Welcome to the Camponotus Crew!

[CabboAntsGuy]

Logs are a great spot for them. Just keep your eyes open and go in carefully, if you collapse the whole nest you probably won't find anything.

[ArizonanAnts]

That's funny. Forelius are so common that there are literally like 4 different colonies around my house. One goes right through my back yard. I think I'm gonna try seeing if I can get some brood after it rains.

[CabboAntsGuy]

It will probably work if you can find the brood, But with workers already eclosed, there is a chance the colony won't accept the outside brood, if they do, you must also hope once they are eclosed that they will still be accepted.

[alfred0809]

Hey its good to see you that you have experiences an ant keeper and also this is a goof forum from where users will get some updates n please tag me also while updating anything regarding this experiment

[CabboAntsGuy]

Hey alfred0809, Welcome to the Camponotus Crew. You will be able to keep up with the Brood Boosting process either on here or on the Forelius Clan page. I hope it works for you AZ.

[ArizonanAnts]

Hey alfred0809, Welcome to the Camponotus Crew. You will be able to keep up with the Brood Boosting process either on here or on the Forelius Clan page. I hope it works for you AZ.

Thank you. Now I'm gonna stay on top of the Forelius Clan as much as possible. (Now since you put me on the spot, jk)

[CabboAntsGuy]

Sorry, I know that's where you place some of your posts.

Update- I went out and caught about 10 pill bugs, 3-4 millipedes, 4-5 slugs, 2 worms, and 2 very cool looking bugs. Do you guys know if any of these are not ok, or probably not going to be eaten. I'm really wondering about the slugs, the seem like a good source of protein, but I don't know. I ended up making my own honey-water the other day and I hope the ants like it. My main colony has been kind of slow the last few days. I am wondering if it is because of the lack of heat, or lack of protein(even though I give them food), or any other possible reason.
Also do you think the pill bugs(or roly-polies or whatever they are) would be ok to add to my little setup?
Hope you are all doing well.

-Cabbo

[drshan]

a. Can I please get a picture of your setup? Depending how little it is, they might end up interefering with the ants and the ants if they are growingly slowly might not be up to the task of fending them off.

b. Most of those things sound like they should be ok. Slugs for sure should be fine, but I wouldn't give it to a small colony because you will loose a few in the sticky mess that is the outter sluggy good ness. Not sure about millipedes either. My ants showed no interest. Think the millipede was bigger than they were interesting in taking on.

c. I mainly focus on crickets, roaches and mealworms for the protien source for my colonies. They all seem to accept them without much issue. You can also try grains and Legume if you want to get really fancy. Maybe a bit of bread!? I will often drop in a few bits of almonds etc as well just to give them some variety.

[CabboAntsGuy]

I've tried frozen and thawed crickets, but they don't seem to like them. My setup is an AC ant tower small, with the founding test tube attached and that's it. I think after I already kinda ruined My ant's lives by putting two small millipedes into it thinking they would help, I think I'll refrain from doing anything else. The millipedes I have are less than a mm in diameter, very thin. I hope these bugs will work, but if they don't I can try crickets again. I am excited about the amount of brood they have now. Expecting a few new workers soon, but also expecting some to die (of age) soon. Thanks for the help and I hope all of your critters are doing well.

[CANant]

I've tried frozen and thawed crickets, but they don't seem to like them. My setup is an AC ant tower small, with the founding test tube attached and that's it. I think after I already kinda ruined My ant's lives by putting two small millipedes into it thinking they would help, I think I'll refrain from doing anything else. The millipedes I have are less than a mm in diameter, very thin. I hope these bugs will work, but if they don't I can try crickets again. I am excited about the amount of brood they have now. Expecting a few new workers soon, but also expecting some to die (of age) soon. Thanks for the help and I hope all of your critters are doing well.

I was having a lot of issues with my ants accepting protein. Their favourite is spiders and now crickets. Before I was freezing or dipping freshly killed bugs in boiling water to kill off mites etc but they would never eat them. One day I decided just to kill a cricket and not dip or freeze it and they eat them like that. Fruit flies are a new recent favourite. Again not freezing them either. I’m risking things I’m sure but I hear they may not be so picky when they are a larger colony and I will try freezing and dipping in boiling water again. Also maybe order some protein jelly for them. They may like that too. Amazon and other stores seem to carry it.
I’ve tried tuna, cooked chicken, lunch meat, wet cat food. All is usually ignored but maybe it will work for you. Also many have recommended shrimp (not sure if that’s cooked or raw but I would offer cooked first).