Skip to main content
ARS Home » Southeast Area » Gainesville, Florida » Center for Medical, Agricultural and Veterinary Entomology » Imported Fire Ant and Household Insects Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #307978
Title: Long-term efficacy of two cricket and two liver diets for rearing laboratory fire ant colonies (Hymenoptera: Formicidae: Solenopsis Invicta)

Author
item Porter, Sanford
item Valles, Steven
item Gavilanez Slone, Jenny

Submitted to: Florida Entomologist
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 5/12/2015
Publication Date: 10/19/2015
Citation: Porter, S.D., Valles, S.M., Gavilanez Slone, J.M. 2015. Long-term efficacy of two cricket and two liver diets for rearing laboratory fire ant colonies (Hymenoptera: Formicidae: Solenopsis Invicta). Florida Entomologist. 98(3):991-993.

Interpretive Summary: Effective diets are necessary for many kinds of laboratory studies of ants. Scientists at the USDA-ARS, Center for Medical, Agricultural and Veterinary Entomology in Gainesville, FL conducted a year-long study of imported fire ant colonies reared on either chicken liver, beef liver, banded crickets, or domestic crickets all with a sugar water supplement. Fire ant colonies thrived on diets of sugar water and raw beef liver or raw chicken liver for almost eight months, after which brood production crashed in half colonies receiving either chicken liver or beef liver. As expected, colonies did well on a diet of sugar water and domestic crickets. Unexpectedly, however, banded crickets were much worse than either liver or domestic crickets. Diet information provided in this study will be important to the success of many kinds of studies requiring healthy laboratory-reared fire ant colonies and will likely be very useful for rearing ants in other genera as well.

Technical Abstract: Effective diets are necessary for many kinds of laboratory studies of ants. We conducted a year-long study of imported fire ant colonies reared on either chicken liver, beef liver, banded crickets, or domestic crickets all with a sugar water supplement. Fire ant colonies thrived on diets of sugar water and raw beef liver or raw chicken liver for almost eight months, after which brood production crashed in half colonies receiving either chicken liver or beef liver. As expected, colonies did well on a diet of sugar water and domestic crickets. Unexpectedly, however, banded crickets were much worse than either liver or domestic crickets. Diet information provided in this study will be important to the success of many kinds of studies requiring healthy laboratory-reared fire ant colonies and will likely be very useful for rearing ants in other genera as well.