ANTSTORE World of Ants

[sithmaster676]

sounds good fox
they will indeed try to carry back to the nest saves them time and effort going back and forwards to it
and back on the subject of meal worms from a pet store
1. would it be ok to keep them in a large lunch box?

2. do they need a flooring such as mud of saw dust?

3. do they need some places to hide e.g. cardboard toilet roll?

4.what would i feed them?
thanks Sithmaster676

[JimmyVe]

Your doing a good job Fox. It won't harm them if you spray some water if they are in there (but don't spray to much) in nature ants do get wet when it rains.

Hi sith, about keeping the meal worms i don't have experience with that. If i buy them i put them a few seconds in boiling water and then let them cool off and put them in a freezer. Before i feed them i let them defrost end i don't have to worry of keeping them alive and healthy.

[sithmaster676]

thanks for the reply jimmy
hopefully someone else on the forum like mpir will be able to give me some infomation on how to keep meal worms alive
Sithmaster676

[mpir]

And here I go..

It is really no big deal. Like I said, put them in plastic box with a good seal. Put some paper or "wood shavings" (not sure what is the word) in, keep it damp and put in also some fruits. There are lots of pages on internet about them... Maybe you can check this one out:

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I´m sure you will find a lot of useful information.

[sithmaster676]

thanks a lot mpir thats just what i wanted to know i will look at that link aswell
Sithmaster676

[R3dFox]

What would happen if i put a ant from my garden into my antfarm?

Just wondering, not that im planning some evil experiment or plotting ant war lol.

Would the ants have any problem eating it? or would they adopt it into the colony?

[sithmaster676]

no they would attack the foreign ants but if your lucky you could place some larva into the setup and they MIGHT adopt them as there own or they will kill them
Sithmaster676

[JimmyVe]

In deed, a ant from another colony will be dead in a few minutes. To boost your colony with other larva (not necessary) it is a 50/50 change of working out (if you know what i mean)

[R3dFox]

Well i was thinking more as a source of living food. Because there is a lack of insects around, living or dead.

So was just wondering if they would eat forigen ants

[sithmaster676]

yeah they would but you must remember that the ants will fight back so it is better to use dead bugs depends on the size of your colony.
Sithmaster676

[R3dFox]

the fighting back is the cool part lol.

[sithmaster676]

yeah it is pretty cool but your colony will not be big enough to sustain loses so i would wait quite a while before attempting this
sithmaster676

[JimmyVe]

Not only that, but it is not nice for the bugs you give, i know they are going to be eaten any way, but i rather give them the short way to die.

So most of the time it kill them before giving them to my ants. Sometimes i don't lol

[sithmaster676]

what sort of size should a colony be before attempting to give it live prey
Sithmaster676

[JimmyVe]

Depend on the species and if you give them small live bugs or big bugs.
i give my colony Myrmica rubra a small live bug when there where about 60 workers (coming to eat)