Entrusted with the ant programme in my school, I was faced with a predicament. What would I need to do to ensure that the ants stayed alive?

It was best to hear from the horse’s mouth, so I took my son to Just Ants, the first store dedicated to selling ants in Singapore.

Never expected myself to be enlightened so much. First all, ants need to be fed with protein such as mealworms and crickets. Honey and jelly alone cannot sustain the queen ant; she will die of stress.

So, dedicated ant rearers need to stick to a routine of feeding the ants protein three times a week. A feeding schedule can look like this: mealworms, honey, crickets, and jelly.

Here’s the thingy: I must be prepared to remove the heads of the mealworm and cricket. If we don’t detach the heads, some species of ants (like carpenter ants) will spray formic acid instinctively. Hence, the ants will die if too much formic acid is sprayed.

If you are squeamish, you can freeze an entire box of mealworms or crickets.
But live feed is preferable.

However, if I intend to keep the mealworms alive, I will have to feed them too. I can probably feed them oats and jelly (the same jelly used to keep the ants alive). Also keep the box of mealworms open and dry.

The last interesting thing that I learnt: ants are colour-blind to red. Hence, a red film is typically used to keep an ant colony dark so that the ants can go about their usual activities, unhindered by the prying eyes of humans.