How to Find Acorn Ants

Acorn ants, or Temnothorax longispinosus, are social insects that live in colonies of workers formed around a queen. They can be found worldwide in a variety of habitats but prefer to live in nuts, hence their name. Hobbyists can collect their own ants or order them from ant suppliers. If you are collecting acorn ants from the wild, they can be collected at any time of year, but it is easier to find and handle them in the spring.

Things You'll Need

  • Plastic bucket
  • Petroleum jelly
  • Shovel
  • Rubber gloves
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Instructions

  1. Finding Acorn Ants

    • 1
      Acorn ants can be found in leaf litter underneath oak trees.

      Look for potential habitat, which includes large amounts of leaf litter, decomposing wood and oak or nut trees. Acorn ants also can be found underneath the bark of trees.

    • 2

      Examine fallen nuts for ant holes and trunks of trees for ant debris and holes.

    • 3

      Smear petroleum jelly around the top of the plastic bucket. This will keep the ants from crawling out.

    • 4
      Look for holes in acorns.

      Crack open nuts with holes to see if there are any ants inside. Ants may winter inside of nuts.

    • 5
      Ants communicate with each other.

      Gently dig the soil around the ant-infested nuts with your shovel, putting the soil and nuts into your plastic bucket for transport home. Also peel a bit of loose bark from trees that appear to be infected, taking care not to peel off healthy bark. Do this quickly, as the ants will become active once disturbed.