ANTSTORE World of Ants

[paulhdear]

Hi all,

I have a smallish colony of P. dives. They're doing OK (happy, smiley ant-faces....), but my feeding is guesswork. They get a mix of fresh-dead insects, diluted honey, and their favourite seems to be finely-minced cooked chicken (which, I suspect, is not part of their natural diet!). Sometimes they're greedy, other times they just ignore food.

Can anyone recommend quantities and types of food? Are your dives fussy eaters? What do you feed for greatest colony growth?

[donbilbo]

Basically flies and crickets. They seem to love flies but its hard to get enough of them.. As you said meat is not their natural diet so i dont feed it.

[paulhdear]

Yep - they seldom turn down flies. I've tried crickets too (frozen; I usually break them up a little before feeding), and they're not so enthusiastic about those. Also, I've noticed that they'll go crazy for protein (flies/meat) for a while, then ignore it in favour of honey, then vice versa. How big is your colony, and how much/how often do they eat?

[donbilbo]

My colony might be around 1000+ ants and i feed around 600 medium-sized crickets a month.

[paulhdear]

Wow! That is a lot. My colony is smaller, but I think I'm under-feeding them. What size crickets do you feed? Do you use them fresh or frozen? (And, if they're fresh, are they dead?). Sorry for all the questions!
Paul

[donbilbo]

In germany they are called medium sized. So its not the huge ones but also not the micro small ones. I freeze my crickets but i do not stockpile them for long, i usually buy fresh ones every 2 weeks and then freeze those.

[paulhdear]

Thanks - I'll increase my feeding, I think!
Happy Christmas,
Paul

[SNiDE]

I'm also curious, I've seen now about 10 ants drinking honey-water, so I'm confident they know where it is if they want it, but they go crazy for crickets I put in- I put in about 4-5 a day (the colony is about 1000 ants). They don't seem to like satsumas, which I had thought they would, so looking for alternatives to try

[donbilbo]

Well thats the problem when you buy huge colonies, you cant know how much they need. I started with 150 workers and slowly increased food with growing population.... now i feed like 20 crickets daily and they might be at 1000 workers but maybe its only 800, i dont really know...

[paulhdear]

Do you guys break or crush dead crickets, or feed them whole? Does anyone feed meat and, if so, any comments?

[SNiDE]

Yeah, the colony will decrease abit from those that died moving, the few days (in the post) without food, the stress of moving and acustoming to how much protein they are getting daily. I'm able to control the size with protein, just abit worried the workers are feeding themselves enough as well as the brood. And to paulhdear- I put fresh crickets (but dead) in boiling water for about 30 seconds then put them in the feeding area whole.

[paulhdear]

Thanks SniDe. I kill crickets by freezing (then store them that way), but my ants seem reluctant to break up whole crickets. Do you have any experience of feeding meat or other insect-alternatives? Do your feeding rates resemble donBilbo's?

[Skippy]

I feed my polyrhachis with crickets and other insects (flyes etc) too. But only fresh insects , my colony do not like any honey water or honey , also they do not like sugar , very interesting. Sometimes I put there a bit of fresh meat and they are licking it , then I am getting it back (do not want that smell )

[SNiDE]

Skippy you mean the workers never drink/eat honey or sugar? Mine have started to now, in increasing numbers- how do the workers survive without sugar substances?
palhdear- I've put 7 crickets in today, put in 5 yesterday, will try and get 10 in tomorrow, I will see if they are happy on 10 a day, and then increase gradually. Going to be difficult to get hold of insects over Xmas, luckily I bought an extra pack of locusts, which are big and meaty! Your problems with feeding broken up insects could be to do with the freezing? my p.dives are loving crickets more than anything else at the moment, not tried them frozen though. Have you tried maggots or worms? I haven't tried any meat like beef or anything on this species, though if I remember rightly Miszt said on another thread he fed his angus prime steak once Might be worth experimenting with different proteins, maybe try some protein jelly if they dont like crickets. Keep us posted!

[paulhdear]

Hi SNiDE - thanks for the comments. I don't think freezing has much effect on insects, except that they will very slowly dry out in the freezer. The main problem seems to be that the ants can't 'break into' whole crickets. I haven't tried maggots or worms - maybe I will try worms (easy and free!). For meat, mine won't eat beef or pork, but they love cooked chicken (maybe it's a religious thing.....). I cut it very finely, and they carry it away piece by piece.

I thought about making some jelly - maybe a mix of crushed insects, gelatin, a little meat. Does anyone have a "secret recipe"? Would you also add a little sugar or honey?

I think the most important thing I have learned is that I am not feeding enough - no surprise that my colony is not growing!