ANTSTORE World of Ants

[phers]

I've had my colony of Lasius niger up and running for a few days now.. all seems well. The drones have started moving sand into the testube. I've been given them some honey water that came with the starter set and ive also given them some bloom poll and fresh water.

I've ordered Can O crickets to feed them from my local pet shop but i was wondering how long i can leave the honey water and the bloom poll before i remove them and replace with fresh stuff.

I know that once i get my crickets and catapillers i should replace them every couple of days is it the same with the honey?

cheers
Phers

[JayB1983]

Hi Phers

You should refresh the honey every 2 days. I do so, because the honey always gets sticky after a time...

Jan

[Kiam]

Heh Can you feed them maggots aswell?

[Skippy]

Yes you must change honey water every 1-2 days ,because it can remake to alcohol ..... and tipsy ants are not good ants

Skippy

[Kiam]

Can you feed Myrmica rubra and Lasius niger maggots?

[JimmyVe]

Yes Kiam you can.

In deed, i replace it every 2 days. (they honey or sugar/water)

[NuEM]

By the way drones are the male ants. The correct term is workers, which are non-reproducing females.

[phers]

Is it a good idea just to put dead food in? or can i put some live grasshoppers in as well?

[JimmyVe]

it is better to give small colonies dead food. If the colony is bigger you can give them a small insect that is still alive (i myself think that is a bit crewel) but not a grasshopper that is to big.

[fernando_regio]

I allways have a test tube filed with water and a litle honney and wait for it to dry out. And i bought here in portugal in a reptile store some live crickets witch i have in a box i give them small pieces of carots and they procriat, so when i give food to the ants they taste a fresh dead bug, not fridge stuff. They started selling those in ant store too, try them out.

[ashhad1]

I wouldnt give them live insect ever as there is the mite danger so cook the insects of first (put insect in a cup of hot water(from kettle) and they die in seconds) that way all mites which may be on the insects die and your ants are safer.

[Azzer]

If you breed your own insects, kept in good conditions, and keep an eye on them (for mites) - you can ensure a good mite-free fresh/live insect diet for your ants. Also remember ants have no safety against mites in the wild.

Of course, putting insects in the microwave very briefly, or placing in boiling (100 degrees water), will ensure the vast majority of life (germs, aprasites, viruses) are killed.

[Dr.House]

If you breed your own insects, kept in good conditions, and keep an eye on them (for mites) - you can ensure a good mite-free fresh/live insect diet for your ants. Also remember ants have no safety against mites in the wild.

Of course, putting insects in the microwave very briefly, or placing in boiling (100 degrees water), will ensure the vast majority of life (germs, aprasites, viruses) are killed.

It's difficult to see mites ... it would be hard to find em in a box of living ant food. Also mites come from the food you'll put into the box ... so you have to make sure there aren't any on it. You have to wash fruits and put corn into the oven or something.

About the microwave, I saw a film about fire-ants. They were in the microwave (on a pizza) and had no problem to survive ... i don't know how strong Mites are ... but ... .
Boiling water would be the best, but viruses and bacteria weren't killed by placing it in for ten seconds or such. You need much more, about 20 Minutes to ensure that ... that's to much effort. Just place it in >ten secs for the mites, that's it i think.

greets

[Azzer]

Fair point about the food... and I didn't know that about microwaves. I thought microwaves could kill almost any living thing, because it basically heats up water, and surely even ants have water inside of them, that would boil?? I won't pretend to know too much about the nature of how microwaves work though, because I don't truly know.

Personally, for my living food, I feed it on "human food" - in other words my waxworms are fed on a mix of bran and honey from the supermarket... human food shouldn't have any mites in, if it did I'd be sending some serious complaints off to Sainsburys supermarket

[Dr.House]

yeah, if i didn't see that film I would have thought that too ^^

here it is ... you can see it on 04min 43sec ... it's in german, sorry.
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About food ... if you ever had fruitflys, they also come from apples and Bananas you buy ... their larvae and eggs are in the food itself. About the mites, i had some in my food. I bought garlic and there was one part of it brown and dry. I looked at it and because of the mass of mites I saw it moving. Since that day I'm a little careful about food contermination ... . okay joke, I was careful about 2 days or so, then all the washing and cleaning got on my nerves and i did as before ^^ For me mites and such are only disgusting ... that's no problem, but for ants it might be dangerous.
Espacially your bran might be dangerous and it definitely is if you buy a wholefood product. A german institute did researches on it and found a too high contermination of fungal spores.
Bran products wheren't heated up and sterilised (it wouldn't be good if it were, so it's okay) ... and an other instiute from the USA found out, that every person in the world (not only chinese) eat up to 1,5kg of insect proteins with their food ... Vegetarians of course some more

happy eating ^^