Bug Hives

[BetaSpectre]

In one of my games I decided to farm some bug hives, but after a few hives were cleared by friendly assists any new friendly assists that come onto the map never attack the last of the bug hives (6 hives 20-30~ bugs). Essentially they stand outside my bases until they go insane since they don't eat their carried meals. Then "retreat" after 2-3 of them die.

And I was also curious about various ways to handle the hives. I was thinking of using a few mortars to clear them out to manageable levels, or snipers. There are a few noctornal bugs, and the number is a little too much for me to sneakily grab some jelly atm.

[Trigon]

I've found fire to be the best choice. Maybe not for farming but turning everything into a fireball makes the area less bug filled.

[BetaSpectre]

So would the fire basically spread to the Hives/Jelly and burn a few of the bugs whom roam about?

Also do they spread outside of rocky areas? Like onto sand or dirt?

[Trigon]

The hives themselves have to be under rock roofs. So I've never seen them on sand and dirt. Generally the fire will spread if you light the hives and jelly.

If you want to farm the hives you'll have to kill the bugs a more traditional way or be very particular about your use of fire and install heaters. With enough heaters you can give the bugs rapid heatstroke without burning the hives, then run in quick and collect it. I did it once on an extreme desert colony back when bug meat didn't carry a mood penalty.

[b0rsuk]

Unless their AI has changed dramatically, when there are enough hives they tunnels will start to overflow and bugs will wander outside, even in the sun. If you leave them be, bugs will eventually mine all rock and walls on the map. Then you're much better off with miniguns than sniper rifles, charge rifles etc. You will need to use hit and run tactics, but other weapons don't put enough lead in the air. Mortars are not good because they don't deal much individual damage - bugs are relatively tough. Incendiary launcher is decent for harassing, its range is better than molotov.

[Dorian]

I have a very long tunnel that leads out of my base which is infested, VERY infested, and they've dug themselves quite the large living area now.  Winter is almost here though so I plan to leave the outside end open and hopefully freeze them out and kill them.

[SpaceDorf]

Time to capture a pyromaniac and lock him in with them.

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I am trying to tame a Megaspider at the moment, which I accidently rescued.
Does somebody know If I could use it to care for a hive ?

[Dorian]

Tamed bugs would be cool!  You could have a huge colony at your entrance that will ignore your colonists but try to dine on unwelcomed visitors (raiders).

[Wanderer_joins]

i have a huge colony of wild bugs at an entrance. They deal with any raid.

It's even better than tamed bugs: they auro regen, you don't have to feed them, and since they don't form bonds you don't care when they're killed.

[RyanRim]

i have a huge colony of wild bugs at an entrance. They deal with any raid.

It's even better than tamed bugs: they auro regen, you don't have to feed them, and since they don't form bonds you don't care when they're killed.

Interesting, and I am still muddling with bears. The problem is I never wanted to take care of em when my people have handicapped them so I guess it involves a huge risk.

[BeastNips]

Can you freeze them instead of burning them?

[RyanRim]

Can you freeze them instead of burning them?

Have wandered that like over months, cause I havent inhabited cold areas, and I have never tried that, only once they got into my fridge expansion, what was around 0...-1c and I didnt see no slowing effect. Probably douches need something over 40 like with heat.

[Wanderer_joins]

You can freeze the hives below -20°C, they die in a few hours. Then the bugs wander randomly and you can shoot them safely.

[BeastNips]

You can freeze the hives below -20°C, they die in a few hours. Then the bugs wander randomly and you can shoot them safely.

So can I create a jelly farm by digging a large cave, walling it off and installing a cooler? Basically I wait for them to spawn then adjust the temperature, turning the cave into a giant freezer. Once they're all dead, I can go and collect the jelly. Would this work? 

[Dorian]

So, my bug problem was bad, I had about 40-60 in my tunnel.  Before winter came, they eventually stopped creating new hives and jelly and started starving to death.  The ones that died fed the surviving ones, until some of them died, and fed other, and so on.  Now there's only 5 bugs left, they have no hive, no jelly and no glow pods.  Just waiting for them to die now to claim my new huge cavern they dug out for me