# Bees vs Crickets



## d17oug18 (Sep 29, 2013)

Now back in the day, people would tell me... Feeding honey to crickets is useless, becuase by the time they eat it, its in there system and the nuitrients in it are gone. Here's my question, if this is so, then why are bees any better? They eat the honey, its in there system... i dont personally understand the difference. If there is a perfessional who can enlighten me on this situation i would rather be thankful =D... Ive been cricket breeding for a while and been feeding them left over veggies and water, plus oftenly feedings of honey.

Guess the short question is, is it the same thing to feed honey fed crickets rather than bees?


----------



## Rick (Sep 29, 2013)

I truly hope you're not feeding your mantids honeybees. I've never heard of feeding honey to crickets but I feed it to my flies. Only honeybees eat honey but honey contains many nutrients. Feeding bees (not honeybees) is pretty good for mantids because they often eat highly nutritious nectar and pollen. And I believe any wild caught food is better for mantids than captive raised feeders.


----------



## devetaki9 (Sep 29, 2013)

I give my crickets and roaches pollen and honey powder along with bran, oatmeal, fish flakes, fresh fruits and veggies.....


----------



## Termite48 (Sep 29, 2013)

Gut loading any feeder insect is better than not, of course. Wild caught insects are gut loaded with the vegetation on which they are foraging. This is the best. I try to catch butterflies and moths for my few mantids, each day. They really seem to like those things. All the houseflies, blow flies and larger that I feed are wild caught and loaded with all kinds of good stuff and some other stuff.


----------



## sally (Sep 29, 2013)

Yes, I love feeding my mantids bees, but never honey bees. I would not feed them honey bees.


----------



## d17oug18 (Sep 29, 2013)

i dont know the difference, honestly, but ive never fed bees ever lol. But i just wanted to know if honey fed crickets would be the same thing, ive been thinking about it for a while and i dont really see a difference?


----------



## Rick (Sep 30, 2013)

d17oug18 said:


> i dont know the difference, honestly, but ive never fed bees ever lol. But i just wanted to know if honey fed crickets would be the same thing, ive been thinking about it for a while and i dont really see a difference?


The difference in honeybees is not their nutrient content but the fact that their populations are in a massive decline and we depend on them to pollinate a majority of our crops. Is a guy taking a few going to hurt the population? I doubt it but no reason to add to the problem.

I wouldn't feed crickets honey, just doesn't seem like something they would be good at eating. I feed them veggies, fish flakes, high quality dog food, etc.


----------



## devetaki9 (Sep 30, 2013)

The pollen and the honey powder the feeders seem to love but yeah I wouldn't attempt honey... Rofl. Can you imagine? Cricket eats honey then crawls off into the bran, fish flakes or oatmeal.. Color the oatmeal green and red and you would have cricket and roach holiday balls ^.*

Ok now I can't stop laughing. Time for coffee!


----------



## robjamax (Dec 8, 2013)

Is there any nutritional or safety reason not to feed honeybees? I ask because I have a hive in my yard. It's a very close, easy, and sure source of food. I'm also in Louisiana, which, from maps I've seen, does not have colony collapse(I don't know what the latest data say, though). Compared to natural mortality, my impact on the hive would be negligible.


----------



## Krissim Klaw (Dec 9, 2013)

It isn't just the honey. If you are collecting foraging bees they are going to be coated in all sorts of lovely pollens.


----------

