Paper Wasp Larvae Rescued -- What to feed them?

[Humbug]

Hi, this is my first post here.
A nest of paper wasps was knocked down on my property and I managed to save the abandoned nest, including its larvae.
The adult wasps appear to have left and I have been caring for the larvae for a few days.

The larvae have been eating honey, and seem to enjoy it, but I am worried they need something else to eat, as research says they need fresh insect protein.
I have access to dried black soldierfly larvae and live horseflies, but I'm not sure either of those are a good substitute for caterpillar meat.
Any advice is appreciated.

 

[IntermittentSygnal]

Western Paper Wasp (M. flavitarsis) in captivity

Just thought I'd share some pictures of my setup and progress so far-- feel free to ask any questions or talk shop about your own setup. I don't believe any others have tried this species yet in captivity, but if they're near you, I think it's worth a try if you're at all interested. Time to...

arachnoboards.com

 

[wauce]

It's quite hard without an adult paper wasp, because the adult paper wasps maxillate the prey with their saliva, which I gather partially digests it for them and also takes care of the delicate process of feeding itself.

I'd try to capture a paper wasp that looks like the same species in the same area and see if it'll adopt the colony. Then, you can feed them dead insects and the adult will take care of processing the prey and feeding the larvae.

Second option would be to take some goldfish flakes and add very minimal amounts of distilled or purified water and mix it until you have a "dough" of sorts. Then you can try and offer tiny amounts to the larvae on the end of a needle or toothpick.

 

[XxMochiixX]

Hi, this is my first post here.
A nest of paper wasps was knocked down on my property and I managed to save the abandoned nest, including its larvae.
The adult wasps appear to have left and I have been caring for the larvae for a few days.

The larvae have been eating honey, and seem to enjoy it, but I am worried they need something else to eat, as research says they need fresh insect protein.
I have access to dried black soldierfly larvae and live horseflies, but I'm not sure either of those are a good substitute for caterpillar meat.
Any advice is appreciated.

In this sort of situation i've used pre-killed mealworms (with the head removed) and squeezed the fluids from the mealworm onto the mouth of the larva with a lot of success - they eat it really rapidly if they've been hungry for a while! I only feed them as much as they'll eat in about 5 minutes, otherwise the uneaten parts harden and get stuck around the head of the larva and are hard to remove. And like suggested above goldfish flakes work great too. Small 1st and 2nd instar larvae will need a liquid protein diet and can't really ingest solids. It helps to use a toothpick with insect fluids to feed them.