Feeding ants other ants

Posts and questions relating to ant diet & nutrition. Let us know what you’re feeding your ants.

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TheAura
Posts: 23
Joined: Sat Jan 14, 2017 8:47 pm
Location: Brooklyn NYC

Feeding ants other ants

Post: # 52070Post TheAura
Sun Oct 07, 2018 7:48 pm

Now, this may sound strange but I have caught a carpenter ant worker a few weeks ago, mistakingly identifying it as a possible queen. For now I am keeping it in a plastic tupperware container with a test tube. There is very little chance of it finding its colony again since its been weeks and the smell may have worn off, so I am wondering if I can wait for it to die and then give it to my Tetramorium Immigrans colony which currently has about 15 workers and a dozen brood or so in a test tube. The carpenter ant is a little smaller than the T. Immigrans queen that I have.

AntsDakota
Posts: 1283
Joined: Sat Mar 17, 2018 4:22 pm
Location: South Dakota

Re: Feeding ants other ants

Post: # 52118Post AntsDakota
Mon Oct 08, 2018 12:06 pm

TheAura wrote:
Sun Oct 07, 2018 7:48 pm
Now, this may sound strange but I have caught a carpenter ant worker a few weeks ago, mistakingly identifying it as a possible queen. For now I am keeping it in a plastic tupperware container with a test tube. There is very little chance of it finding its colony again since its been weeks and the smell may have worn off, so I am wondering if I can wait for it to die and then give it to my Tetramorium Immigrans colony which currently has about 15 workers and a dozen brood or so in a test tube. The carpenter ant is a little smaller than the T. Immigrans queen that I have.
Go ahead. Ants relish the taste of other ants.
"God made every kind of wild beasts and every kind of livestock and every kind of creeping things;" (including ants) "and God saw that it was good." Genesis 1:25

TheAura
Posts: 23
Joined: Sat Jan 14, 2017 8:47 pm
Location: Brooklyn NYC

Re: Feeding ants other ants

Post: # 52145Post TheAura
Mon Oct 08, 2018 2:07 pm

AntsDakota wrote:
Mon Oct 08, 2018 12:06 pm
TheAura wrote:
Sun Oct 07, 2018 7:48 pm
Now, this may sound strange but I have caught a carpenter ant worker a few weeks ago, mistakingly identifying it as a possible queen. For now I am keeping it in a plastic tupperware container with a test tube. There is very little chance of it finding its colony again since its been weeks and the smell may have worn off, so I am wondering if I can wait for it to die and then give it to my Tetramorium Immigrans colony which currently has about 15 workers and a dozen brood or so in a test tube. The carpenter ant is a little smaller than the T. Immigrans queen that I have.
Go ahead. Ants relish the taste of other ants.
Is this actually true?

Boomdale
Posts: 110
Joined: Tue Jul 03, 2018 8:49 am
Location: Tennessee

Re: Feeding ants other ants

Post: # 52150Post Boomdale
Mon Oct 08, 2018 3:44 pm

They eat each other in the wild.
Nylanderia Sp.
Pheidole Sp.

Founding - Cremagastor & Solonopsis Invicta

AntsDakota
Posts: 1283
Joined: Sat Mar 17, 2018 4:22 pm
Location: South Dakota

Re: Feeding ants other ants

Post: # 52168Post AntsDakota
Tue Oct 09, 2018 9:06 am

Lasius love Formica, and Formica love Lasius, so I would assume Tetramorium would love Camponotus as well.
"God made every kind of wild beasts and every kind of livestock and every kind of creeping things;" (including ants) "and God saw that it was good." Genesis 1:25

TheRealAntMan
Posts: 620
Joined: Tue Sep 19, 2017 5:59 pm
Location: Chicago, Illinois

Re: Feeding ants other ants

Post: # 52190Post TheRealAntMan
Tue Oct 09, 2018 4:54 pm

It's never recommended to ants to other ants as they aren't really nutritious to ants, and most ants won't accept other ants anyway. It should never, of course, be their staple diet.
An ants' strength can be rivaled by few animals compared to relative body size.

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