The Easiest Way to Catch a Queen Ant

If you want to create a successful ant farm, you will need a queen ant. The queen ant will ensure that the population of your ant farm keeps growing. Without her, the farm dwellers will likely die off in a few months and there won̵7;t be any offspring to replace them. The United States Department of Agriculture has banned the shipment of insects across state lines without a permit; therefore, the easiest way to obtain a queen ant is to catch her yourself.

  1. Queen Ant Flight

    • One of the easiest ways in which to catch a queen ant is to wait for the yearly nuptial flights, according to the pet website TheRealOwner.com. During these flights, which usually occur after rainstorms in the spring and summer months, the queen ant and young males leave their nests to search for mates. The queen will actually sport wings to assist her in her quest.

      Once she is done mating, she will remove her wings and search for a place to lay her eggs. This is the best time to catch her. Look for an ant that is rather large̵2;about twice the size of a regular ant̵2;and one whose abdomen, also called the ̶0;butt,̶1; is quite big. Do not collect a queen that still has her wings, as she has probably not been fertilized yet. Capture the queen and place her in a container that has moist soil and is away from direct sunlight. Feed her before you place her in her permanent home to create a large brood.

    Finding Queen Ants

    • Look under rotted wood to search for the queen ant. Carpenter ants can typically be found in cooler temperatures near tree stands with large amounts of downed and rotting logs, according to ant-farms.com. Peel the bark back to reveal an egg-shaped chamber and use a long knife to extract it. The queen will likely be in this area. In addition, look under large rocks to find the queen. You will probably see a whole colony of ants with its queen scrambling for cover.

    Digging up the Nest

    • You can also catch a queen ant by digging up the nest and extracting her. Find a smaller, undeveloped ant hill and use a spade to cut a bucket-sized circle around the hill, says the ant information website AntCam.com. Lift the whole section out of the ground̵2;still intact, if possible̵2;and place it inside a bucket. Go back to the hole and quickly dig, following the chambers and tunnels and place these contents into a bucket. Dig in the same area until there are no more ants spotted. Use a spoon to sort through your findings to search for the queen.