The AntsCanada Ant Forum's

I know many people prekill their bugs and I want to do that as well. How exactly does everyone kill their ant's food?

I throw mine in the freezer.

Same.

same

So just to be sure: You put your worm or cricket or whatever in the freezer for a few hours, then you take it out, let it come back to room temperature and give it to the ants?

I usually let some fresh water run over them before feeding but not too much (it doesn't cause problems with stuff like beetles and mealworms but the honey bee pupae I feed turn to mush if they get too warm). You can give them frozen though, it doesn't really affect the ants and if it's warm the food items soften up within a few hours anyway.

Interesting! Thank you!

Also, what if I kill the insects by plunging them in boiling water? I just caught my first queen so all that is far away from now, but I would like to be ready!

Cooking makes the fluids inside the insect hard like boiled egg which may be an issue for the workers (ants prefer to drink the body fluids of their prey, only the larvae can chew through solid matter).
I fed my Camponotus some boiled fruit flies when they were a very small colony and they ate them but I think they prefer the juicy frozen-only insects.

I just store them in the freezer. Then when my ants are hungry I take one out, chop it up and stick it in a test tube in the outworld. I don't thaw them, I jsut let them thaw in the outworld.

Just curious if you can freeze leftovers. Say I have a worm and cut it in half to feed a founding colony in a tube setup, can i freeze the other half? Will it still be good for the next feeding?