How to feed pheidole ants

[PlacaFromHell]

Hi guys, I'm new here. 40 days ago I found like 15 pheidole queens drowning in my pool, so I took them with a strainer, soaked them in a paper towel and prepared tubes for them. I went of vacations thinking that all will die because of the chlorine (5 died the same day), but when I was back, the only one who survived had a ton of eggs. Yesterday 4 eggs hatched and I'm scared because I don't know how to feed that babies. I saw wild colonies eating cookies, bugs and whatever, but how should I feed them and with specifically what?
I'll apreciate any fast response, is my first colony.

[madmax]

a drop of honey would be good maybe

[madmax]

btw, congrats for ur first colony, i cant build any colony until now

[PlacaFromHell]

Thanks but, only honey? Can I give them dead bugs?

[madmax]

Thanks but, only honey? Can I give them dead bugs?

from what i've heard, bugs or insects is good for them. bcs of the protein, i think

[JoeHostile1]

Sugar water is probably better for that species at this stage because pheidile are super tiny and easy to for the workers to get stuck in the honey. You can soak a cotton ball in sugar water and then you won’t have to worry about any getting stuck. Then feed them bugs. You can buy crickets at the pet store and then freeze them so you have food ready to go for your ants. Fruit fly cultures are good too.

[UnrealSparks]

Thanks but, only honey? Can I give them dead bugs?

from what i've heard, bugs or insects is good for them. bcs of the protein, i think

Yes, proteins must be part of their diet, along with carbs, but if there are only a few workers they will require a very little amount of proteins (I think a fruit fly could last them for over a week for now).

As for the carbohydrates source, honey could work, but it's very dangerous for their size and they might end up stuck in it. So, as Joe recommended, I'd go with some sugar water, since it's less sticky. You can decide how concentrated you want it but I usually go for a 1:1 ratio (but you could also go for a 1 sugar : 2 water ratio if you want it more liquid).

Since I've had my Pheidole for almost a year now I can tell you the biggest challenge with them is being able to prevent the workers from escaping their formicarium. Now, since you're keeping them in a test tube, be careful mainly while feeding them. But, when you'll be moving them in a formicarium in the future, you'll have to make it as escape proof as possible, because they're escape masters, I can tell you that...

[PlacaFromHell]

I put different types of food in my backyard to see what pheidole ants preffer. Chocolate, cat food, dead spiders and even bread crumbs seems to work but I gave them a dead spider and chocolate, and the only ant interested in chocolate was the queen, nobody touched the spider and is roting. I'll try with cat food. My idea is try to not stress them too much today because I tried to move them to another clean tube and they don't wanted to. Thanks for all your help.