3 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.