rupertv: stashing crickets for later (17. Jul 2008 14:32)

My new (and first ever) colony of Lasius n iger seem to like crickets quite a bit and they're quite plentiful at the moment so I was wondering if it would be a good idea to go on a collecting mission to get a load of them to store them in the freezer so I can feed them to my ants when there are less around.

So the question is do crickets freeze well or do ants turn up their noses at frozen/defrosted food? ...we only like fresh organic stuff don't you know...

Thanks in advance

Rupert

miszt: (17. Jul 2008 14:41)

Yep freezing them is fine, allot of us do it :) just drop them in frozen, they will defrost within a few minutes

JimmyVe: (18. Jul 2008 15:05)

Hello rupertv and welcome to the forum.

Yes it is good to do so, i do it all the time. ;)
In my experience ants love it more when it is fresh killed, but they also like it when it is defrosted.

rupertv: (18. Jul 2008 15:11)

Thanks guys - I guess I'll be out hunting tomorrow - just got to work out how best to catch them and contain them when I'm trying to get more than one :)

Cheers - looking forward to chatting more!

Rupert
p.s. got an antcam set up on my ant blog page if anyone's interested. Not a huge amount of action as there's not many ants - it's zoomed in on theri honey and water bowl at the moment so you'll only see any if they pop over for a drink

JimmyVe: (18. Jul 2008 15:19)

Very nice antcam, but like you said, there is not much of activity. ;)

I buy my crickets in the local pet shop.

rupertv: (18. Jul 2008 15:24)

what a great idea - never thought of that ....although for now I can find them pretty easily out in the wild so I'll still be hunting ...but popping down the pet shop too to check em out

miszt: (18. Jul 2008 16:05)

Insects are suprisingly easy to catch, u can make a trap, by digging a hole, put a jam jar in it, then put a funnel in thetop so that the top of the funnel is level with the ground, dont leave any gaps around the edge, leave it for 24 hours, and you'll have a few weeks food for your ants :)

Also Moth's go down well with allot of ants, as they are very soft bodied, look up 'moth trap' in google, they are also very easy to make

JimmyVe: (20. Jul 2008 13:22)

Hey John that is a great idea ! ;) Easy and successful.

rupertv: (23. Jul 2008 11:48)

I've now got a semi decent stock of crickets in the freezer - I'm going to have to design a better way to catch and keep hold of multiple crickets though as it was a major pain stopping the ones I'd already got from escaping when I added more.

Insect trap to be built soon :)

JimmyVe: (23. Jul 2008 21:16)

Hehe, yes i bet it was difficult. Good luck with your insect trap. ;)