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Introduction
How much feed should be given to the ants?
In the past, we can only rely on the experience of ant keepers, but I have come up with a foolproof formula for you to estimate the feeding amount more accurately!
Let's start with the conclusion.
According to research, ants of different sizes drink different amounts of water (nonsense).
For better understanding, the study is based onCamponotus musFor the target, they are medium-sized Giant Formosan Ants, which are closer to Taylor's Giant Formosan Ants (or the smaller Kaohsiung's Giant Formosan Ants), which can drink an average of 6-8 microliters of sugar water at a time, which is about 1/5th of a drop of water.
How exactly is a drop of water defined?
On average, a drop of water is about 33 microliters.
To better understand this concept, a 1-liter (1000 ml) bottle of Coke can be converted to approximately 30,000 drops if using theCamponotus mus According to the data, it would take 150,000 to 200,000 worker ants to finish a bottle ofFat House Happy WaterCoca-Cola.
Where are the other ants?
Paul & Roces 2003 tested 11 different ant species and found that
The largest ant can drink about 35 microliters ( 1 drop ) at a time.
A medium-sized ant (such as a Camponotus mus ) The average is 6 to 8 microliters. ( 1/5 drop )
The smallest ants can drink about 0.1 microliter ( 1/1000th of a drop ) at a time.
However, it is worth noting that some ants have a small social stomach, which means they cannot drink so much water at one time, so the ants have developed a very special way to make use of the surface tension of the water to "clip" a droplet of water home, which is really clever XD
Practical Application
Based on the above data and applying it to ant feeding, we can deduce how much feed should be given to avoid wastage.
If you have about 10 workers of Kaohsiung Giant Mountain Ants, you should feed them 2 drops of feed, which is just enough for them to finish the food. However, you should note that the queen ants may come to ask for food during the post-new period, so you have to include the amount of the queen ants in your diet, and to be on the safe side, you should give them one more drop of feed!
500 workers with hungry stomachs can drink up to 106 drops, or 3.5ml of feed.
However, there are too many factors affecting ants' willingness to feed and the amount of food they take, such as feed consistency, sugar content, particle size, whether the ants are hungry or not, temperature and humidity, and larval population, etc.
Therefore, the best solution is to use the recommended amount in this article and then rely on our feeders to observe how long it takes for the ants to finish how much feed, and then flexibly adjust the feeding amount for the next feeding.
References
Ask an Entomologist -How much water can ants drink? (Joe Ballenger,2016)
Josens, R. B., Farina, W. M., & Roces, F. (1998). Nectar feeding by the ant Camponotus mus: intake rate and crop filling as a function of sucrose concentration. Journal of Insect Physiology, 44(7), 579-585.
Paul, J., & Roces, F. (2003). Fluid intake rates in ants correlate with their feeding habits. Journal of Insect Physiology, 49(4), 347-357.
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