Predator/Prey Environments

TiberiusAlaric

Arachnopeon
Joined
Jul 8, 2006
Messages
26
Is it possible to maintain a predator/prey environment within a reasonably large enough 'container' with ants and antlions or any other species of insects?
 

KennyGee

Arachnoknight
Old Timer
Joined
Jun 27, 2006
Messages
214
Sure lol i dont see any problem. Just need to get the enviroment just right for something like that to work.
 

TiberiusAlaric

Arachnopeon
Joined
Jul 8, 2006
Messages
26
KennyGee said:
Sure lol i dont see any problem. Just need to get the enviroment just right for something like that to work.
Heh, thanks.

Anyone have any experience with this? :cool:
 

crashergs

Arachnobaron
Old Timer
Joined
Jan 20, 2006
Messages
509
i have antlions....

and boy are they fun to feed, i feed them baby cockroaches, black widows, all types of spiders, other ant lions, crickets, and pretty much anything that I believe will not over whelm them... and they are HUGE its cute to take them outta their enclosure, i use washed out playground sand so they can make perfect cones in the dirt for them to trap prey....

if you do have a large enough container, yes you can, id say a 1:3 ratio, 1 being the antlions and 3 being the prey.

also you must consider that some antlions are more dominant and will eat more and make larger cones in the sand, and some overlap the smaller antlions and eventually will die from their lil holes being covered by the other lions, so a large enclosure is good.
 

dtknow

Arachnoking
Old Timer
Joined
Aug 18, 2004
Messages
2,239
Look around in a dry sandy area at this time of year. They are very common along the side of trails providing they don't get any foot or ORV traffic.

Crashergs: I doubt the little guys are dying from their pits being covered...they are getting eaten.
 

TiberiusAlaric

Arachnopeon
Joined
Jul 8, 2006
Messages
26
:cool: Thanks for the replies, guys. :) It will be a long time before I'm able to do this so I'm just going to learn all that I can about ant lions, ants, and what I can do to ensure a successful prey/predator relationship between them.
 

crashergs

Arachnobaron
Old Timer
Joined
Jan 20, 2006
Messages
509
i bought my antlions from


http://antlionfarms.com/

i dont recommend you purchase their sand, its plaster dirt which hardens when you wet the soil and is very nasty looking, get some play sand from home depot and buy a oval candle holder (the ones where you can put a floating candle in water) works beautiful1!!
 

TiberiusAlaric

Arachnopeon
Joined
Jul 8, 2006
Messages
26
crashergs said:
i bought my antlions from


http://antlionfarms.com/

i dont recommend you purchase their sand, its plaster dirt which hardens when you wet the soil and is very nasty looking, get some play sand from home depot and buy a oval candle holder (the ones where you can put a floating candle in water) works beautiful1!!

If you don't mind, give me some updates on your antlions. Tell me what they're all about.
 

crashergs

Arachnobaron
Old Timer
Joined
Jan 20, 2006
Messages
509
they are doing good, really not much to tell you, pretty much they live about a year in their larvae stage.

goto http://antlionfarms.com

and check out their videos and stuff, good info there, but kinda childish, if you want to get more detailed, use google.

cheers!
 

zinto

Arachnoknight
Old Timer
Joined
May 12, 2006
Messages
266
I used to have some antlions as well. They are definitely some very cool critters! Although I have no experience with this, I heard the antlions eat alot before they stop feeding. You may need large numbers of ants or whatever you're using to ensure the prey's survival. Just something I heard though - you'll have to experiment.
 
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