Content

• To step
• Method 1 of 2: Wait for an Ant Queen to start a new colony
• Method 2 of 2: Dig to find an ant queen
• Tips
• Warnings

Finding an ant queen is the first step in building your own ant farm. Ant queens can be elusive, but if you know what to look for and how to look, then with a little time and patience you can catch your own ant queen.

To step

Method 1 of 2: Wait for an Ant Queen to start a new colony

1. Ask an expert what the best time is. Ant queens in existing colonies will leave at certain times of the year to start new colonies. Local entomologists (people who study insects) or even local insect repellants will likely know the best time of year to look for an ant queen to leave to build a new colony.
   • Day length, temperature and rainfall in your area are a few variables to consider when estimating when a queen wants to build a new colony. In the Netherlands this will usually be in the spring.
2. Find an environment with multiple active ant colonies. The more ant colonies you keep an eye on during your "window of opportunity," the more likely you are to find an ant queen in her quest. A queen is also likely to build a colony in an environment where other ant colonies are already thriving, so look for spots in undeveloped areas with several colonies a short distance from each other.
3. Look for an ant queen. Ant queens and the males that mate with them don't just fly out of the adult colony gate knowing where to go. When the time is right, you will see several ant queens walking around near the entrance to their parent colony. During this time, the ant queens test the weather to decide when is the right time to start a new colony.
   • Since you're looking for an ant queen, you need to know how to tell them apart from the other ants in the colony. At this stage, the ant queen will have wings. However, even after the stage of shedding her wings, you can identify her by her much larger size compared to the other ants. This will be especially visible in the thorax, which is the middle part of the ant, between the head and the bottom of the ant. You can also find additional characteristics on the wikiHow: How to recognize an Ant Queen.
   • If you just want an ant queen, now is the ideal time to outwit one; however, if you want an ant queen to start your own ant colony, then you shouldn't do it yet. These ant queens with wings have not yet mated at this stage.
4. Wait until you see an ant queen roaming around. When a queen has mated, she will search for a location for the new colony. Contrary to the fairly purposeful paths of most ants, the Ant Queen will roam, examining cracks and crevices, changing directions, and generally appearing like a lost tourist in a big city. Her fickle behavior simply means she is looking for the right place to start her new colony.
   • Another sign that an ant queen has mated is when she has her wings off. Once she's picked a spot, she'll pull her wings off to be less visible. However, she will still wander around to find the perfect spot in her chosen environment.
5. Treat your new ant queen with care. Once she has removed her wings, it will be much easier to catch an ant queen, but make sure you handle her with care. If you're transporting your ant queen to start a personal ant farm, a movie box works well. Make sure she gets plenty of water by also adding a damp cotton ball to the container.
   • If you want to build an ant farm, you will also need to get a few spoons of soil from the area where you got the queen so that she can start nesting once you have transported her.

Method 2 of 2: Dig to find an ant queen

1. Use a shovel to dig a trench around the ant colony. This method will take more work but less perfect timing. Using the shovel, start digging a trench within six to eight inches from the entrance to the ant hill.
2. Use a large shovel to scoop out the colony. When you are done creating the trench, start scooping out the area within the trench, which is most of the ant colony.
3. Shovel the soil into 20 liter buckets. You will need to dig out quite a bit of soil to reach all of the colony's different rooms, so keep two 20-gallon buckets ready and scoop the soil in.
   • Try to keep the clumps of soil intact as much as possible so that you don't collapse every tunnel while digging out the colony.
   • You'll also want to make sure to cover every bucket to keep any queens from escaping.
   • If you're using this method on a brand new colony where the queen has just mated and is still digging out her nest, you won't have to dig very far and you won't have to look far to find her. A clear sign that you are dealing with a new colony is a very small entrance with a small pile of fresh soil next to it that has not yet turned into a mountain.
4. Follow rooms and tunnels where possible. They can be difficult to spot if you work quickly, but you should especially follow chambers and tunnels in the ground as you dig out the colony. Keep taking samples until you see very few ants left in the hole.
5. Search through the buckets. Once you have collected the colony, you will have to manually search the buckets to find the queen. Use a spoon to scoop through the soil and keep ants separate.
   • You can collect the ants in smaller pots while separating them from the ground.
   • For obvious reasons, you probably won't want to do this in your home.
6. Find the queen. It will be a painstaking process, but eventually you should find the queen as you go through the colony. If you are not sure what you are looking for; the queen will be the largest ant in the colony, and especially her middle part - the breast part - will stand out. You can check out wikiHow's How to Identify an Ant Queen for more help.

Tips

• Wear gloves when digging for ants.
• Wear boots to avoid getting ants under your clothes.
• Don't be disappointed, it's hard to find an ant queen.
• Wear long-sleeved shirts when you dig.
• Do not overload your back when you dig bent. Try to keep your back as straight as possible.
• While it's not as exciting as catching an ant queen, you can also buy ant queens to build your own ant farm.
• Be careful that it is not a colony of red ants, the bites of red ants sting.

Warnings

• Never mix two colonies, they will fight until there is only one colony left.