As I stated before, winter is here and my ability to catch critters is a bit hampered by the weather. Over the summer, my ants feasted on craneflies and spiders, and now that they're gone, I have to either start digging in the dirt for new food, or I can start experimenting.

I've decided to start experimenting.

I read on an ant forum that some ants like mixture water, egg, honey, and syrup, and I've also read in an article on trapping pest ants that "Big-headed ants, little black ants and pavement ants prefer grease and protein; in addition, they will also feed on fruit juices. They respond best to protein/grease baits." The site mentioned a combination of peanut butter and honey.

So... I've set up a little test. I've got several sections of food in the ant habitat with the following foods:

• cat food crumbs
• poppy seeds
• peanut butter
• egg mix
• sugar
• salt

We'll see what happens. If they don't touch any of it, I may be forced to run to the local pet store and get some crickets. Or dig, I suppose.