why everything but not ants?

[C.way]

hi all, I'm just wondering why people feeds all sort of insect but not ants since I'm advice by many not to feed mantis with ants. I try out with my new born mantis and they don't seems to be enjoying it, just purely attacking it but not eating...hope that some one can give a clear picture of why, thanks

Edit/Delete Message

 

[ismart]

Because a lot of ants use poisons, and chemicals as a means of defence. Getting sprayed in the face by formic acid or being stung can not be very pleasant. Not to mention some ants have very strong mandibles that can crush or pierce there attackers/victims.

 

[bassist]

Because a lot of ants use poisons, and chemicals as a means of defence. Getting sprayed in the face by formic acid or being stung can not be very pleasant. Not to mention some ants have very strong mandibles that can crush or pierce there attackers/victims.

Plus they will work together.

 

[Christian]

Some mantid species have adapted to prey on ants in the wild, they won't take any ant species though. Myrmecophagy is known in Pyrgomantis, Tarachodes, Liturgusa, Eremiaphila, Gonatista & Amorphoscelis, that is mostly bark- or ground-living species.

Other mantids avoid ants or eat them only occasionally.

 

[Matticus]

I've also heard tell that most ants are very acidic. Chitinous creatures in general aren't usually favorites for carnivorous insects.

 

[Ntsees]

As what they say above. Whenever my mantids feed on ants (gray field ant), they get sprayed by the ant. Still, my mantids (the released ones) eat them when food is scarce although they prefer other prey.

 

[PhilinYuma]

Interesting topic. As Christian points out, "they wont take [just] any species." I have seen Stagmomantis limbata, the AZ bordered mantis, take ants, and the only kind that it takes around here is the most fearsome of them all, the fire ant, Solenopsis sp. This ant has formidable jaws and a massive thorax, but like most ants, the abdomen is much more vulnerable. The major difference between this and "trail forming" ants is that the latter use formic acid both for defense and for guiding their brethren (sistren?) to food and home. As a result, they are imbued with the stuff. So far as I know, fire ants and their kin don't use formic acid either for trails or for poison. Instead, they use -- you guessed it -- solenopsin, a very interesting compound indeed. Our ant expert hypopneura knows much more than I about the subject, so I hope that he can amplify this and correct any errors.

 

[C.way]

thanks for the reply, now that I have a clearer picture of why they don't fancy ants compared to other moving stuffs

 

[wero626]

Actually when i first got started with the mantid hobby we had some nymphs and me and my bro went outside and fed them ants i dont think ants are dangerous for mantids as long as there the black ones the only thing is there really small ants and mantids grow pretty fast...And there really hard to catch i have enough problems with ants in our house haha should let a mantid go in my kitchen to eat all the ants :lol:

 

[Dwaink]

Actually when i first got started with the mantid hobby we had some nymphs and me and my bro went outside and fed them ants i dont think ants are dangerous for mantids as long as there the black ones the only thing is there really small ants and mantids grow pretty fast...And there really hard to catch i have enough problems with ants in our house haha should let a mantid go in my kitchen to eat all the ants :lol:

Hi,

I posted this story awhile back about what happened to me and why ants are dangerous. I had a Texas unicorn in a 32oz container, one day i saw an ant in the bottom carrying of what was a wing from pray that the mantis did not eat, sometimes they don't eat the wings or drop them on the bottom of the container. I didn't think anything of it because i figured the mantis would just eat the ant, well i was wrong! the next day when i checked on the mantis it was gone! the ant had left a trail for others to follow they completely cut the mantis to bits and carried him off, no trace was ever found, they took everything.

I have observed from Ooth that i have placed in my back yard that when they hatch if one ant finds the Ooth the rest of the colony will be their plucking the nymphs as the come right out of the Ooth before the even get a Chance to dry out. Then carry them off. There weapons, chemicals and numbers are formidable. Ants are dangerous.

