ANTSTORE World of Ants

[highered]

Sorry if this is already here. Some idiot on ebay is selling Messor barbarus queens for a rip off £10 each (no workers) and is claiming they eat honey. Now I know they only eat seeds preferably grass seeds made into ant bread for energy yet he insists that because basically they don't know any better they do eat honey. I would have thought that they developed to not eat it at all, hence why they eat grass seeds and my colony from Antstore (now about a year old) never accepted that kind of energy food. Plus he claims to have 15 years experience.

[JimmyVe]

They DONT. Only seeds and insects.

[Phasmid]

My Messors will happily take away and eat any sugar I give them . I'm gunna try with honey when I get some and see what happens .

[donpate]

Maybe it depent on the exact origin of this Messor?!

I have seen a TV series where deers have eaten birds to get more calcium. That is also unnormal, but it can happen.
So i think that some kind of messor Barbarus will eat honey, when they are from an area where they miss other food and have to find a alternative. But if they can eat honey at all....i think not.

[Zagone]

Usually with ants they'll eat what they need to get a specific things, like protein or sugar. I'm sure Honey is alot richer than most seeds in sugar, so if they really needed sugar, I'm sure they'd gladly take some honey if they find it.

But as stated, they generally don't eat honey. But in my experience, you should try anything you can think of, aslong as it's not poisenous. I usually experiment alot with my ants.

[JimmyVe]

None of my Messor colonies accept honey or some kind.

[McK]

Neither do mine.

[ashhad1]

My Messors have never once excepted the honey i offerd them so , They dont eat honey xD

[akumas]

My Messors don't eat honey as well , they prefer insect instead of honey or honey-like mixture which Wilson used. I think that "ant breed" is rich in all the vitamins they need. Besides honey consist antibacterial substances which maybe not so much attractive to species which need to digest seeds. For honey ... well we got Honey and honey(the one which is produced by bees from sugar syrup) and don't have any antibacterial substances and could be attractive to Messor because its is basicly transformed by bees to honey-like substance .

[Kale^^]

My Messor barbarus don't eat honey at all, at least they always have preferred seeds, don't know if they would eat honey if i stopped giving them seeds. But i wont.

[Zagone]

Hyperlinks sind nur für registrierte Nutzer sichtbar

[JimmyVe]

First time i've seen it. (nothing is impossible with ants ) Are you sure its honey and not just water ?

[donbilbo]

i read this thread and i gave my colony of Messor structor some pure honey to test. Two workers are eating it right now. So maybe it depends on species, maybe it depends on the honey youre using.

[Zagone]

Jimmy: On the description of the picture on Flickr where I found it, the owner of the ants say it's honey ( I'm assuming mixed iwht some water though), so that's really all I know. ^^;

[JimmyVe]

Oh okay, thanks.

I like this discussion very much. So we can say, Messor species dont need honey but some of them do eat it. You can try it out if you like.

Not sure they need it like other species do. If someone knows the answer to this ?