Hi, this is Jordan and in this video I'll be sharing with you a
few tips on finding and catching Queen ants. I find the best time to go out
in search is during the period that ants undergo their nuptial flights. This
is where winged ants, known as alates, fly out from their colony in search of alates from
other colonies to mate with. This is the best opportunity you'll get in finding
Queens as they'll be out in the open
flying from colonies all over. So do some research and find out when nuptial
flights generally occur in your region.
Different species will fly at different times within the year. For example here
in Melbourne I find the genus Camponotus typically fly in hot summer months,
Pheidole in Autumn and Iridomyrmex and Rhytidoponera in spring.
Sometimes it can be hard to predict when ants will undergo this process. It is often very
weather dependent. I find they favour times when its and humid, so the day
following a rainstorm is an ideal time to look. The key to finding
queens is being very observant of what's going on around you. You want to be
paying close attention to any sort of ant activity. When you see an ant nest,
take a closer look, ants will expand their nests entrances when they're
about to undergo their nuptial flights, in order to make room for alates to pass
through. So if you're observing a particularly small species and you
see a relatively large ant hill, then it could mean that they're preparing or have
already begun their flights. So walk around that area for a bit, if
you don't find anything, come back and have another look later on as they might have
just been on the verge of flying.
Queens are often dark in color and look larger than a typical worker.
They tend to have a large gaster section in proportion to their body. Their movement and
behavior also differs from regular workers. They walk in a sporadic way along the
ground and often stop to investigate a patch of soil or a crevice where
they'll try to dig a hole or wedge themselves into in search of an ideal
nesting space where they'll begin founding their colony, laying eggs and
eventually producing workers.
A lot of people confuse the males with the females. Typically you can tell them
apart by their difference in size. As you can see, males tend to be much
smaller and and slimmer than females.
The queen's will usually tear off their wings after they're done flying and if
you look closely you can see the scars left behind where the wings used to be.
Just on either side of their thorax there. This is something you won't see on a regular
worker. So if you're really unsure whether it's a queen, that's a good way to find out. Sometimes
you'll see Queens with wings still attached, these queens can be captured
too, but I only suggest doing so when they're showing signs they're in search of
a nesting space. if they're attempting to fly off, or you found them relatively
close to a nest entrance where other winged alates are present, it's probably
best just to let them be, as they likely haven't mated yet. However, it is still
possible that they could be fertile.
Here's a queen that decided to never shed its wings and ended up raising its first generation
of workers.
Because queens are dark in color, they stand out really well on sidewalks. So go for a
walk around your block and scan the ground as you go.
Most of the time you'll spot them on the ground, but it's also a good idea to
look up as well, as you can occasionally see them flying around. They're not the best flyers.
They travel at relatively slow speeds and in long wide arcs, resembling that of
beetle in flight. So once you've spotted a queen, the next obvious step is to make
the capture. You want to make sure that you keep an eye on it and track its
movements. A quick glance away could mean losing sight of her, so it's a good idea to be
prepared and have a capturing container close to hand or preferably on hand to
avoid fumbling around and missing out on the opportunity. Whenever I go out in
search I like to carry couple of test tubes with a cotton ball as a
seal. I like to lure the queens into the tubes by cupping my hand around the
queen, just like this and I just place the test tube against the end of my hand.
They typically avoid touching my hand and instead just walk alongside it.
So with a bit of luck they end up walking straight into the tube.
If you're trying to catch a stinging species, like Myrmecia, it's probably
best to substitute you hand for something else around you like a twig or leaf and
lure them in that way.
Sometimes queens can be really allusive, but it is important to keep patient and
persistent. Once you've captured a queen, there's a very good chance that there is
more around. The Queen you captured could potentially be infertile or
perhaps might not do so well in its founding stage and never end up
producing workers. So don't just settle for one queen, keep looking and capture as
many as you can. It's better having more than you want than less. Most queens are
fully claustral, meaning that they can lay eggs and raise them up to workers before
requiring any food. Surviving through this period on energy stored in fat
reserves and metabolizing their wing muscles. So looking after the queens requires very
little maintenance. If you're worried about having too many colonies to look
after you can always pass some onto a friend or release them down the track.
Now, if you are unable to find and catch any Queens during the species nuptials
flights, at this point they'll be plenty of Queens to be found undergoing their founding
stage. I often find queens, especially of the Pheidole genus, by
lifting up rocks and logs, days, weeks and sometimes even months after their
main nuptial flights. Here's a Pheidole queen I found underneath a pot plant.
Just remember to be careful when lifting things up, as there might be things underneath
there that don't like being disturbed, dangerous creatures like spiders and
snakes even. Here's a Scorpion I encountered. It wouldn't be hard to overlook
something like this. Especially if you spotted a queen and your attention became
solely focused on that. So yeah, again be very careful. You would not want to be
stung by one of these things.
So this was just a few of my tips on catching queens. Hopefully I've
encouraged a few of you watching to get out there and give it a go. It may seem
rather difficult at first, but with a little bit of patience and as long as
you remember to be observant and prepared, it becomes much easier. So I hope
you enjoyed this tutorial style video. In my next one I'll be sharing some tips on
how to successfully raised up newly caught queens.
So look forward to that and thanks for watching