Regards

 

[C.way]

Hi,I posted this story awhile back about what happened to me and why ants are dangerous. I had a Texas unicorn in a 32oz container, one day i saw an ant in the bottom carrying of what was a wing from pray that the mantis did not eat, sometimes they don't eat the wings or drop them on the bottom of the container. I didn't think anything of it because i figured the mantis would just eat the ant, well i was wrong! the next day when i checked on the mantis it was gone! the ant had left a trail for others to follow they completely cut the mantis to bits and carried him off, no trace was ever found, they took everything.

I have observed from Ooth that i have placed in my back yard that when they hatch if one ant finds the Ooth the rest of the colony will be their plucking the nymphs as the come right out of the Ooth before the even get a Chance to dry out. Then carry them off. There weapons, chemicals and numbers are formidable. Ants are dangerous.

Regards

i see, so that means, ants are colony stuff and once the other get contact to one that are potentially being the pray of the predator, the predator ends up being the pray, sounds dangerous though, will stop giving ants to my little critters from now on, thanks for all the information

 

[PhilinYuma]

Hi,I posted this story awhile back about what happened to me and why ants are dangerous. I had a Texas unicorn in a 32oz container, one day i saw an ant in the bottom carrying of what was a wing from pray that the mantis did not eat, sometimes they don't eat the wings or drop them on the bottom of the container. I didn't think anything of it because i figured the mantis would just eat the ant, well i was wrong! the next day when i checked on the mantis it was gone! the ant had left a trail for others to follow they completely cut the mantis to bits and carried him off, no trace was ever found, they took everything.

I have observed from Ooth that i have placed in my back yard that when they hatch if one ant finds the Ooth the rest of the colony will be their plucking the nymphs as the come right out of the Ooth before the even get a Chance to dry out. Then carry them off. There weapons, chemicals and numbers are formidable. Ants are dangerous.

Regards

I have no trouble with the idea of ants eating new fry, but you never actually saw the ants kill dismember and transport bits of yr mantis back to their nest, did you? Do you have a screen lid on yr pot?

 

[Dwaink]

I have no trouble with the idea of ants eating new fry, but you never actually saw the ants kill dismember and transport bits of yr mantis back to their nest, did you? Do you have a screen lid on yr pot?

It was a fiberglass screen lid, no it didn't get lose. I certainly didn't watch it cut up my mantis!!

what is yr pot?

Regards

 

[PhilinYuma]

It was a screen lid, no it didn't get lose. I certainly didn't watch it cut up my mantis!!what is yr pot?

Regards

Tiny ants do not go to their nest and tell their friends, "I just found a huge living critter. Let's go and kill it and chop it into pieces tiny enough to go through a mesh screen and then disappear without trace." Where on earth did you get such an idea, a TV show on African driver ants? You certainly didn't get it from any book on U.S. ants, and you haven't observed it!

My guess is that yr mantis was carried off by a Robo Fly.

 

[Matticus]

Hi,I posted this story awhile back about what happened to me and why ants are dangerous. I had a Texas unicorn in a 32oz container, one day i saw an ant in the bottom carrying of what was a wing from pray that the mantis did not eat, sometimes they don't eat the wings or drop them on the bottom of the container. I didn't think anything of it because i figured the mantis would just eat the ant, well i was wrong! the next day when i checked on the mantis it was gone! the ant had left a trail for others to follow they completely cut the mantis to bits and carried him off, no trace was ever found, they took everything.

I have observed from Ooth that i have placed in my back yard that when they hatch if one ant finds the Ooth the rest of the colony will be their plucking the nymphs as the come right out of the Ooth before the even get a Chance to dry out. Then carry them off. There weapons, chemicals and numbers are formidable. Ants are dangerous.

Regards

lol.

And that's how conspiracy theories start.

 

[Orin]

I've seen ants chopping up and carrying away rather huge insects, however they tend to leave thick body parts like the head or pronotum since they can't cut up thickened exoskeleton. Also, they tend to go after dead or immobile prey (eggs, pupae).

 

[PhilinYuma]

You mean something huge, like this? This is a seed case, of course.

 

[cloud jaguar]

ants taste like pepper

 

[Katnapper]

ants taste like pepper

Do we want to know how you know this? :blink: