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Surrogate Experiments/Journal


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#1 Offline SuperFrank - Posted July 4 2019 - 5:32 PM

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i have been very interested in using a honeydew surrogate as a sole food source for awhile now. I successfully used one as a sole food source for a Camponotus floridanus colony and would like to experiment further and document my findings. So far i have been using an amino acid supplement called Amino Blast made by a company called body fortress, there is nothing special about it other than that it was on clearance at my local walmart and didn't kill my ants when i gave it to them, so I've just kind of rolled with it. I have noticed it contains a larger variety of amino acids than most other supplements i have looked at, it also contains electrolytes. It also contains artificial colors and sweeteners but hey that's the spice of life. I have been using a ratio of anywhere from 1:1 to 1:4 amino acid powder to surrogate, and ususally enough water to dissolve it into a syrupy consitency, i use hot but not boiling water as i have read higher temps begin to break down the amino acids. At first i was simply playing around but i began using it more and more and then just to see i stopped giving a young C floridanus colony all other food sources except for the surrogate for several months and they continued to produce eggs and grow, and i experienced no mass die offs. So for some initial tests this is what i am doing: I have 10 fertile (assumed, all with larvae) queens from 5 species, Camponotus floridanus, Crematogaster pinicola, Dorymyrmex bureni, Pheidole bicarinata, and Pheidole metallescens. 1 test and 1 control for each species. the test colonies will all be recieving nothing but the surrogate or variations of it ( i am concerned about vitamin deficiency in the long term) the control colonies will be recieving normal fare. I also have at least 1 or 2 additional founding queens from each species in the same stage of development so i may include an additional batch of test subjects before they all get nanitcs.

 

July 1, 2019:

All test queens recieved a single drop of surrogate consisting of a 1:4 powder/sugar ratio, controls recieved nothing

they are in kind of a haphazard setup currently but i will build a little box with some foam cutouts for them.


Edited by SuperFrank, July 4 2019 - 6:33 PM.

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#2 Offline yfaykya - Posted July 5 2019 - 1:43 PM

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Fair play! I love to see this type of stuff. Advancing our knowledge. 


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#3 Offline drtrmiller - Posted July 5 2019 - 5:43 PM

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Before trying to invent a wheel from scratch, consider reading every relevant thing I wrote in this forum, and study the work of the Straka and Feldhaar diet.


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#4 Offline SuperFrank - Posted July 9 2019 - 4:35 PM

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Before trying to invent a wheel from scratch, consider reading every relevant thing I wrote in this forum, and study the work of the Straka and Feldhaar diet.

thanks for your advice and info! I will definitely read up on your prior posts regarding the subject and the paper regarding Straka and Feldhaar's floridanus diet.






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