill them, but seem to leave the bodies after a few seconds and move on to chasing another one down, and after a couple of days I remove the dead flies to stop fungi etc. Does it only take a couple of seconds for the ants to extract what they want from a fly. Any thoughts?
Stankenhar
It sounds like they consider the flies to be a threat to the colony as maybe you are releasing them too close? Try releasing them in a further away foraging area and see what happens.
Hi highered, I put a longer tube from the farm to the foraging tank but they still seem to want to kill and then just leave the bodies. I've cured it for now by removing the flies and put in protein jelly.
Update:
I re-introduced flies, they now carry them off, and have started to stick maggot-like larva where I have red filter paper over the cave, yey.
Hmm, I would assume that the ants still consider the tube to be part of their nest, so no matter how far you extend it they will still feel threatened by insects in the foraging area its attached to. Could you attach the tube to a very big basin with the flies? That might work.
Hi Highered, I'll give it a try, but space is limited on the dining room mantle shelf which is the only place my wife will let me keep them, I'll have to sort something as the ants now seem to ignore the insect protein jelly and the dried bloodworms, but I've seen them tending the larva so they must be passing something on.
Give them spiders, they will eat them. My ones where quite fussy, they ignored meal worms, cat food, tuna. They love spiders and earwigs. Dont forget to give them sugar/water.
Hi jeoff, I'll try earwigs, mainly because I like spiders. anything that will trap wasps is good for me. Highered, I think you are right about the ants thinking the tube is part of their nest, there are a group of ants at each tube entrance who seem to be checking everything that goes near.
I think the problem may have been that I was putting too many flies in. They killed and carried off the first few, then killed and left the bodies of the rest. Possibly one good thing with plenty of food available is that the Queens have laid a load of eggs, which are now at various stages, even some which look like white ants about to hatch, which I assume will darken once they have. I think I overwatered the Ytong as the other morning they had all moved, ants and eggs, out of the nest behind the red filter at the bottom, and were all at the top in one of the runs, which I covered in red filter before it got too light.
White ants or ghost ants are new born ants they are white/grey and it takes up awhile for them to get there collors.
That is a way to find out they like it not so wet. :)