Is honey water a good substitute for honey?

[Mechanic3089]

I give my ants mixed honey water. Is this acceptable as a sugary food source or should I give them straight raw honey and just regular water? I feel it is because every time I give them a drop of honey in their outworld, it's mostly ignored, except for the occasional ant that takes a quick lick of it. Does anyone else do this? Or have this question?

[CabboAntsGuy]

sugar water or hummingbird nectar are both good substitutes.

[Hawkeye]

Diluted honey is fine, as is sugar water, (maple) syrup etc. But you probably should give them a pure water source (always) and a sugar source (incidentally)
If your ants ignore the honey, they've probably had enough sugars already and are focussed on getting protein.

[antnest8]

I usually just mix sugar and water. But honey water should be fine and maybe even safer because honey can catch ant's and they get stuck.

[Mechanic3089]

Just an update. I put a test tube with regular water and my ants completely ignored it. I even left it there and let the other test tube full of honey water be used up, still they ignored it except for like one ant ever once in a while. As soon as more honey water is place, they swarm out of the nest to get a drink. So honey water it is

[Glowbug1236]

I've tried honey, and a number of other liquid sugar sources, no go.
A very very little amount of interest in honey water was the most interest these Pheidole had.
Some research, and i discovered online that many of these ants prefer high protien diets.
So i would assume that's part of it.
But in your case, the ants seem to have a healthy interest in honey water, so that seems decided.
They tend to know what they need..

A question that has been on my mind is whether or not glucose is better than fructose?
Anyone test or research this?
Any threads started on this topic?

[Krueger]

With the advent of plastic, there has been need for substitute for natural honey. Some time ago one such product made it into market but was soon pulled out as it contained some poisonous chemical. Honey water is a common substitute used for honey in order to save money or due to religious beliefs not permitting eating of honey. It is often sold bottled and is known by names like honey water, bee water etc.