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My ants are refusing to eat, I gave them shucked sunflower seeds, peanuts, corn chips, a boiled frog, and peanut butter but they don't eat any of it. I gave them mealworms and cricket and they ate a small amount of the mealworms. It's hard to find stuff online that isn't pest control posion, any ideas?

EDIT: I also tried oats with no affect

SYUTEO wrote: ↑

Wed Dec 11, 2019 7:32 am

i got an update on my camponotus irritans colony, they have mites!!! i can't believe it!!! is my colony going to all die out!? not just that i also saw my colony was decreasing in population! those were fairly small mites and they were all over my ants, i also saw a major worker struggling to climb the plastic wall to eat the sugar water i gave them omg! are they blood sucking mites!?

Most mites are beneficial to the colony, they digest waste and insect leftovers into plant nutrients. Mites often hitch a ride on ants so they can get to new grounds.
Have you got any pictures?

jojofire12 wrote: ↑

Wed Dec 11, 2019 10:23 am

My ants are refusing to eat, I gave them shucked sunflower seeds, peanuts, corn chips, a boiled frog, and peanut butter but they don't eat any of it. I gave them mealworms and cricket and they ate a small amount of the mealworms. It's hard to find stuff online that isn't pest control posion, any ideas?

EDIT: I also tried oats with no affect

First of all, aren't your ants hibernating? In which case you won't have to worry about food right now.
Second, have you tried egg white? (Boiled)
Third, how large is your colony? The ants won't consume more than they need, so you might actually be feeding too much.

Hi All!

So this is not necessarily an ant related post, but I wanted to share it with you guys none the less.

As you know I have been a busy little ant, foraging for all kinds of stuff which will help me build my ants island inside a large aquarium. Kind of like the hacienda del dorado, but with water surrounding the land on all sides.

The last time I posted anything on this project, I had been given an 80cm (2.5 ft) and a 1m20 (4ft) tank and as I recall I had 2 external filter pumps at that point.

Well there have been some developments since. The best news is that I'll get the keys to my new place on the 3rd of January. So I'll actually have a place to get settled and start building my project.

I now have a small 30l tank running with 16 zebra danios, 6 otocinclus, 4 Indian muddwellers (kuhli loaches), 2 Sumatran snails, 1 zebra snail and 40 odd shrimp. So the tank is pretty crowded at this point, but they only have to hold out a little longer.

Next to that I have other people looking after 5 Chinese Danios, 13 Blue Danios, 10 more zebra Danios and a bunch of water plants for me, until I am able to pick them up and house them.

Not a bad start hey? Well it gets even better. A week or two ago I went to collect an aquarium cabinet which is just the right size for my 1m20 tank. I got the cabinet for free, and as a bonus the owner threw in a tiny quarantine tank (15l).
So all in all I was very pleased.

Then earlier this week the same person send me a message they had a 1m10, 230l aquarium, complete with lights, heating, filter pump and a cabinet spare. If I was interested I could come to collect it for free. Obviously I answered I would very happily come to get it in January. I did a bit of research and it's actually quite an expensive tank with pretty much everything integrated in the system. If I were to buy a new one, it would set me back 500 euro for just the tank... So generous of them!

I then called the guy who offered me the 80cm tank, as he was still holding it for me. I wanted to let him know I could move into my place and when he congratulated me, he offered me two more 60cm tanks for free as a house warming gift.

So all in all, I now have a 1m20 tank, a 1m10 tank, an 80cm tank, two 60 cm tanks, a 35cm tank and a 30cm tank. Looks like I'll hardly have any space left to live hahaha. I have decided I will try to insulate the shed and have a couple of tanks running in there, or in the attic.

I might have a go at trying to breed fish, but after seeing how many people are offering fish for free as they can no longer care for them, I might just turn it into a fish shelter. Where I can temporarily house fish until I can find a new owner for them.

