Starting your own ant colony

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If you are under the age of 12, or are setting up an ant farm for your children, read our guide on keeping ants for kids. Otherwise, please continue...

You are going to need the following to start your own ant colony:

A formicarium (a vivarium designed for the study of ants)
A queen ant, or small colony of ants
A place indoors, away from pets and young children and out of direct sunlight

The rest of this guide assumes you will be keeping a beginners species such as Lasius niger or similar.

Your formicarium

Your formicarium will vary depending on species of ant you manage to capture, and will grow in size and change in type as the colony expands. For a single queen, or very small colony (up to 5 workers), anything from a petri dish, a test tube, a plastic container you might get takeaway food in, or even a plastic cup with cling film over the top will do as a start.

Read our section on formicariums for more details.

When can I find ants?

If you are lucky enough to be reading this during the warmest months of the year, then this is the ideal time to collect ants. In the UK and other places with a cooler climate in winter, you are unlikely to find a queen or small colony as an inexperienced ant collector. You are far better waiting until spring in the case of the UK.

Overall, the best time to get a queen is during the mating (nuptial) flights. In the UK this may take place at any date from May to October, and at any hour from very early morning until midnight. For the most part, metropolitan ant species (Lasius niger & Myrmica sp.) will take to the skies between mid July and mid August and more often than not, in the early evening.

The flights most often occur on the warmest, clammiest days, often following rain and lacking strong wind.

This is when you will see winged ants (alates or sexuals) taking to the skies. If you are lucky enough to witness this, check the ground nearby for queens. They can be found everywhere following the nuptial flights, and are differentiated from other ant castes by their size (usually much larger than the workers) and the lack of wings (females pull these off shortly after mating, becoming fertilised 'queens'). They may be hidden in grass, darting accross pavement, hiding under pebbles and plantpots, practicaly anywhere that conceals them from preadators in the short term.

If the nuptial flights have passed you by and it's now between mid August to the end of September, you may have to go further afield to get your starter colony.

Capturing queens

If you are in the field capturing queens, for ease of collection, you may wish to collect them all in a single container. I suggest something with sides at least 15cm high filled loosely with strips of kitchen role. This will hinder the ants escape if you are collecting many queens and will alleviate the need to keep opening and closing the lid. Ensure there are air holes on the lid which you will ultimately fit. The queens of niger and flavus will not fight in the short term.

Another good time to look for queens -if next summer is too long to wait for you- is a warm day in spring. Select a day that is unusually warm and a time of day when the sun has been shining for a few hours. This will increase the likelihood of finding a queen close to the surface. Find a fairly dry area in a clearing with lots of flattish rocks, branches, paving slabs etc to overturn, away from areas of heavy human traffic is often best. You may get lucky and find a queen this way. Check for any eggs and larvae that may already be present.

Otherwise, simply turn over stones and chance your luck. Red ants (Myrmica sp.) tend to be better for collecting entire colonies. Lifting a small sized stone may reveal a queen, dozens of workers and various brood. Try and collect as much as you can, but remember, these ants can sting! Summer is best as they are likely to be near the suface and you may be able to spot surface foragers.

Capturing Established Colonies

It is possible to capture established colonies, but for Lasius niger (the common black ant) and Lasius flavus (the Yellow Meadow ant) it is rare to be able to dig up an established nest and locate the queen. Additionally, you will most likely destroy the colony and come away empty handed. I would try to persuade you not to attempt this and simply wait for the nuptial flights.Even if you are able to excavate the entire colony, the likelihood is, the ants - and queen in particular - will not survive the transition into a captive environment. A queen that has spent its lifetime underground is likely to be acutely photosensitive. In my opinion, a lot of the enjoyment in keeping and observing ants comes from watching the colony mature from the single, founding queen stage.

Founding a new colony in captivity

As I have learnt from recent experience, have smaller containers ready for when you bring multiple queens back. Keeping queens from species such as L. niger together for any prolonged period is likely to hinder colony development. Naturally, queens would found colonies alone and keeping queens together may result in increased stress and/or increased cannibalisation of brood. Having other queens nearby may also influence egg production in the first instance.

Once workers emerge, if the species is monogynous all but one queen will be killed.

If kept warm (at around room temperature) the queen will lay eggs shortly after finding a suitable location.