11 replies to this topic

[Hightlyze]

Why do we need to boil insects to feed ants, bake our soil? Ants thrived for millions of years and ovens didn't exist back then.

[Antennal_Scrobe]

Well In the wild, ant colonies die all the time, including from parasites, poisons, or pesticides. This is fine, as there are literally trillions of other ants ready to replace them. But an antkeeper has maybe a dozen colonies and queens in total, and can't just replace them the way mother nature would. And it's just better safe than sorry. Lots of people catch wild insects and their ants do just fine,but if you did get some pesticides or mites, you would regret not doing it the proper way.

[Canadian anter]

Ants also thrived for millions of years without pesticides

[AntPhycho]

It is much easier to freeze your feeders. The insect loses less nutrients when killed by way of freezing. 

[Serafine]

You don't need to boil food, in fact boiling makes the body fluids solid which is uncomfortable for most ants as adult ants cannot eat solid food (they just lick up the body fluids), only the larvae have chewing/chrushing mandibles.
I've been feeding frozen and freshly killed food for 2 years now and never had any issues. That mite thing is a complete hysteria, I never had feeder insects with parasitic mites and neither did any wild-caught insects have them (I sometimes catch spiders and when it's warm often kill lots house flies and green bottle flies with an electic fly swatter as my ants love those).

[Hightlyze]

I found it wondering in my house and o stepped on it to death then froze it

[AntPhycho]

As long as you froze it for a long period of time and you don't use any bug poison in your house chances are you'll be fine.

[Hightlyze]

As long as you froze it for a long period of time and you don't use any bug poison in your house chances are you'll be fine.

It was in the freezer for less than an hour

[Serafine]

It's dead, so you can feed it right away. Just make a quick check for obvious mites, if you don't see any it's most likely fine.

 

p.s. Next time try to kill it without spilling half of it's guts all over the place, you're ants will appreciate that (more food for them)

You can just catch it with a cup and then put it into the freezer over night.

Edited by Serafine, September 17 2019 - 1:56 AM.

[Martialis]

I neither boil insects nor bake soil. My ants are pretty okay.

One thing you should not do, however, is feed wild insects to your ants. That can be a surefire way to kill them: especially if said insects are pesticide resistant.

[Mettcollsuss]

I don't boil or freeze my feeders. I just crush the head. But never use wild-caught ones, as was previously stated.

[Antennal_Scrobe]

I always freeze my feeder insects, it's convenient to have a supply in the freezer. Wild termites are actually a great choice, not only are they are universally loved by ants, but because they very sensitive to pesticides, any termite with enough poison to hurt an ant would already be sick. Sadly I do not have easy access to them, but you probably do in the Philippines.