5 replies to this topic

[PupHadrian]

I'm preparing for my first colony. I'm getting a lasius niger queen with some workers. It's a very small colony for now.

I've been preparing for their arrival. I've got frozen crickets, dried tubeworms, mealworms and will have isopods soon. I also have honey and two flavors of syrup. I have a ton of questions though. I want to give a wide variety so they have different food every day.

Can they eat jello, jelly/jam, fairies (like cheese and ice cream), scrambled eggs, cooked potato or raw, candy like gumnybear reeses cups and stuff, cinnamon applesauce, pudding, soda, koolaid or mangos?

I guess a better question is, what are foods we don't want to feed them, ever? Like super acidic fruits like oranges, lemons and limes? Or tomatoes?

I want to know everything, or at least as much as I can.

[PupHadrian]

And I can't edit from my phone. Eep, the stupid autocorrect got me and I didn't notice.

[KBant]

They need three things. Sugar, protein and water. I wouldn’t experiment too much with untested foods. Your colony will be young, with only a few workers I’m guessing. If you do want to test out all those food options, wait until they are larger in numbers and try out whatever you want by isolating a few workers and giving them the experimental food. If they die shortly after or even a few days after, don’t feed to the rest of the colony.

[Serafine]

I've been preparing for their arrival. I've got frozen crickets, dried tubeworms, mealworms and will have isopods soon. I also have honey and two flavors of syrup. I have a ton of questions though. I want to give a wide variety so they have different food every day.

Can they eat jello, jelly/jam, fairies (like cheese and ice cream), scrambled eggs, cooked potato or raw, candy like gumnybear reeses cups and stuff, cinnamon applesauce, pudding, soda, koolaid or mangos?

I guess a better question is, what are foods we don't want to feed them, ever? Like super acidic fruits like oranges, lemons and limes? Or tomatoes?

Generally ants prefer moist/wet food, dry food gets mostly ignored.

Crickets, mealworms, fruit flies, green bottle flies, terflies, wild spiders, beetle grubs, roaches, locusts and all sorts of insects are okay, isopods are probably too hard to crack though (usually the ants just ignore them).

Lasius niger will probably eat jelly if it isn't too dry (my Camponotus don't). I've also seen large groups of Lasius niger on the pavement drinking spilled milk and icecream, not sure if it's really a good food for them though. They probably won't eat gummybears (ants seem to prefer liquid sugars) and I'm not sure of Lasius is semi-granivorous and can eat plant stuff.

They will definitely eat wet cat food but if your ants aren't semi-granivorous (eat seeds and nuts) make sure it is pure meat. My Camponotus love cat food that's made out of fish & meat.

Scrambled eggs is okay, all sorts of fruits are okay (make sure they haven't been poisoned, only buy organic stuff), not sure about pudding and similar stuff. Do NOT give your ants baking soda (raw bicarbonate is toxic for ants, it wrecks their ion balance).

You can take a look at my Lazy Tube Camponotus journal, the first post has a long list of potential food stuff you can try.

 

For sugars my ants prefer Sunburst and diluted maple syrup. I've tried a lot of stuff (sugar water, sugar molasses, agave syrup, coconut flower syrup, diluted honey, etc.) all of which only gets consumed if there's no Sunburst or diluted maple syrup. You could also try stuff like organic juices of all kinds (didn't try those yet).

 

Basically test around and see what they like. Avoid stuff that is too dry (except fish food, that might work even dry).

Edited by Serafine, March 6 2018 - 12:26 AM.

[Naturenut1233]

I provide a variety at any given time so they have choices, such as two sugar sources at the same time or two proteins, etc. My camponotus liked jelly belly brand jelly beans broken in half so they could get to the center. They didn't like grape jelly however, but some of my lasius did. I kind of experiment. One colony of camponotus likes spiders, one does not. I feed cat food sometimes but it goes largely ignored, as does fish food. They seem to like slivers of grapes. I just try to add in stables such as honey and spiders, then experiment with other things for variety. I figure the ants will know what they need and want. But I'm new to all this.

[Naturenut1233]

Here is a post you might appreciate. http://www.formicult...ood-by-species/