Anyone try peanut butter?

[Delmonte]

Hello everyone. I'm new to ant keeping and my queens that i caught last year eggs have finally hatched. I tried feeding them meat and I know they eat it because the parent nest that I got them from eat it. Bad thing is is that the meat I give them molds after a couple days. I was hoping peanut butter might work? I leave my pb in the cabinet unrefrigerated and it never molds. I want to try to give them a food combo of both sugar and protein. So they get the energy they need and the larva get the protein they need. I'm worried about my queens starving because I got them last September and they haven't eaten anything since. I did put a drop of honey in their home so I hope they got ahold of it. I have them in a dirt home so I can't tell if they get the food or not cause the honey sinks into the dirt. They are really smalls ants so I know they hardly need anything to eat. Thank you for the replies. I put some pb in their homes today. I'll keep you guys posted on how it goes.

[Carl75]

Use a lid to put food/sugar water etc on. You should then see the workers feed/drink. They then feed the queen and lava.

[Delmonte]

Well bad news. I found out peanut butter does mold. At least with moisture and dirt envolved. Although it might be a fungus. Anyway my whole dirt home molded/fungused for my ants. Luckily I managed to take out all the dirt except for a few particles and modified their home so they no longer need dirt. Hopefully they get accostumed to their new place. I managed to not hurt a single ant or egg/larva/pupa. Almost lost a few though lol. I'm hoping that the mold/fungus doesn't come back with the few particles of dirt in there. I'll check on them in a couple days cause I know you should disturb them as little as possible. I'll keep you guys posted.

Oh Carl75 I started using a piece of plastic to set their food on. Thanks for the suggestion

[Delmonte]

I'm testing out the honey idea if it grows mold now. Every time I put pb in there even on plastic it molds. I put some honey on plastic to see if this molds too. My ants are still active and the queens continue to lay eggs in their dirtless home. I had to remove the dirt from another nest cause of mold problems. Hopefully they adjust to their new home. I have one queen left in a dirt home. This colony seems to be the strongest and largest one out of all of them. Hopefully mold doesn't get to this one too. I'm going to go to the store and get some meal worms or crickets for my colonies. I'm done using pb. I want to make sure my queens are well fed with protein so they lay as many eggs as possible and are able to feed their young. I'll continue to keep you all posted. Any other good ideas for food for my colonies would be helpful. Thank you everyone.

[larynx]

I'm testing out the honey idea if it grows mold now. Every time I put pb in there even on plastic it molds. I put some honey on plastic to see if this molds too. My ants are still active and the queens continue to lay eggs in their dirtless home. I had to remove the dirt from another nest cause of mold problems. Hopefully they adjust to their new home. I have one queen left in a dirt home. This colony seems to be the strongest and largest one out of all of them. Hopefully mold doesn't get to this one too. I'm going to go to the store and get some meal worms or crickets for my colonies. I'm done using pb. I want to make sure my queens are well fed with protein so they lay as many eggs as possible and are able to feed their young. I'll continue to keep you all posted. Any other good ideas for food for my colonies would be helpful. Thank you everyone.

just make sure to clean up after feeding insects. i seen that most of the mold ive found has come from unchecked insect parts.

[MadVampy]

Remember you can alsoget protein from beans, seeds and such also in their raw form (small birds get theirs from seeds too). Try placing a broken up raw peanut or soybean in a cap, also try plain untreated bird seed (the kind you feed birds) in a small cap too. Just a thought.