protein/meat substitute for ants?

[larukan]

Hey all, long time troller first time poster.... I remember reading on here a while ago (maybe about 2 yrs now?) about a ground meat/egg concoction that someone had put together as an alternate source of food for their ants aside from sugar/glucose foods. I tried doing a search to no avail, so I now post it to you anting veterans! What (if any) recipes do you guys/gals have for a meat feed for the ants?

I recently found a queen carpenter ant in my picket fence I was ripping apart (hooray!) in front of my house, as well as a freshly mated queen which my wife aptly spotted while waiting to get in my truck. I've since had her (fence queen) and 2 nurse ants in a tupperware container while I crafted a plexiglass enclosure to house her and her growing brood (now there's 4 workers in the container with her). I still have yet to get sand and move them over (still waiting for the seals to dry). Which brings me to my next question: what kind of storebought sand would be safe/good for carpenter ants? I was going to go with a white color due to them being a rather dark black hue.

Thanks and happy hunting!

-Larukan

[Wood~Ant]

Hi Larukan and welcome.
I think you might be referring to what is often called "Ant Jelly", a mixture of egg, gelatin and sugar water or honey.
Personally my own ants prefer my wife's home made cake and leave ant jelly to go mouldy.

Keeping carpenter ants in sand may prove tricky, for as you know they live mostly in wood. You could try a mix of silver sand or fine sand with some peat, or even sharp sand; but I found sharp sand alone does not hold up well when it dries out, while fine sand does as long as it is kept damp.
You could even try cork, as then your carpenter ants can chew bits out to make a nest as they would in soft wood. Cork is of course from trees and has been used for Camponotus species with some success.

[larukan]

so far they've been loving the sugar cubes I've been putting in the container.

I was considering a couple options, and didn't even think of peat or cork as the fill...should I just put the cork (thinking like buying cork board from the hardware store) into the housing where I would put the sand? or should I layer it, block of cork, couple inches of sand, another block of cork...etc..

if I were to go the peat route, would I mix the peat with the sand so that it's a more compact/manageable mixture?

Thanks for the input!

Larukan

[Wood~Ant]

It depends on the thickness of the cork block, as you could just layer a few with a mixture of damp peat & sand.
Take into account that peat/sand mix is best at a ratio of 1 part sand to 3 or 4 of peat, and always keep it slightly damp.

Cork can be kept moist too, but won't collapse like sand if it gets dry; and the ants can chew out their own tunnels and chambers, or you can make some yourself if you wish.

[larukan]

thanks for all the helpful info, I'm in the process of finding corkboard that's thick enough to fit my measurements, luckily my friend who's helping me with the carpentry end of it works in a wood shop, so he might be able to get me the goods I need!

I filled the tank about half-way with white sand (about 4 lbs) and am going to fill the rest with the cork board. I'm thinking this will have a two-fold effect, water drainage area and help to keep a consistant moisture level across the tank. We'll see how this pans out!

-Larukan

[Black Ant]

Try and post some pics of it if you can

[larukan]

hoping to get my camera charged and rolling tonight, things have been a bit hectic with moving my new "queen" (newlywed) into my place. Once I'm situated on that front I'll definately post some pics for all of you guys/gals to check it out.

-Larukan

[Deleted]

Happy to read this, but it has gone off topic. I'm still interested if any one makes up foods to feed their ants?

[larukan]

sort of back on topic, I know those "space age" ant farms come with the gel-like substance that supposedly acts as their food and their tunneling infrastructure...I had gotten one of these as a gift from my brother and was curious if I could harvest the gel from there and put it in a dish as food, just don't want to endanger the hive at all possible is why I haven't tested this yet....anyone have luck with this as a potential food alternative?

Larukan

[Jenny]

Yes, you can use it as a food alternative, just don't use it as their only main food. Larvae cannot feed off it either. The farm can be recycled into another form of formicarium too