Weird Tetramorium behavior?

[JDSweetMeat]

I captured a wild colony of about 100-150 Tetramorium, 1 queen, and about 100-200 brood nesting under the top layer of bark of a cut-down dead tree in Southern Illinois.

I scooped them into a plastic jar, along with a decent amount of the decayed tree, sawdust shavings, and several pieces of bark that they had built their nest in.

They have moved their brood, the queen, and the majority of workers under a piece of wood (they tunneled the debris out). I more or less expected this behavior, as I have some experience observing Tetramorium behavior.

After giving them 8-10 hours to settle into their temporary home while I find more suitable long-term living arrangements for them, I decide to offer them their first meal under my care.

After reading on various forums that this particular species prefers larger ratios of carbohydrates than many others, and realizing that they need a water source, I filled a water bottle cap with chocolate milk (lots of carbs, water, and moderate amounts of protein).

After a few minutes, a couple of wandering scouts found the lid and began drinking the liquid (I'm assuming, anyway -- they stopped at the edge of the lid with their heads touching the water), and they began signalling other workers, who also approached the cap. Seeing this, I left them to their meal in my closet and went about my day.

When I checked up on them, I found that:

1.) The bottle cap was mostly empty.

2.) No ants were in sight, except for those who I assumed were the nest guards, as they were at the entrance to the makeshift colony.

3.) The cap was half full of dirt.

#3 is the weirdest part -- they filled the water bottle cap with dirt and debris. I've never seen this behavior before.

So, in order to test that the ants did indeed do this, I cut up an overripe bananna and placed two small pieces of bananna in the nest. A worker discovered one, but walked away, apparently uninterested, back to the nest.

I put the container up, and when I checked on the ants a couple hours later, the bannanas were entirely covered in a thin layer of debris. I can still see their outline, but the ants, for whatever reason, have committed to burying their food.

For the life of me, I can't figure out why, though. It seems like a waste of energy to bury them if the ants are uninterested.

They also respond the similarly to water when I cleaned the cap out and filled it with plain bottled water -- a few workers filled their gasters, went back to the nest, and when I checked up on them, they had filled in what looks like a "bridge" of dirt to the last bits of water at the bottom of the cap. This leads me to suspect that they were having trouble safely getting to the bottom of the cap and decided to improvise.

However, this explanation does not explain their behavior with the bannana. Any ideas?

I'm going to check if they respond the same way to a protein source later tonight (a small piece of baked chicken from my dinner).

(Also, off topic, but if you want to catch Tetramorium colonies, they usually nest directly under loose bark on dead trees/logs, in abandoned carpenter ant nests, and in smaller pieces of hole-ridden wood at least 4-6 inches in length (go for smaller pieces of wood for younger colonies, as Tetramorium allates LOVE nesting in those to start their colonies in)).

[Whitelotus]

I have seen my Tetramorium colony do this with some crickets I feed them every now and then. I believe they wish to save it for later or ensure no other predators can see it to ensure it does not get snatched up. They may be good with sweets which is why they have done it for the Banana. This is just from my experience though.

As for the chocolate milk, that I have not seen before so I cannot say as to why they may have done that.

[JoeHostile1]

I believe most ants will bury liquids and food they don’t want in close proximity to their nest entrances.

They do this because for the same reason they take the food/dead workers out of their nest. So it doesn’t mold and infect the colony. They are burying the liquid so their workers don’t get trapped in it. They see the liquid as a threat.

I had to stop giving my tetramorium liquid feeders because they would just fill the feeders up with dirt making all the water spill out. I can’t give them honey because in 20 minutes the honey will be covered in dirt. They really like to throw dead workers in the honey too. I gave my tetramorium a food dish filled with seeds and after taking the seeds they wanted they even buried the food dish with the rest of the seeds still in the dish.