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Feeding ants wild termites?


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8 replies to this topic

#1 Offline Temperateants - Posted March 4 2021 - 2:11 PM

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Sorry if this has been asked or said before, but I remember someone saying that termites are very sensitive to pesticides? So it would be fairly safe to catch some wild termites to feed to my ants, since they wouldn't be contaminated? Thanks.


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#2 Offline antsandmore - Posted March 4 2021 - 2:14 PM

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Sorry if this has been asked or said before, but I remember someone saying that termites are very sensitive to pesticides? So it would be fairly safe to catch some wild termites to feed to my ants, since they wouldn't be contaminated? Thanks.

It should be ok, I personally had no problems, but make sure to freeze them. It can kill parasites, but the bigger reason is to not stress out your ants.


Ants I am keeping:

 none for now, planning on being more active this year


#3 Offline Temperateants - Posted March 4 2021 - 2:28 PM

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Sorry if this has been asked or said before, but I remember someone saying that termites are very sensitive to pesticides? So it would be fairly safe to catch some wild termites to feed to my ants, since they wouldn't be contaminated? Thanks.

It should be ok, I personally had no problems, but make sure to freeze them. It can kill parasites, but the bigger reason is to not stress out your ants.

 

Nowaday's I freeze and boil, so it should be fine.


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#4 Offline antsandmore - Posted March 4 2021 - 2:34 PM

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Sorry if this has been asked or said before, but I remember someone saying that termites are very sensitive to pesticides? So it would be fairly safe to catch some wild termites to feed to my ants, since they wouldn't be contaminated? Thanks.

It should be ok, I personally had no problems, but make sure to freeze them. It can kill parasites, but the bigger reason is to not stress out your ants.

 

Nowaday's I freeze and boil, so it should be fine.

 

yep! you got it!


Ants I am keeping:

 none for now, planning on being more active this year


#5 Offline Superant33 - Posted March 4 2021 - 3:58 PM

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I feed my ants all the termites I can get. They love them. And I don’t bother to kill them first. My ponerines love them and prefer live food.
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#6 Offline KitsAntVa - Posted March 5 2021 - 5:19 AM

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Yes my medium ants prefer to hunt so every time I have the chance with termites I feed them those. Although when you freeze them they do shrivel up so its better to catch them when you need them.


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We don’t talk about that

#7 Offline gs5248 - Posted March 7 2021 - 11:14 AM

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Yeah, every time I find some, and feed some to my ants, they go crazy for them. Pesticides are generally not an issue for termites, but remember to only collect healthy looking termites, and to only collect from places you are sure pesticide were not sprayed in.



#8 Offline Antcatcherpro3 - Posted March 8 2021 - 9:02 AM

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I have tried to feed my ants termites before, but they ended up never eating them so I had to take them out. I tried feeding them dead also.



#9 Offline gs5248 - Posted March 8 2021 - 9:15 AM

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True, not all ants will like them.






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