Feeders for ants

[nepenthes]

Hey their all I'm new to you're forum and have a few young ant colonys, and am interested in starting feeder colony's, and was wondering what you guys think would be the best feeder for ants? I usually buy common meal worms and just cut off the head, but this leads to less variety which ants love, so I want to start my own small cultures with out the worry of Mites infesting my colony's.

I was looking at Turkish Roaches, and Those Super worms that get like 2 inches long (that arent the meal worms), for my larger colony's that will require 2-3 meal worms sooner or later. I had also been looking at Lobster roaches, but was never sure which was easiest or which was best.

Thanks for any help!

 

[the_frog_kid]

all of those are good
turkish roaches breed WAY to quikly for ants lol
super worms are good but i think you should stick with normals untill you fully look up how to breed super worms
it takes alot of energy
i had 250 pupate and 200 made it to beetle
how i have 6000 visible ones and tons of eggs hatching everyday
lobsters also breed fast but if you keep them cold they will slow down




thanx froggy

 

[nepenthes]

Well I need lots of food for my Nepenthes (a kind of carnivorous plant) as well so I can always spare a few extra! Right now about 2-3 colony's can consume a good sized meal worm in about 2 days, and be ready for another one. most of my other colony's can go about 4-5 days with out needing another one, this includes a good bit of sugar water and honey. And A colony that has an unlimited supply of food would grow allot faster than one that is feed on a regular schedule.

Thanks for that info though

 

[the_frog_kid]

breed small mealies then
i started with 1000 and now i have over 10,000
put them in a 10 gallon tank with with bran on one side and dry coco fiber on the other
if you have enough mealies it doesnt even matter if the bran and coco fiber gets wet
my rubber maid had bran and coco fiber and i mist it daily
keep them at room temp and they will pupate and do everything them selves




thanx froggy

 

[nepenthes]

Ill probably do that, Do I have to feed the Meal worms any thing? I have like 3 deep rubber made or what ever they are called and I will probably do that. But I think a few roaches would really help with some variety in their food with out so much worry of pesticides and things like that. I guess I could always order 20 or so and feed them to the Ants every now and then.

Thanks for all the help. Ill see you around the forums.

 

[the_frog_kid]

i feed my "sick-old-sub-par" roaches to my mealies as well and some "used" coco fiber from my cane toad tank
vegies work wel tho
i also throw in the roaches that die and dig out the pronotums once a month
they get dried leaves and some of my roach diet (roach diet once or twice a year since it is powder and expensive)




thanx froggy

 

[Ant Worker]

Hi nep! Glad to see you! Really with only a few colonies I don't see the need to go into all the effort in raising food! buying some sort of food is fine, I have many many colonies durring the summer time and I just buy a dozen large crickets every other week and feed them. The raising of food takes too much time and energy and you won't get the time you want with your ants.

- Lee

 

[syndicate]

during the warmer parts of the year is rather ez to find insects outside to feed as prey for your ants

 

[Galapoheros]

My first thoughts were the same as Ant Worker's but I don't know how much bug stuff you have. I tried catching allot of bugs at streetlights and freezing them for winter a long time ago, but that didn't work out very well. Maybe you could get that to work. I raised crix over the summer but I was and still am overloaded with centipedes so there were plenty of things to feed. I'm about to do the roach thing. My crix just died off when it got cooler. Are mites a big problem for ants? I like the idea of catching food for them in the warmer months but some would be worried about mites. I don't know what sp of mites ants get but I've had a bigger prob with introducing mites with store bought mealworms and crickets than with catching food from the wild.

 

[nepenthes]

ants are more suseptable to mites in captivity than they are in the wild for some reason, My theory is they don't get proper air circulation, mites like it humid, And mights will survive only in certain parts of a colony out in the wild the parts that have more humidity or something. Just a theory no proof behind it though.

I dont have much bug stuff but you guys have to understand its kind of fun to see a Cricket or some kind of insect struggle in the pitcher of a Nepenthes
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y17/alaskaheadbanger/Carnivors/6b9baa4d.jpg

 

[cliff]

all of those are good
turkish roaches breed WAY to quikly for ants lol
super worms are good but i think you should stick with normals untill you fully look up how to breed super worms
it takes alot of energy
i had 250 pupate and 200 made it to beetle
how i have 6000 visible ones and tons of eggs hatching everyday
lobsters also breed fast but if you keep them cold they will slow down




thanx froggy

Question froggy, I have read about breeding super worms. Single worm packed in whatever in a film can or whatever. You say you had 200 become beetles and now have 6000. Do they ever pupate to beetle on their own? Or do you have to go through the whole process every time ? How long do the beetles live and reproduce?

Thanx

Cliff :?