Black Ants.

[PAUL HEARN]

Hi everyone,

A question to you all, have you ever noticed any of the Birds in your collection (past or present) to have eaten Black Ants?

A pair of Pekin Robins I had a few years ago ate them in small numbers, and a friends Chinese Painted Quail eat them, but these are the only Birds I have heard of that eat Black Ants.

Paul.:grin:

[chris]

Hi mate,


i've never seen any black ants in the aviary for my birds to eat, however i did uncover a red ant's nest once and the CPQ ate the lot of em:grin: and the eggs

Chris:wink:

[PAUL HEARN]

Hello Chris,

Due to the fact that my aviary block is built on paving slabs, it seems there is a very healthy population of Black Ants living under the slabs.
Now that there aren't any Pekin Robins in the aviaries, this potential Livefood source seems to be wasted on the Birds I have at present:-|.

I'm glad your Chinese Painted Quail found a good use of the Red Ants and their eggs, but the only Bird I have owned to eat Ants and their eggs in this way was a hen Green Woodpecker I came to own through my Wildlife rescue days who obviously enjoyed Wood Ants and their eggs.
I had to collect these on a twice weekly basis, from many nests to avoid destroying any sources of Ants and eggs.

Other Birds I own, such as Red Crested Finches, Golden Breasted Buntings, Japanese Waxwings etc enjoy eating Wood Ants eggs, but again I have to collect from many nests to avoid over collecting resulting in crashes of individual nests.

I would still like to know of any Birds that eat Black Ants.

Paul.:grin:

[chris]

hi paul,

i'll try out some black ants with the weavers later on and let you know of the results. i reckon the quial will have em straight off anyway

Chris:wink:

[laurab]

I bet Grassfinches would go for them!

[PAUL HEARN]

Hi Laura and Chris,

I look forward to hearing how your Birds do when offered Black Ants.

Paul.:grin:

[chris]

i knew i'd forgot to do something! let's see if i remember to do it tommorrow, there's gotta be at least a few hundred of em on the water lillies!

Chris:wink:

[PAUL HEARN]

Hi all,

So how did the Black Ant experiment go?

Paul.:grin:

[chris]

Hi paul,


well the CPQ ate em, everything else ignored them pretty much. maybe they'll learn to take them in time as none of my canaries ate mealworms last year, yet this year the lot of em eat them!


Chris:wink:

[laurab]

Hi Paul


I forgot about this experiment :oops: But I have tried my birds on Mosquito Larvae....my Weavers adore them!

[PAUL HEARN]

Hi Chris,

Good news mate, but I must say none of my CPQ that have had access to these have ever eaten them:-|, quite gutting really when you think of how many are attracted by the Fruit for the Softbills.

Paul.:grin:

[chris]

just to check that it wasn't an ant thing with the birds not eating black ants, i've tried some red ants with them yesterday including ant "eggs" (they're actually the pupae of the ant life cycle not eggs, which are far far smaller) and even a few ant larvae

the red ants were eaten, as were the "eggs" and larvae. these were eaten by the CPQ, Greensinger, Canaries and the greensinger x canary hybrids. i don't know if the weavers even spotted them to eat so i will try this again another day to see if they will take them.

i also took the opportunity to get an ant culture going since i had the best part of a nest and even a few queens

Chris:wink:

[chris]

Hi all,


the red ant culture works great, they are sub-terrainian mostly so tend not to go wondering around the shed. easy to do, just catch a few flying ants after they have biten there wings off and place in a glass tank with a shallow layer of soil (moist but not wet). cover this with a sheet of glass so that it is flat against the dirt, but leaving a gap where the soil is exposed up one end of the tank. here you can place food stuff such as sliced apple, banana, sugar water and sweets. now cover the galss sheet with either card or plywood to blot out the light, and make a line of vaseline all around the top inch of the tank to prevent any getting out.

given a few weeks the ants should be multiplying quite rapidly, now to harvest them lift the card and glass gently, and scrape out the eggs, larvae and ants that you need. about half of the tank will have no ill effect but be sure to leave some workers and most importanly the queen(s) in the tank. the culture should recover in a week or two and be ready for the next harvest.

this method was working very well for me, but my queens vanished ( i assume they got taken out as food by accident:neutral: ), so i fed the whole colony to my birds and have 4 fat and happy CPQ chicks now along with a few more CPQ adults and 2 certain greensinger mules:grin:

this is definately worth a try if you have the time and are prepared if they get out.... they will culture well outside during the warmer half of the year, just cover the tank to prevent rain getting in as it will waterlog and kill the colony.


Chris:wink:

[Waxbillman]

good idea chris,

with my birds, i would be interested in breeding them to harvest their eggs.

shame about the poor Queen, she spends all time laying eggs and how does she get rewarded? being fed to the quails of course!!! lol

matthew