pls help: My ants are dieting?

[bankez]

Hi all,

I'm now having some curious thing which is about ant's food.

Now I have Paratrechina longicornis, the fast running black ants, which has been briefly identify by Quah. Thanks to him by the way.

Now I have a problem which is they did not seem to eat anything that I gave them. I tried to give them with cooked chicken, snacks, sugar and even make a Protein egg jelly for them. They did not eat anything at all. But the other ants around my nest, they very like it and come when I put it on the ground of my balcony. So anyone has any idea or recommendation for me? I'm now feel very sad because I catch them and make them may become starveling ants already.

By the way, my ants colony is around 50 - 60. I catch the whole colony around 3 weeks ago. The queen still laying egg but I think quite little only. I put them in the Habitat Nest which I bought from AntsCanada and joint the nest to the plastic box and put some test tube for their water. I'm also put 3-4 drops of water in the nest every morning. The temperature here is quite hot around 36 - 38 celsius.

Any thoughts would be most appreciative.

[Zarbi]

Have you tried feeding them live food or freshly killed insects?
Some ants are aggressive and like to hunt for fresh food which can take back into their nest.

[bankez]

I forgot I tried putting some mosquito for them, and they seem to like it and take back to their nest. However, is it only their food? So I need to find some live insect for them every time I give them some food? I actually can find it but not so often...

[Wood~Ant]

A good way of catching flies is to put something sweet at the bottom of a jar, then when they go in to feed you can catch them before they fly out again.
Spiders and other kinds of insects make good ant food, but make sure they are dead before you give them to your ants.

Adult ants can exist on a diet made up completely from sugary foods, such as honey or fruit jam, but growing ant larvae do require protein foods for healthy growth and development.

[formica]

I think ants prefer live insects. When a fly flew into my Lasius niger colony, the colony wouldn't touch food, but when they killed the fly, live food is all they'll ever eat. Try it and see.

[bankez]

Thank you so much for every ideas. I will try and find some insects for them then