Feeding Queens

Questions from those who are just starting or considering getting into the ant keeping hobby. If you’re intimidated or confused by the in-depth posts of the other sections of this forum, feel free to post here, and we'll start from square one!

Moderator: ooper01

Post Reply
JPSMedeiros

Feeding Queens

Post: # 4734Post JPSMedeiros
Sat Jan 16, 2016 6:36 pm

Hello, I caught my first 2 queens, as I said in a post in the identification area. My ants seem to be too skiny and one of them is very agitated, always trying to go go through the cotton, so I wounder if should I place some whater with sugar in a cotton so they can eat something and maybe calm down. The ants from AntsCanada videos seems to be very fat and I wounder if my specie of and(I live in Brazil, so it's a tropical ant) need to eat in this stage... Please help :?
Thanks.

JPSMedeiros

Re: Feeding Queens

Post: # 4735Post JPSMedeiros
Sat Jan 16, 2016 7:16 pm

Sorry i meant "wonder", "skinny" and "water".
Shame on me :oops: my english is not very good.

User avatar
ooper01
Head Moderator
Posts: 842
Joined: Sun Jul 26, 2015 1:07 am
Location: Utah, USA
Contact:

Re: Feeding Queens

Post: # 4737Post ooper01
Sat Jan 16, 2016 8:59 pm

Others here may have a more expert opinion on tropical ants, but offering your queens food should not be a problem. If they want it, they will eat it. If not, they will just leave it alone. That has been my experience with temperate species that I have kept.

You'll just want to make sure you clean up after them so as not to increase chances for mold. If you offer a honey drop, best to put it on a small piece of aluminum foil so that you can easily remove it and keep the test tube clean.
~ ooper

Forum Moderator
Image

User avatar
MadVampy
Main Forum Admin
Posts: 931
Joined: Wed Jul 22, 2015 6:19 am
Location: Alabama
Contact:

Re: Feeding Queens

Post: # 4739Post MadVampy
Sat Jan 16, 2016 10:25 pm

JPSMedeiros wrote:Sorry i meant "wonder", "skinny" and "water".
Shame on me :oops: my english is not very good.

Once I have a few workers I give them a little sugar water (honey works too but when it dries out it some times stays sticky and can trap the workers, sugar water just dies out to sugar crystals) for their first meal. Once I get about 10 workers I give then half of a meal worm. I only leave it in there for 1 day and no longer, by doing this the workers will get their fill (some times the queen will even eat some of it) and then by taking it out at that point I stop the chance of having mold start. I only raise Solneopsis Invicta species (which is a tropical ant).

And don't worry about your english, I know people who are born and raised in the United States and speak terrible english! :lol:
MadVampy

Head Forum Admin
Image
Name is also Mike but please don't confuse me with Mikey Bustos, two different people. :lol:
Keeper of Solenopsis Ants. :twisted:

JPSMedeiros

Re: Feeding Queens

Post: # 4747Post JPSMedeiros
Sun Jan 17, 2016 6:02 am

I've let a piece of cotton with sugar in the test tube for the night. I think that I should clean it, so I'll have to remove the queen to somewhere else, clean and put the queen there again?
Thanks for the adivices.

jonathan21700
Posts: 51
Joined: Mon Oct 19, 2015 1:09 pm
Location: Southern Europe

Re: Feeding Queens

Post: # 4755Post jonathan21700
Sun Jan 17, 2016 3:08 pm

Posted twice.
Last edited by jonathan21700 on Sun Jan 17, 2016 3:11 pm, edited 1 time in total.

jonathan21700
Posts: 51
Joined: Mon Oct 19, 2015 1:09 pm
Location: Southern Europe

Re: Feeding Queens

Post: # 4756Post jonathan21700
Sun Jan 17, 2016 3:09 pm

No need to clean. After she has finished eating just remove the cotton.

JPSMedeiros

Re: Feeding Queens

Post: # 4758Post JPSMedeiros
Sun Jan 17, 2016 4:18 pm

I don't know if she ate it, but i left it there for the entire night... in the morning I removed it.
Thanks for the advices. 8-)

Post Reply

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 9 guests