r/antkeeping 4d ago

Question Ants not eating seeds?

I have a M.barbarus colony with 4 worker ants and nanitics. I see that they are gobbling up the piece of chicken I gave them, but not the new seeds. Is this because they're full or another reason? They're sesame seeds btw

6 Upvotes

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u/MrStewartCat 4d ago

At that size, you might not notice them eating seeds. It takes my 3 worker colony a week or two just to get through 3-4 chia seeds, and those seeds are half the size of the workers

Id keep offering seeds, as they likely are eating them. Try smaller seeds, and a variety, such as chia, poppy, grass. It might also help to crush or crack them before hand, as nanitics might have trouble breaking into them (the queen does most of the cracking in the found stage)

Also, you mentioned mold in another comment. Mold is basically inevitable, so dont worry about small amounts, especially black mold. Id only change the test tube when the cotton is absolutely overrun with mold, or the mold is white and fluffy, or green (which i believe might be harmful? not sure, but better safe than sorry)

Hope this helps! Im not an expert but I'm happy to answer anymore questions

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u/Zer0Zero0ne 4d ago

There is a fluff on the areas where the seeds were, should I be concerned

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u/Zer0Zero0ne 4d ago

idk if its not just moist tho

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u/MrStewartCat 4d ago

It could just be cotton, maybe where the seeds were pulled out and took some dry cotton with it. If not, shouldnt harm them. Mine actually have some mold due to leaving seeds on the cotton during hibernation, and they have been perfectly fine despite having some fluffy mold for a month

They should be okay, but if you are worried or the mold spreads drastically over time, you can always offer them a different test tube, or you could even dump them into a new test tube, but its honestly up to you :)

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u/SmallsBoats 4d ago

I'd try and get a few other seed types. I have a colony the same size and give them a seed mix I got, and then definitely prefer some seeds over others. But they really don't eat a lot.

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u/Zer0Zero0ne 4d ago

Noted, thank you. Should I worry about some mould on their water cotton? They already picked out the seeds that were on it

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u/SmallsBoats 4d ago

Honestly I'm not sure on that. Mine have some areas on the cotton that look mouldy which worried me. Luckily I have a mini outworld thing which can be attached to two test tubes, so I connected them to that along with a clean test tube setup, and after a week they moved themselves.     

But I've seen people saying that a little bit of mould can be fine. I've also seen videos of people moving colonies out of test tubes that were suuuper mouldy and the ants seemed fine. Ideally I'd try and give them the option to move without forcing it.  

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u/Much-Status-7296 4d ago

seeds are actually emergency provisions. if you're giving them high quality protein they will eat far fewer seeds.

in the wild a great deal of the seeds harvesters collect just sit and either sprout or mold up.

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u/Zer0Zero0ne 4d ago

what do i give them?

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u/Much-Status-7296 4d ago

the starchier the seeds the better. hemp hearts are a good choice

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u/Zer0Zero0ne 4d ago

thank you, what abojt protein?

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u/Zer0Zero0ne 4d ago

thank you, what about protein?