To end on an ant related note, we now have a colony of Messor Barbarus at our school, with about 30 workers. They aren't very active at this point since even though they don't hibernate, they do take a winter break.

Oh and a quick question to you guys. Originally I wanted to use the Camponotus ligniperda species on my Ant island, but I saw the same shop also offers Camponotus vagus. Which one would you prefer?

It's up to you Hawkeye, but the color's on the Camponotus ligniperda are really cool in my mind.

Hawkeye wrote: ↑

Tue Dec 17, 2019 12:02 am

jojofire12 wrote: ↑

Wed Dec 11, 2019 10:23 am

My ants are refusing to eat, I gave them shucked sunflower seeds, peanuts, corn chips, a boiled frog, and peanut butter but they don't eat any of it. I gave them mealworms and cricket and they ate a small amount of the mealworms. It's hard to find stuff online that isn't pest control posion, any ideas?

EDIT: I also tried oats with no affect

First of all, aren't your ants hibernating? In which case you won't have to worry about food right now.
Second, have you tried egg white? (Boiled)
Third, how large is your colony? The ants won't consume more than they need, so you might actually be feeding too much.

No, I live in Florida and I was told my ants don't need to hibernate. I have about 30-40 workers (they are really big though)

jojofire12 wrote: ↑

Tue Dec 17, 2019 8:49 am

Hawkeye wrote: ↑

Tue Dec 17, 2019 12:02 am

jojofire12 wrote: ↑

Wed Dec 11, 2019 10:23 am

My ants are refusing to eat, I gave them shucked sunflower seeds, peanuts, corn chips, a boiled frog, and peanut butter but they don't eat any of it. I gave them mealworms and cricket and they ate a small amount of the mealworms. It's hard to find stuff online that isn't pest control posion, any ideas?

EDIT: I also tried oats with no affect

First of all, aren't your ants hibernating? In which case you won't have to worry about food right now.
Second, have you tried egg white? (Boiled)
Third, how large is your colony? The ants won't consume more than they need, so you might actually be feeding too much.

No, I live in Florida and I was told my ants don't need to hibernate. I have about 30-40 workers (they are really big though)

I had this very issue, I thought my ants where not eating, but upon closer inspection, their gasters where so full they did not need more food, I cut my feeding in half and it seems just right now, with the exception of my black crazy ants, they seem to drag any food into the formicarium and act as though I could not over feed them. You should see them start to forage with intensity when they get hungry, so you might want to just not feed anything until you see them looking?

Rockster wrote: ↑

Tue Dec 17, 2019 8:57 am

jojofire12 wrote: ↑

Tue Dec 17, 2019 8:49 am

Hawkeye wrote: ↑

Tue Dec 17, 2019 12:02 am

First of all, aren't your ants hibernating? In which case you won't have to worry about food right now.
Second, have you tried egg white? (Boiled)
Third, how large is your colony? The ants won't consume more than they need, so you might actually be feeding too much.

No, I live in Florida and I was told my ants don't need to hibernate. I have about 30-40 workers (they are really big though)

I had this very issue, I thought my ants where not eating, but upon closer inspection, their gasters where so full they did not need more food, I cut my feeding in half and it seems just right now, with the exception of my black crazy ants, they seem to drag any food into the formicarium and act as though I could not over feed them. You should see them start to forage with intensity when they get hungry, so you might want to just not feed anything until you see them looking?

Thanks, I'll try that!

Hey guys so I been absent from the ant sarong world for a bit but I'm back in the game. I was wondering if there are any GAN ant farmers in Arizonaxwho would be interested in selling or giving away an ant queen.

MichaelJones wrote: ↑

Sat Dec 21, 2019 9:16 am

Hey guys so I been absent from the ant sarong world for a bit but I'm back in the game. I was wondering if there are any GAN ant farmers in Arizonaxwho would be interested in selling or giving away an ant queen.

ik the perfect person there is a person in the forelius clan named arizona ants go chec him out!