5 replies to this topic

[MrPurpleB]

I found some Carpet Beetle larvae in an old bag of grains. I was wondering if these larvae would be fine for ants to consume. I scooped up a portion of the chewed up grains into a container. I find their color and pattern somewhat interesting. 

 

 

 

[dermy]

I'm not too sure they are the greatest for ants, seeing as they are all hairy and not much protein as say crickets, or mealworms. But if it gets you to keep them.... You got a nice species that doesn't take too long to reproduce, I'm not 100% on the species exactly but it's not Attagenus which take forever to grow (I have a 6 year old colony that just barely reached 1000+) These look like Anthrenus species.

[MrPurpleB]

I also thought they look similar to the Anthrenus species, I don't trust my eyes too much so I had my doubts. I probably won't use the larvae as main source, I have a quite a nice supply of fruit flies at the moment.

Glad to see they won't go to waste. I appreciate your response. I am curious on just having a culture of these. I will probably start to look into that. Do the hairs give the ants trouble?

[ponerinecat]

Not good food unless you're keeping an ant like thaumatymyrmex, but the adults will work and larvae could act as a clean up crew. They consume everything organic.

[dermy]

The one life stage I could see being useful might be pupae, they aren't as hairy as larvae and have something more than beetle exoskeleton. However a lot of species don't make very big pupae or even just simply pupate inside the last larval cast skin. I'm not too sure about feeding them to ants, ie. the hairs, but I guess you can always squish them and the ants can get to the guts inside (they aren't very tough like a mealworm).

[MrPurpleB]

I see thanks for the responses. Yeah, I may just add a couple with their fruit flies just to see how they react. I don't have plans for any natural setups, but if I do these can help a lot.