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Posted by lisak on October 03, 2002 at 20:36:41:
In Reply to: Re: Ants Too Big posted by Les4toads on October 03, 2002 at 19:13:36:
::I received my mail order ants and my baby HL won't touch them. I don't blame him, they are bigger than his head, I don't think he could eat them if he tried. I only put two in and I think he is agitated by them. He only wants the fire ants and the others from my backyard. If he seems to be doing okay on the fire ants, is there a long term problem with him eating them? At what age will he be big enough for the harvesters? I'm guessing he's about 3 weeks old right now. Thanks to all HL experts for being so helpful, Lisa
::Lisa, how do you know the ants are fire ants? Solenopsis invicta is the Fire Ant. I doubt that the ants you are talking bout are Fire Ants. Fire Ants have a very strong tendancy to swarm if there is any kind of disturbance even near the nest. When I say swarm, I mean literally thousands of ants would come after the entity that disturbs the nest. That behavior plus the very potent sting makes them deadly, to humans and to HLs. If your HL is responding favorably to the ants, fire ants as you call them, that is what you need to supply to the HL until the HL grows up some and can take on the larger Pogonomyrmex Harvester Ant that you receive from mail order. Hatchling HLs have a very difficult time eating the larger Pogonomyrmex ants, as you can see. If you had Harvester Ants of the genus Messor, or Forelius, or Camponotus, or Myrmycosystus available, you would have a much more compatable ant for hatchling/juvenile HLs. Lester G. Milroy III
Thank you both for the info. I really don't know what kind of ant I am feeding my baby HL. My son THINKS they are fire ants. They are about 1/3 size of the harvesters I rec'd by mail order. Red with black abdomen. I know it's not a harvester because it can crawl up the walls of the tank, as can the tiny black ants from my yard. Both of which my HL likes. The only problem with these two ants is that I have to constantly get them back into the tank until he eats them. Many of them I miss. Hope he grows fast! Lisa
