Chicken eggs are rich in healthy nutrients and calories that can help improve organisms’ physical and mental health. They can attract insects to gain benefits and improve their dietary habits.
Do Ants Eat Cooked Chicken Eggs? Ants can eat cooked chicken eggs to build their muscle mass and feed young larvae because they are a good source of vitamins, proteins, essential nutrients, iron, zinc, and healthy fats. They can eat white portions and yolk of raw, fried, or boiled eggs.
Many people have seen ants crawling in bird cages for broken eggs, but they also consider cooked ones for their nutrition.
All forms of cooked chicken eggs, like boiled, fried, and poached, are equally attractive to these tiny insects as they can easily extract nutrients from them.
Why do ants eat boiled chicken eggs?
Ants eat almost everything on this planet that is nutritious for their bodies and provides energy to perform essential tasks of their lives.
They prefer to eat cooked chicken eggs that can be half-boiled or hard-boiled to obtain energy-dense nutrients from the white albumin portion and the inner fat-rich yolk.
Build muscular mass
Eggs are a good source of proteins as one medium-sized chicken egg contains almost 6 to 7g of proteins. Proteins are essential for living organisms, as they help build muscular mass.
In addition, 100g of the fried egg contains around 12 to 14g of proteins, while the omelet contains 10 to 11g of proteins. The poached eggs also provide plenty of proteins, usually in white albumin.
This amount of proteins constitutes around 12 to 15% of the total mass, providing essential amino acids to make proteins that help these ants to gain muscle mass.
Consume healthy fats
They provide healthy fats to living organisms because the yellowish yolk is rich in omega-3 fatty acids and monounsaturated fats.
Almost 0.05 to 0.1g of fats are present in the albumin portion of raw eggs. In comparison, around 200mg of cholesterol and 2 to 3g of monounsaturated fats are present in one large-sized yolk.
The fats are essential for the growth and development of ants because these insects reserve fats in the form of triglycerides and glycogen to use when they do not have access to food.
Moreover, these insects usually rely on stored fats and glycogen during hibernation in cold winters, which helps ensure survival by preventing starvation.
Rich in vitamins
Insects can produce fat-soluble vitamins (particularly Vitamin A and E) in their bodies, which are involved in the reproduction and coloration of bodies.
However, ants obtain water-soluble vitamins from their diet foods, like nicotinic acid, thiamine, riboflavin, ascorbic acid, pyridoxine, biotin, etc.
White albumin does not contain vitamins, but the yellowish yolk contains vitamin A (243 IU), vitamin E (0.679 IU), vitamin K (0.0115 IU), and vitamin D (18.2 IU).
In addition, vitamin B2 and vitamin B12 are also present in traces, which can provide a combination of vitamins to grow healthy.
Source of iron and zinc
Iron plays a crucial role in catalysis for oxidative metabolism.
In addition, there are storage proteins (ferritin) and iron transport proteins (transferrin) in insects that ensure the transport and storage of this micronutrient for biological functions.
Moreover, it binds with enzymes and carries out crucial physiological functions in insects, including the synthesis of dopamine, lipids, DNA, and the respiration process.
Chicken eggs contain almost 0.03mg (6%) iron in the white and 0.4 to 0.5mg (94%) in the yolk. In addition, almost 0.01mg (0.3%) of zinc in albumin and 0.4mg (99.7%) in the yolk portion.
In addition, zinc is essential for the development of insects and enables them to defend themselves. So, ants prefer to consume them to get essential micronutrients and grow well.
Feed young larvae
Larvae need small amounts of carbohydrates, fats, and other essential vitamins and minerals but primarily consume protein-rich foods for healthier bodies.
Ants need protein-rich food as they have to pass through crucial developmental stages of their lives, and a lack of nutrients can result in compromised growth.
Accordingly, the workers in a colony collect proteinaceous food for their young ones for better health because they have to take control of the nest activities in the near future.
So, these can become a primary source of nutrition for these young larvae in addition to dead insects because these food types are rich in proteins.
Provides essential nutrients
Various essential nutrients are present in the white albumin and yolk portion of the chicken eggs, including magnesium, phosphorous, potassium, sodium, copper, selenium, and manganese.
Ants need large amounts of potassium and traces of copper, sodium, phosphorous, and other nutrients. Almost 2mg of calcium and 3mg of magnesium are present in the albumin.
In addition, 54mg of potassium and only 4 to 5mg of phosphorous are present in whites, while 18mg of potassium and 66mg of phosphorous are present in yolks.
The amount of sodium is around 55mg (87%), and 8mg (13%) is in the yolk, which means the albumin becomes a good source of sodium.
So, these can provide essential nutrients to the tiny ants and fulfill their basic nutritional requirements, either raw or cooked.
Are ants attracted to cooked chicken eggshells?
Ants get attracted to eggs due to their high nutritional value, but their shells cannot appeal to insects as they have repelling properties.
These shells are also rich in proteins and calcium and contain traces of other minerals that usually help improve bone health, but ants lack a bony skeleton.
Moreover, the shells of cooked chicken eggs can be used in the organic pest control method by sprinkling the crushed powder around entry points and infested areas.
I used eggshell powder to keep the black garden ants away from plants by sprinkling the powder around the plant’s periphery.
It is an inexpensive method to keep these nuisance pests away from home because these shells are usually thrown into trash bins.
In addition, it can push the mounds away from an area by discouraging these insects from locating a new nesting spot.
This powdered material interferes with their pheromone trails, so these little creatures prefer to stay away from the powder.
What type of ants can eat cooked chicken eggs?
Almost every species of ants is attracted to chicken eggs, whether in raw or cooked form because they contain essential nutrients.
The black garden or fire ants can reach inside their cages to eat the broken chicken eggs because their odor draws these insects inside the cage.
In addition, you can see common house ants drawing towards the raw and broken egg on the floor, or even the boiled one attracts them.
They do not get attracted when it is covered within a shell because they avoid calcium-rich shells, and their tiny teeth cannot break them.
However, the odorous house, pharaoh, sugar, and other common ants within the home can quickly reach a sliced-boiled egg with an exposed yolk.
Furthermore, these omnivorous creatures do not miss an opportunity to consume nutrient-dense food when it is readily available to them.
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