4 replies to this topic

[DJoseph98]

Alright, so I don't want to keep live crickets. They smell, they're noisy, and I am raising the much easier mealworms already. However, I want to offer my ant colonies a varied diet. So, I bought some freeze dried crickets that I plan to rehydrate to make more appealing. I looked all over the web and this site to try and see if anyone has specifically done this before but I found nothing. So, I will try this out and post results on this page. Right now I have a very small Tetramorium immigrans colony and a small Camponotus chromaiodes colony. I will post as soon as I have some results for the sake of the cumulative knowledge of the ant keeping world. If this does not interest any of my colonies, I'll just give it to my mealworms (they are cannibalistic so I don't think that I'll have to worry about their willingness to eat crickets).

[TennesseeAnts]

They will most likely refuse them. When water is reintroduced to insects, oxidation occurs.

[DJoseph98]

They will most likely refuse them. When water is reintroduced to insects, oxidation occurs.

How quickly are we talking? Over the course of an hour, a couple hours or overnight?

 

Edit: Since I have so few colonies I'm only rehydrating small pieces as needed, so only as much as they can eat in a day.

Edited by DJoseph98, July 16 2019 - 8:40 AM.

[TennesseeAnts]

As far as I know, it happens instantaneously.

[Boog]

I buy around 30 live young/medium crickets from the pet store, gut-load them for two days then throw them into the freezer. I take them out in under 5 minutes to immobilize them, then put them into a small airtight container with a little dry grain or oatmeal to keep the crickets from freezing together. Then I take a few out when I need to, defrost for a couple minutes before I feed my colony and they seem to enjoy it. I initially thought freeze dried would be a good option but then figured that housing the crickets for only 2 days every several months is not a hassle for me compared to worrying about rehydrating unappealing protein. I also pick up a small tube of fruit fly culture from the store to supplement with the crickets and other cooked meats occasionally.