# velvet ant care



## Widowman10 (May 30, 2007)

did the research and this is what i think is good to keep velvet ants: on a dry substrate (sand) with a little hide, and a dish with something to drink/eat (i have 6 parts water to 1 part honey). is this good?


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## beetleman (May 30, 2007)

sounds good to me i used to have them and that's how i kept them,i kept mine seperate of each other too. you could also try apple/strawberry other fruit nectors etc. they are really cool wasps.


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## Stylopidae (May 30, 2007)

Has anyone ever figured out how to breed them?

Last I heard, someone was trying to use zophobas pupae.


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## cacoseraph (May 30, 2007)

i had a big black and red girl from California

i just fed it honey drops on one side and misted the other. it would drink from both sides, iirc.

i think she lived like 3-5 months. can't quite recall.


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## myrmecophile (May 30, 2007)

They are generally considered to be parasites on ground nesting Hymenoptera. The odds of getting them accept a host other than Hymenoptera is about zero


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## Stylopidae (May 31, 2007)

myrmecophile said:


> They are generally considered to be parasites on ground nesting Hymenoptera. The odds of getting them accept a host other than Hymenoptera is about zero


Now that there's some wasp keepers here, do you think it would be possible to use paper wasp pupae?


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## myrmecophile (Jun 1, 2007)

Not too likely, all our species in the States are ground dwellers and apparently utilize ground nesting species as hosts.


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## Stylopidae (Jun 1, 2007)

myrmecophile said:


> Not too likely, all our species in the States are ground dwellers and apparently utilize ground nesting species as hosts.



How specific are they?


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## myrmecophile (Jun 1, 2007)

Alas that is not all that well known.


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## Tleilaxu (Jun 1, 2007)

I have _read_ some reports that one species of velvet ant will target bumblebee nests, I do not know what type of Vant this is though, most velvet ant host items remain unknown.


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## ta2edpop (Jun 4, 2007)

I thought that there host(s) kinda varied by area. I have caught and kepy several around my house. Just enjoy watching them.


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