55 replies to this topic

[Kaelwizard]

I'd like to thank everyone for their participation, feedback, and questions in this thread.  Unfortunately, the discussion has veered vastly off the original topic and the other discussions ongoing would be better discussed in their own thread.  Doing so would make the information easier to find for other users interested in the same topic.

I agree and would like to apologize for being responsible for a lot of it.

[BugFinder]

Many people do feed urea to their captive Camponotus colonies.

 

how does one go about that?   I had a joke ready about pissing in my ants outworld, but it was a serious question.

[Kaelwizard]

Many people do feed urea to their captive Camponotus colonies.

how does one go about that? I had a joke ready about pissing in my ants outworld, but it was a serious question.

Someone did something similar... Most people collect urea from bird feces. I heard somewhere that roaches are a good source of it as well.

Edited by Kaelwizard, March 5 2021 - 8:22 AM.

[BugFinder]

How long does sunburst last in the refrigerator after being opened?

[AleeGuy]

I believe the Blochmannia use urea to help the Camponotus get amino acids or something like that. When looking it up it was a little too complicated for me to understand.

https://bmcbiol.biom.../1741-7007-5-48
after 90 days feeding Camponotus with 15N tagged urea the results of it was this:

Urease function was confirmed by feeding experiments using 15N-labelled urea. GC-MS analysis of 15N-enrichment of free amino acids in workers revealed significant labelling of the non-essential amino acids alanine, glycine, aspartic acid, and glutamic acid, as well as of the essential amino acids methionine and phenylalanine.

I'm not sure what type of urea is it so don't know if human urea will work out but it does actually helps .

Edit: Sorry for still taking about it, didn't noticed the post from Drtmiller.

Edited by AleeGuy, March 5 2021 - 8:45 AM.

[antsandmore]

Many people do feed urea to their captive Camponotus colonies.

yes. I'm pretty sure Wegmier did that for his camponotus colony.

[AleeGuy]

Many people do feed urea to their captive Camponotus colonies.

yes. I'm pretty sure Wegmier did that for his camponotus colony.

Same, I've seen people do it on Discord.

Edited by AleeGuy, March 5 2021 - 8:45 AM.

[drtrmiller]

How long does sunburst last in the refrigerator after being opened?

 

Sunburst doesn't require refrigeration, and I don't refrigerate the Sunburst I personally use because the ants prefer warmer liquids.  The shelf life at room temperature is at least 6 months after opening as long as the bottle remains tightly closed when not in use.

 

Product degradation is primarily caused by exposure to carbon dioxide in air.  So keeping the bottle tightly closed is more important than decreasing the temperature.

The shelf life was established after a product study in Feb 2018.  There have been several improvements to the manufacturing process since then.

I have partial bottles from 2019 in which the quality control parameters I measure are virtually the same as when it was manufactured.

Edited by drtrmiller, March 5 2021 - 8:53 AM.

[BugFinder]

 

How long does sunburst last in the refrigerator after being opened?

 

Sunburst doesn't require refrigeration, and I don't refrigerate the Sunburst I personally use because the ants prefer warmer liquids.  The shelf life at room temperature is at least 6 months after opening as long as the bottle remains tightly closed when not in use.

 

Product degradation is primarily caused by exposure to carbon dioxide in air.  So keeping the bottle tightly closed is more important than slowing the rate of degradation by decreasing the temperature.

The shelf life was established after a product study in Feb 2018.  There have been several improvements to the manufacturing process since then.

I have partial bottles from 2019 in which the quality control parameters I measure are virtually the same as when it was manufactured.

 

 

Thanks for mentioning not to refrigerate.  I'll stop doing that.  I have a bottle from july or August 2020.  should I offer it and allow them to decide if it's ok or not, or should I discard it?  TIA.

[drtrmiller]

 

 

How long does sunburst last in the refrigerator after being opened?

 

Sunburst doesn't require refrigeration, and I don't refrigerate the Sunburst I personally use because the ants prefer warmer liquids.  The shelf life at room temperature is at least 6 months after opening as long as the bottle remains tightly closed when not in use.

 

Product degradation is primarily caused by exposure to carbon dioxide in air.  So keeping the bottle tightly closed is more important than slowing the rate of degradation by decreasing the temperature.

The shelf life was established after a product study in Feb 2018.  There have been several improvements to the manufacturing process since then.

I have partial bottles from 2019 in which the quality control parameters I measure are virtually the same as when it was manufactured.

 

 

Thanks for mentioning not to refrigerate.  I'll stop doing that.  I have a bottle from july or August 2020.  should I offer it and allow them to decide if it's ok or not, or should I discard it?  TIA.

 

 

Product sold last year was manufactured in the same year.  The expiration date is on the bottom left corner of the label, and is 2 years from the date of manufacture.

Sunburst that has lost its potency may have a more cloudy appearance, and/or you may observe a decrease in how receptive the ants are to it.  So if the Sunburst you have is still transparent and the ants still drink it readily, there is no need to discard or replace it.

[FSTP]

For me Sunburst is definitely better then making and using sugar water, or hummingbird's nectar. This for the simple reason of convenience. I don't have hundreds of colonies to feed, just a hand full of large established colonies. 

[gs5248]

For me Sunburst is definitely better then making and using sugar water, or hummingbird's nectar. This for the simple reason of convenience. I don't have hundreds of colonies to feed, just a hand full of large established colonies. 

Yeah, sunburst is definitely convenient. Some days, i just don't give my ants sugar sources because I don't want to have to prepare it for all my colonies.

[Canadant]

Well here is another reason I use Sunburst (other than just convenience and the fact that all my ants love it) is colour coding. I have two byformica feeders in each outworld. One is yellow and one is clear (water). I can't mix them up!

[gs5248]

Yeah. But you could just use food coloring in sugarwater.

[FSTP]

Yeah. But you could just use food coloring in sugarwater.

 

 

That's true. However, personally,  I don't really like deal dealing with food coloring. It can be messy and staining. 

Edited by FSTP, March 7 2021 - 7:05 PM.

[gs5248]

Very true.