CATDOLL : CATDOLL: What should you pay attention to when raising ants?

1. What should you pay attention to when raising ants?

Ants are social insects. Only large yellow ants are found for medicinal purposes, including a few species such as the yellow ant and the black-spined ant. Only the black-spined ant has been successfully bred artificially, because this ant has strong adaptability, short cycle, fast reproduction, and is not affected by geographical conditions. It can be bred in high-density box-type three-dimensional culture. Compared with the rockery and tank breeding methods, it has many advantages such as saving expenses, reducing costs, and occupying a small area.

1. Site selection:

It should be determined according to the size of the breeding population. Whether indoors or outdoors, there must be sufficient light, no clutter, and no bad odors.

2. Breeding facilities:

Use bricks (or plastic film) around the site. Build a 25 cm wide and 5 cm deep water tank. The inner edge of the water tank should maintain a certain inclination to effectively prevent the seed ants from falling into the water. When building the water tank, leave a drainage hole that is convenient for changing water. Build a frame 20-25 cm away from the inner edge of the water tank. The materials can be bamboo poles or wooden sticks, arranged side by side in a track shape. The first shelf is more than 30 cm above the ground, and the distance between the shelves is more than 35 cm. Place 10-15 cm thick humus sand at the bottom of the shelf.

3. Making and arranging feeding boxes: Homemade feeding boxes for insects are usually paper boxes that have been used to store food and clothing, and are generally 35-40 cm long, 20-25 cm wide, and 10-15 cm high. Place the Masson pine, which is the favorite nest for ants, in the box, followed by leguminous plant straw such as red beans, soybeans, and broad beans. Wild plants include small-leaf camphor, large-leaf camphor, and old grass. All need to be dried to prevent mildew. The tightness of the straw should be appropriate, neither too tight nor too loose. This is very important. Ants do not differentiate and build nests on straw that is about to mold or has already molded. Put the straw together with the seed ants that have been divided into nests into the box, seal it with adhesive tape on all sides, and drill a small hole at one end of the box. The arrangement interval of the ant boxes should not be less than 60 cm. If the interval is too close, it will easily cause ants to fight with each other.

4. Feeding and Management

Ants have a wide variety of food, and they like to eat anything sweet and animal. They can be divided into two categories: A. Animal bait: such as meat residues and thick blood of cattle, sheep, fish, pigs, chickens, etc. Various insects are also good food for ants, such as beetles, maggots, silkworm pupae, earthworms, etc. B. Food with sweet taste, such as brown and white sugar, watermelon, honey, pear cores, apple cores, etc.

Ants eat very little, about 0.1 mg per day, and 100,000 ants need about 100 grams of food per day (different species have different specific values ​​depending on their size). Generally, they are fed once every 3-5 days. When feeding, a food bowl and a sponge block for absorbing water should be placed on the top of the breeding box. To prevent the food from spoiling, the food should basically be eaten up every time, and it should be fed and cleaned frequently. When feeding, try to feed as little as possible and point as many as possible to avoid fighting for food. In addition, the types of food should be changed frequently to avoid ants from losing their appetite. If they are raised outdoors, in the hot summer, in order to avoid high temperatures in the ant box, some vines should be planted around the box frame to block the strong sunlight. The most suitable temperature for the growth and reproduction of ants is 22℃-37℃, the air humidity must be controlled at about 81%, and the soil humidity should be kept at 10-15%. If the air is too dry, a sprayer can be used to spray the ant box and the ground frequently to maintain the normal activities and reproduction of ants.

2. How to raise ants at home

Use a special glass box for insect breeding in the laboratory

You must create an environment in the glass box that is suitable for ants to live and reproduce (ants seem to like moist, dark environments).

This makes it easy to observe and clean.

3. What should you pay attention to when raising ants?

1. The air in the ant breeding room should be kept fresh, circulated, clean and hygienic. The air should be well sealed and protected from natural enemies such as mites, flies, small ants, mice, etc. Do not sprinkle water often on weekdays, because ants like a dry environment. The breeding room must be kept clean and loose, and the leftover food on the sand must be removed in time to prevent it from being left in the soil for a long time and rotting. Ants are thermophilic insects. When the temperature drops below 10℃ in winter, they will not be very active when digging holes and drilling into the ground. Measures must be taken to allow them to grow and reproduce all year round. There are three methods of wintering heating: light bulb wintering method, charcoal stove wintering method, heating stove wintering method, etc.

2. Ants have a wide range of food, mainly divided into two types: animal and plant. ① Animal, various insects, rotten meat, thorns, snakes, small moths, crickets, wild mice, rats, dead chickens, fish, shrimps, mosquitoes, etc. (You can collect flying insects in summer by placing a large plastic basin outdoors, filling it with water and hanging lights to collect a large number of them). ② Plant, melon peels, fruit cores, pear cores, sugarcane peels, banana peels, various vegetable leaves, potato chips, etc. All foods must not come into contact with pesticides and toxic drugs. The food intake of ants is about 0.1 mg per ant, and they should be fed once every 2 to 5 days until they are eaten up and not moldy.

3. Ants are very active and have great abilities in climbing walls, drilling holes and digging holes. Therefore, preventing ants from escaping is an important part of breeding. There are two methods: one is to use the physiological reaction of ants to avoid alkaline to control their escape. Alkaline water or salt water is placed around the breeding beds, tanks and rooms, or alkali water or salt water is placed in troughs to prevent ants from catching their coats. The other is to use a shuttle-type electrode fence to prevent ants from catching their coats. Connect one pole of the power supply to the bottom of the breeding bed as a ground wire, and use a thin iron plate to surround the breeding bed with the other pole to prevent ants from escaping by applying a small amount of electricity.

4. How to raise an ant well

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