9 replies to this topic

[TheGamblingAnt]

Hello everyone,

I checked on my caponotous colony I have today and happened to notice two workers what appear to be eating some of the larvae. Is this something to be concerned about? I'm wondering if they're lacking protein and deciding to eat some of their brood for it? Been having trouble with them wanting to eat, they e taken the sugar water good but protein wise they haven't been eating the things I've had and tried. Tried giving them some chicken, crickets, fish flakes and fish pellets. Theyve taken everything and just thrown it in the garbage pile. I ordered some fruit flies so will try them next when I get them tomorrow. Just wondering if this is normal? Maybe this larvae died and they are eating it? I'm not really sure if that's even a thing? I'm still learning! Any help/suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

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[AntBoi3030]

They are likley lacking protien. I'd suggest trying thoose fruit flies you got, my Camponotus loves fruit flies. You can also go outside and collect insects in a pestisides free area. All ants love termites if you can get your hands on some of thoose.

[ANTdrew]

Make sure the crickets are fresh and still juicy inside. Ants like Camponotus eat an almost exclusively liquid diet, so don’t feed them dry fish foods anymore. Wet cat food and frozen bloodworms could be two good options you could try besides mixing in more insect feeders like fruit flies or dubias.

[TheGamblingAnt]

Makes sense yeah they didn't like the dry food at all. The crickets I have them in the freezer, then I dipped them in boiling water for a few seconds, and cut it in half. Woke up in the morning and both halves were in their little garbage pile. Now today tried fruit flies. Again froze them for 30 minutes to kill them. I didn't dip the fruit flies in boiling water, just gave them straight to the ants from the freezer. Checked back on them 30 minutes later and all 5 of the fruit flies i gave them were also in the trash pile. I'm stumped.

[TheGamblingAnt]

Still can't get these camponotus to eat any protein. So far now tried frozen and boiled crickets. Fresh boiled crickets. Live fruit flies (they quickly hunted and killed them and put them in trash pile) dead fruit flies, mealworms, super worms, egg yolk, baked chicken, and ground beef. They are gladly accepting sugar water but no protein at all. Should I just keep trying until they do want to accept it? They've got a small pile of brood so I'd assume they want it but they just refuse.

[AntBoi3030]

Do they have any kind of heat source? Like a heat cable or heat mat? What is the temperature of the room do you keep them in?

[TheGamblingAnt]

Yes they have a heat cable that is connected to a thermostat. So the heat cable has been off now for several weeks because it's warm enough in my house. Temperatures fluctuate between about 90 with daytime highs and mid 70s as overnight lows. They're kept in a closet in my room where I have a dim light on during the day and dark at night for all my ants. It's still a small colony in a 20mmx150mm test tube with a small 4x4 inch outworld attached

[Mushu]

Is the queen laying eggs at the moment?

When you feed them mealworms or crickets cut up, do you notice if they are slurping up the juices? Sometimes they will drag protein in and other times they just process(I’ve seen a worker come out through the hole of a honeybee abdomen as I was picking it out with a tweezer) and leave the exoskeleton in the outworld. I’ve also seen the same with a large dubia roach abdomen that they cleaned out. Typically if they don’t process, I can see the dried out bits still on the exoskeleton, but it was empty. They may still be feeding. I would follow ANTdrew’s advice and not boil the cricket and feed it with juicy bits intact.

I’m sure there are perhaps times when the larvae or pupae failed development and they are recycled. I occasionally see the processing of a larvae or pupae.

Edited by Mushu, June 26 2025 - 7:24 AM.

[ANTdrew]

Crickets should still be flash boiled to prevent mites. A three second dip will not ruin the juiciness *if* the crickets are fresh.

[Mushu]

Crickets should still be flash boiled to prevent mites. A three second dip will not ruin the juiciness *if* the crickets are fresh.

Indeed, if a short dip in boil doesn’t remove just bits all the better. I’m too lazy to dip in boiling water and have luckily not have a huge outburst in mites but they are around as I found a dead roach outside the bin and a bunch of mites on them. I’m sure I’ll probably go that extra step, if it does happen and mites explode on one of my colonies from leftover food left out too long in the outworld. I’m pretty diligent in cleaning the outworld from insect bits. They usually just dry out luckily in southern cal, so I’m just shifting the work to cleaning the outworld more often. However I foresee me dreading to open the outworld when as often when the outworks herd too packed and they break down the slip barrier quicker.

Edited by Mushu, June 26 2025 - 11:09 AM.