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Post by msi on Apr 17, 2012 20:45:07 GMT
I feed my Lasius niger colony chop up meal worms and provide them with honey water.
I replace the meal worm daily and the honey water weekly....
the meal worm I cut up into pieces about the double the size of my worker ants is this small enough or shall I cut them into smaller bits?
Am I providing good enough diet to promote growth and good health?
Any suggestion will be appreciated thanks.
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Post by Jenny on Apr 17, 2012 21:08:52 GMT
As long as they consume the food put for them that is fine. Flies are starting to emerge, they love greenbottles  In fact I caught my first one this year in the garden the other day. The nicos had it , they practically snatched it out of my hand! There is always a high demand in this house for the green ones.The bluebottles usually get fed to the Messors as they can handle that size of fly |
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Post by msi on Apr 18, 2012 20:22:14 GMT
how do you know that they have consumed the food, as I am very busy as the end of year for my cause comes up and I have little time to watch them?
when I first introduce them to their accommodation they did dive straight into the honey water and were climbing all over the cut up meal worm, but I yet to see them do that again and it been a week or more.
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Post by Wood~Ant on Apr 19, 2012 7:20:20 GMT
Be happy that they are eating, as my Formica sanguinea will go for weeks without touching anything on offer, then perhaps once a month will drink a drop of honey water. What they exist on at all amazes me, as most of my other ant species will feed daily. If you see dried up empty carcasses of dead prey insects, then you know the food is being consumed. It seems that ants can live on a starvation diet if they choose to, so perhaps your ants have enough food for their needs, as they know best and will only eat as much as the colony requires.  |
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Post by msi on Apr 19, 2012 18:43:19 GMT
Well sometimes the meal worms are all dried up and same with the crickets. all I am going to do is supply fresh food and water, that's the best I can do they should do the rest..... I think haha.
I haven't seen the queen or brood as they are still in the test tube which is connected to the main nest which I covered up so it is dark, and they may enter the man made nest as that to is dark.
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Post by msi on Apr 19, 2012 19:48:14 GMT
O my days, weirdly enough I was just getting something from my room and I thought I would have look at the foraging area as I just said about feeding them. I noticed a piece of cricket wasn't on the feeding area it was on the out side so it must of been moved  . closely looking I noticed an ant all over it, I hope I didn't disturbed her and I hope she takes the whole part of cricket back as that would be amazing |
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Post by TenebrousNova on Apr 20, 2012 10:05:48 GMT
Ants will typically hollow out their insect food, leaving a husk behind that's fairly easy to recognize. Missing limbs are a good indicator that they're eating as well. |
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Post by Remson on Apr 20, 2012 10:15:56 GMT
do you have to cut up the insects you feed them? since I will not have anywhere to do so as my gf is squeamish and will not allow me to cut up any in the house.
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Post by Wood~Ant on Apr 20, 2012 10:26:38 GMT
do you have to cut up the insects you feed them? since I will not have anywhere to do so as my gf is squeamish and will not allow me to cut up any in the house. Depends on what insects you're feeding them, as they can easily dismember and tear apart most soft insects like flies. Only if it is a hard bodied insect do you need to cut it open, such as beetles or meal worms; but this can be done outside and then you can feed the dead insects to your ants.  |
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Post by msi on Apr 20, 2012 18:43:19 GMT
I tend to cut up all my insects I give to my ants, just to make life a bit easier for them especially as I only got 10 workers
If your Gf don't like you cutting them up probably because you using her kitchen equipment? what I did was go buy a cheap pair of scissors from tesco they do the job of cutting up bugs easy and quickly.
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Post by Remson on Apr 20, 2012 19:35:48 GMT
haha I wouldnt dare use her kitchen equipment. shes small but leathel but the sissors is a good idea
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Post by msi on Apr 20, 2012 21:18:56 GMT
I think tomorrow I will try and cut up the cricket up into smaller bits than I do now and see if this helps. As I notice them moving the pieces I have cut up but they haven't moved far like 5cm from feeding area. so this be my little experiment |
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Post by Remson on Apr 20, 2012 22:15:43 GMT
let us know how that goes |
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Post by msi on Apr 23, 2012 19:09:27 GMT
Well from what I said I going to do this is what I have found; cutting into smaller bits with in reason does help increase food intake, I tried cutting into very small pieces but they seem to avoid them as I think the juice drain out, spoils faster and they will not eat spoiled food. I notice they prefer the small crickets that I buy in store cut into three equal bits as the pieces are smaller enough for them to carry back to the nest. I cut the crickets head of that is part one, part two is the no hoping leg section and the third part is the back end of the cricket. I seen that they favor the head and front legs over the back end part of the cricket. by the way this is going to be part of my research project thanks for giving me this idea, although it will be in much more depth. |
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