Affordable Protein

[harvesterant]

I now have my second colony of ants, a lasius niger colony. They do not fall into the category of harvester ants, and therefore will most likely need proteins that are not seeds. There are the options of other insects or protein jellies, but are there any other affordable ways to supply ants with protein? Maybe there is a specific food that ants like that may be available around the house?

[JoeHostile1]

Even harvester ants eat insects/meat. Nothing you can buy is going to be more affordable then just buying bulk crickets. Look for a place online that sells bulk crickets. The place where I buy them costs $5 Canadian for 100 - 1” crickets. That’s like $3 American for 2 years worth of food and it’s proper food for them.

I really don’t see how buying human food is going to be cheaper than that.

[JoeHostile1]

American source -https://flukerfarms.com/crickets-live-feeder-insects/

Canadian source -http://www.supercricket.ca/index.html

The American place is a little more expensive, but still reasonable. If you live in Europe I’m sure they have these online dealers as well.

[harvesterant]

Okay, thank you. Do you keep live crickets or do you freeze them or preserve them in any other way?

[JoeHostile1]

I order 100 then place the whole box inside the freezer. I don’t even open it. Then after a few hours or whatever I transfer the frozen crickets into a container with a lid. Then every time I need ant food I pull out a couple crickets and from them in the outworld. Extremely easy, care free way to feed ants.

If you have small colonies you don’t really need 100, but could order less or order smaller sizes. They will last pretty much indefinitely in the freezer.

[harvesterant]

Thank you for the reply. I will consider buying crickets.

[JoeHostile1]

And if you really can’t buy anything then I would just collect bugs from your yard. That’s not really recommended though because you don’t know if those bugs have been exposed to toxins or mites or whatever.

Another option is giving them meat, fish or poultry; cooked or raw. But all that human food is hit or miss. Ants never refuse crickets or fruit flies unless of course they just don’t want food.

[mallonje]

You can also farm your own meal worms.

Search YouTube for how tos.

But I started years ago with a tub of worms from the pet store, some oats, a few empty peanut butter jars, and an old pair of pantyhose.

[harvesterant]

Okay, thank you. My colonies are currently small, but I will consider buying crickets soon.

[Hunter36o]

Crickets for Ireland anyway are the cheapest option but boy do those guys know how to smell bad in a matter of minutes. I decided to keep darkling beetles and bought two boxes of superworms from two different stores to lower the chance of them coming from the same gene pool. They do not smell and are extremely easy to keep. And best part is all you need is oat meal, potato skins and some fruit which works out well because they are generally in the house anyway.

You just have to let them pupate, separate the pupae so they can develop and charge (harden after then pupate) then you have a constant supply. Outside of that you can feed your ants cooked chicken, ham, beef etc. Lasius Nigers are by far a good ways away from being picky in my experience. Mine have also loved having crushed pumpkin seeds so seeds are not actually out of the question either.

Personally however I find keeping a feeder species like darkling beetles is the cheapest option in the long run.