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Senex: Ants in the tube... (26. Sep 2006 16:50)

Hi,

Everything's going very well but i have some doubts.
My ants transported sand into the tube and now they are barricaded into the tube. My doubt is about food. Won't they need to eat? How can they eat or pick up insects or other things if they don't get out of the tube.

Thanks for helping me,
Senex

JimmyVe: (26. Sep 2006 17:42)

don't panic as long as you don't see dead workers they are doing fine. Small colonie's don't need much. make sure they can eat if they want and that there is water (honey-water mix) nearby.

NuEM: (26. Sep 2006 17:53)

They need pure water, too.

By the way, the only reason to give them a honey water mix instead of just honey is ease of application. Under lab conditions, where often a lot of colonies are kept, and need to be fed, it's much easier to mix honey-water for all colonies, instead of giving each individual colony pure honey. That was in the days when honey wasn't available in squeeze-bottles, yet.

The habit of mixing honey with water sticked, but in the end you don't need to mix it. Ants like pure honey just as much.