With what and how should I feed semi-claustral queens?

[Marandola]

Hello friends of the forum. I live in brazil and I got some specimens of the genus Pachycondyla, Ectatomma and Odontomachus. These ants seems to be predatory, and the three have very strong mandibles. How should I feed these queens until the first workers? The Ectatomma one is very sensible, and maybe she ate some eggs but there are more inside the test tube setup. What should I do?

[Mdrogun]

I would feed them small cut up insect pieces. You have to make sure that they are small enough that they will eat the whole piece before it molds. I would also feed them honey or other sugary liquids. Just make a TINY drop that they will drink up before it molds. remember you can always give them more food. If the queens are being picky and won't eat insects that are already dead I would recommend getting fruit flies(Wingless) and putting them in their test tube alive.They should be able to catch them pretty easily. Let me know if you have any other questions.
Sincerely,
Mdrogun

[jonathan21700]

A small insect every 2 to 3 days should be OK.
Good luck!

[ooper01]

I just posted this same thing on another post, but I'll do it here too.

Regarding the honey drop, you may want to consider cutting out a small piece of aluminum foil that will fit in the test tube and put the honey on the foil. It helps keep the test tube clean and non-sticky.

[Marandola]

Thank you friends, I did what you said. Results:

The Ectatomma sp. queen received a Camponotus rufipes male still alive. In few seconds she killed him and today, when I saw her test tube, the male was without his head, and the dead corpse was transported next to her eggs .

The three Pachycondyla queens I have didn't care too much about the preys (termites and little crickets) and just ignored it, same with honey. One of them are in a test tube setup opened inside an outworld with dry dirt and honey, but she just hang around the outworld, and don't seem to like the interior of the tube, because she does not walk near its entrance.

The Odontomachus attack the little mosquito i gave her, but I don't know what she did with it, because she's inside a recipient with low visibility, but I guess she's fine.

I don't know why yesterday I tried to login in the forum and received a message saying I was permanently banned . I sent a message to the forum and today everything is fine . Sorry to don't reply earlier.

Merry Christmas!