ants like sugar, so at one end of the formicarium (ant nest) there is a test tube filled with cotton wool and soaked in a sugary solution. they drink that but they also need protein so dead insects from the terrace. anything will do. I fed them with flies and one day I noticed the ant cutting a leg off the fly and it took ages. She had cut one of the legs off in a very precise way halfway up the thigh so it was exactly the same length as the foreleg (leaving the jointed foot attached) and then I later noticed they were storing it in the nest. (ants don't keep food inside the nest) so I was intrigued. I watched and found the leg being used a tunneling brace for digging new tunnels and a ladder. ASTOUNDING>> ants make and use tools. It would often be found in one place in the nest and then in another and then back in one of the chambers, kept safe like a good tool should be