What To Do After Catching Your First Queen Ant!
Bruma 6 min read
Cover photo: iStock.com/ViniSouza128
In short
After catching your first queen ant, move her from the small container into a test tube setup and seal it with cotton. Check whether her species is fully claustral or semi-claustral to know if she needs feeding, offer a drop of honey anyway, then leave her somewhere safe and quiet.
Fantastic! I finally caught my very first queen ant! I can’t wait to have my first ant colony! I’m so excited!
Wait, and now? What should I do next?
If you feel that this hypothetical conversation accurately reflects your current situation, you’ve found the right guide! Let’s see what you should do after catching your very first queen ant!
In this short guide, you’re going to learn what steps you need to take after catching your very first queen ant! Where to put her, what to feed her, and everything you need to know to lay the foundation for a healthy and prosperous ant colony!
Let’s get into it!
Introduction
Catching your very first queen ant can be an amazing and fulfilling experience for an ant keeper, especially if you are new to this fantastic hobby! Watching the queen care for the next generation of workers is an extremely relaxing and enjoyable pastime, and makes you really appreciate how cool and smart these tiny animals can be!
But what should you do after catching your very first queen ant? Let’s start with the first step!
If you haven't had the opportunity to catch your first queen ant, you can jump right to my guide on how to catch your first queen ant! In this article, you will find all the information needed to get your hands on your very first newly mated queen ant!
Where Should I Put Her?
OK, you just caught your first queen ant, and now she’s probably sitting inside some sort of small plastic container like the one below. These types of containers are not very good for housing a small ant colony in its founding stage and can actually cause more harm than good.
They lack the right amount of humidity, and they don’t have a proper water source. They are also very difficult to maintain, as the living space of the colony is extremely limited. For these important reasons, we need to create a better founding nest alternative, one that has a water source, some moisture, and is easy to maintain.
In this situation, the so-called test tube setup comes to our rescue!
This particular type of setup is considered by most ant keepers to be the gold standard of founding nests. The test tube setup is undoubtedly the best way to recreate the environment that a young colony experiences in the wild, as it accurately replicates the same amount of space, humidity, and temperature.
To build this effective type of founding nest, you don’t need a lot of items. The most important element of a test tube setup is, as the name suggests, a test tube. For this setup, the material of the test tube doesn’t matter very much, and you can choose between glass and plastic as you please.
Apart from the test tube, you're also going to need some cotton, water, and some sort of long stick.
If you’re reading this guide, there’s a very high chance that you are just starting out with this hobby, and that you don’t have any idea how to make this kind of nest setup. But you don’t need to worry about that!
I made a detailed step-by-step guide on how to make the perfect test tube setup! You can find it in my test tube setup tutorial! In the short guide, I explain in detail everything you need to know to successfully prepare a test tube setup, starting from the basics all the way to the final result!
Now that we have our test tube setup, it’s time to give the queen a new home!
To do that, just remove the cotton ball to open the setup, and gently guide your queen to find the path to the test tube. Try to make this as safe as possible, as we definitely don’t want to harm the queen in the process!
When the queen is in, close the test tube with the cotton ball.
Fantastic! Now our queen has a proper home, where she can start to lay eggs and raise her own colony!
In the next step, we’re going to answer another frequently asked question regarding this important founding stage! Let’s continue!
Should I Feed The Queen?
To answer this important question, we first need to understand the difference between fully claustral and semi-claustral queens.
A fully claustral queen is a type of queen ant that is able to start a new colony without needing to forage for food. That’s because this particular type of queen can use the nutrients she already has in her body to feed herself and her first few generations of offspring.
This useful characteristic allows the queen to establish a new colony in a location where food is not readily available, increasing the chances of surviving the founding period.
On the other hand, a semi-claustral queen is a type of queen ant that doesn’t have this ability and needs to forage for food even during her founding stage.
Now that we know the differences between these two types of founding options, we need to check whether our queen is fully claustral or not. To do that, we have to find out which species of ant our queen belongs to.
Photo: MACRONATURA/stock.adobe.com
If you don’t know it yet, you can ask a question in one of the many online forums dedicated to ant keeping, sending them some pictures of your newly caught queen. When you have the name of the species, check online whether she’s a fully claustral species or not.
As a general rule, you can check the gaster of the queen. If it’s large and voluminous compared to the rest of her body, she’s likely fully claustral. On the other hand, if the gaster is small and thin, she’s probably semi-claustral and needs to be fed during the founding stage.
However, even if the queen you just caught is fully claustral, I would suggest giving her a little drop of honey. This little sugar boost will help the queen stay energized during the long founding period and will also assist her first workers during their initial days!
You can find my review of the Ant Antics sugar snaps, one of the best ways to provide your newly caught queen ant with a healthy source of sugar!
Conclusions
Now we can put the test tube setup and our little queen ant in a safe and quiet place, giving her the time to lay her first batch of eggs and start her own ant colony!
Starting an ant colony from a single queen can be a fun and educational experience and can provide a unique and fascinating glimpse into the world of these tiny creatures!
If you are new to the amazing hobby of ant keeping, you should definitely check out this tutorial! In this one, I explain in detail how to start ant keeping with as little as $1! That’s a steal!
FAQs
5The best setup for a newly caught queen ant is the test tube setup, considered by most ant keepers the gold standard of founding nests. It replicates the space, humidity and temperature a young colony experiences in the wild, with a water source, and it is easy to maintain. You need a test tube, cotton, water and a long stick.
To introduce your queen to her new home, remove the cotton ball to open the test tube setup, gently guide her toward the test tube, and close it with the cotton ball once she is inside. Make the process as safe as possible, because we definitely don't want to harm her.
Fully claustral queens can start a colony without food, since they use nutrients already in their bodies to feed themselves and their first offspring. Still, I suggest giving even a fully claustral queen a little drop of honey, because the sugar boost keeps her energized during the long founding period and helps her first workers.
You can check the queen's gaster: if it is large and voluminous compared to the rest of her body, she's likely fully claustral, and if it's small and thin, she's probably semi-claustral and needs to be fed during founding. For certainty, identify her species, for example by asking in an online forum, and check online.
After your queen lays her first eggs, keep her test tube setup in a safe and quiet place and let her do her job, without loud noises, vibrations or rapid light changes. She needs time to raise her first workers, and patience is your best ally while the new colony gets started.
Author
Bruma
