Greetings AC Family,

An ‘Uber for ants’? An ‘ant black market’? Our very first video of the year is an introduction to the basics of the ant keeping hobby and industry. In this info-packed video tutorial, we take a look at starting your colony from just a queen ant, where to buy one, and things you need to beware of like the Ant Black Market. We talk about the big ant keeping ethics debate and also look at the world’s “Uber for ants”, i.e. the GAN Project!

Hope this video helps all of you thinking about starting ant keeping and looking forward to you joining this amazing hobby with us!

Ant love forever!

Where to Buy Queen Ants | Getting Started in Ant Keeping 101

Greetings, AC Family!

If you love ants or have a curiosity for nature, you’re in the right place! After watching videos on this channel, have any of you ever considered possibly keeping ants yourselves? Based on your comments on all our videos, it seems a lot of you have. Well, getting your ant colony started requires one important thing—a queen ant, and this video will show you how to get one!

Your queen ant is the one member of your colony who keeps laying the eggs so your ant colony continues to grow and not die out. She is the mother to your whole ant-keeping experience. With this video being our first video of the year, and with ant nuptial flight season starting up again in just a few more weeks in the Northern Hemisphere, I wanted to break things down to the very beginning and bring us back to the ant basics, especially for those who might be new to the channel and the whole idea of keeping pet ants.

This video will answer all your questions on where you can buy ant colonies with a queen. We’ll go over the very heated ant-keeping ethics debate, I’ll introduce you to the world’s Uber for Ants, and we’ll even take a look at the ant black market—and yes, there is one! So keep watching until the very end because this video is packed with really cool info that will surprise you.

AC Fam, let’s delve into the intriguing world of the ant-keeping hobby in this episode of the AntsCanada Ant Channel. Please subscribe to my channel, and hit the bell icon, too. Welcome to the AC Family, future ant keeper!

Collecting a Queen Ant

Enjoy the video. The best and easiest way to start an ant colony is to collect a queen. The queen ant will be your seed from which will blossom your big functioning ant colony with its workers, brood, and eventually alates.

Now, let’s have a quick rundown, AC Lesson, on catching a queen ant. OK, chalkboard.

Collect a Queen

Catching a queen ant sounds easy, right? Well, not so fast. This first step can be a challenge! The whole challenge of finding your queen ant means:

1.Finding your queen!

2.Being at the right place…

3.…at the right time…

4.…after she’s mated…

5.…before she’s found a place to hide and lay eggs.

If you can do all this, then your queen is ready to be started in a test tube setup. Nurture your queen as she lays eggs, and once you get 20-50 nanitic workers, or even better, more, only then is it time to transfer to a formicarium.

Don’t worry, guys. Towards the end of this video, I will direct you to a helpful step-by-step tutorial which will further assist you with finding a queen ant.

Ant-Keeping Ethics Debate

To me, though it takes some time, raising your ant colony from just its originating queen is the most fulfilling way because you’re there to experience the entire founding process and be with the colony at every exciting stage. It’s like raising any pet. The bond is greater when you’ve been there with them from the very start.

However, sometimes catching a queen may be hard for some of you or you may have had several failed attempts at getting your queen past the founding stage, or perhaps you’re not exactly the patient type and want a colony ASAP. So where can you buy queen ants?

Before I talk about that, I would like to talk first about the big ant-keeping ethics debate. There is a huge ant debate among ant keepers globally. Perhaps this will be your first time hearing about it, but it is certainly a heated topic involving ant keepers and even the scientific community. I will also share what I think about the debate after I go over what both teams are about.

On one side of this Ant-Keeping Ethics debate is #TeamExoticAnts, ant enthusiasts and collectors who seek to keep exotic ant species, ant species of which are not found locally where the ant keepers live. For instance, there are ant keepers in Europe who are keeping ants like Leaf-cutter Ants from South America, Asian Weaver Ants from Southeast Asia, Bull Ants from Australia, and Honeypot ants from North America. #TeamExoticAnts Hobbyists feel it’s ok and an awesome thing to keep these imported ants because these exotic ants are much more interesting than the ants they might be able to find in their yard.

They feel there’s nothing ethically wrong with keeping ant species imported from other places in the world, and they feel as long as they’re responsible and don’t allow the ants to escape into the environment, keeping alien ant species is fine. Besides, most tropical ants can’t survive in non-tropical climates anyway, right?

So these hobbyists purchase these alien queen ants and/or starting ant colonies with a queen from certain places online, and the ants are shipped to them in the mail.

Now on the other side of this Ant-Keeping Ethics Debate is #TeamNativeAnts, comprised of ant enthusiasts and the scientific community, i.e. myrmecologists, biologists, taxonomists, and such, who do not support the whole idea of keeping ants from other countries or ants not caught in the ant keepers’ area. In fact, many senior biologists and myrmecologists condemn this practice of keeping alien ants. Let’s look at why.

First, alien ants may transmit disease, foreign fungi, or other pathogens to other plants, animals, or ants.

Second, if the colony escapes, it can push out the native ants! This has happened many times in history.

Third, the alien ants could outcompete other native ants.

Fourth, the alien ants could outright kill the other native ants.

Fifth, the alien ants could destabilize the entire ecosystem! The alien ants could become major agricultural pests!

Next, let’s look at laws. Believe it or not, there is a black market for ant colonies and queens. Ant black market operations are most prevalent in Europe and Asia and are operating right now as we speak. And yes, people are busted all the time in the ant black market. These black market queens are smuggled out of their native countries or shipped to vendors who sell them to other customers. These customers often have no idea their ants were illegally acquired.

Ant Black Market

A few months ago, someone posted an article to our Facebook about how officials just busted someone transporting hundreds of queen ants in test tubes from Germany to a location in China, the two top countries involved in this ant black market, by the way. The fellow who shipped the live queen ants lacked the foresight to realize that the metal scrub he used instead of cotton for the test tube setups would be picked up by border scanning machines. The ants were seized and Chinese officials had no idea why anyone would ship queen ants, but of course, we do. Fact is, this ant black market does exist.

The entering and leaving of live animals like ants and plants are closely regulated by most countries’ governments, and in most cases, the flora and fauna are not allowed to leave or enter their respective countries without some kind of permit. Many of these ant suppliers do not have such permits, so the queen ants are captured from their natural habitats and smuggled out of their native countries to be sold to distributors who sell them to hobbyists.

Now where do I stand in all of this? What team am I on? Well, when I first started to get into pro ant-keeping, as a newbie in the hobby, of course, I was #TeamExoticAnts. I mean, who wouldn’t want to keep an awesome colony of Leaf-cutter ants or Asian Weaver ants? They’re so cool! Besides, I was also an avid reptile enthusiast and I had a good background knowledge of caring for tropical animals. How hard could keeping a tropical ant colony be? What harm could it be?

But as I did more research and learned more about how alien ants could potentially destroy ecosystems, and as I learned about the ant black market, I was forced to revisit my ethics, including some business ethics. You see, around this time, I was also in the process of founding the AntsCanada Ant Store because I really wanted to provide others with easy-to-use formicariums and ant-keeping equipment, others like myself who were passionate about ants.

Now in the “ant industry”, if you would call it that, the most dominant ant shops at the time were selling these alien, imported live ant species to their customers, shipping them in the mail. It seemed at the time selling exotic ants was where the money was. People were willing to pay the big bucks for ants they couldn’t readily collect in their own yards. So I had to choose. Was AntsCanada going to be #TeamExoticAnts and take advantage of the great money-making opportunity of shipping live ants around the world, but possibly risk the destruction of ecosystems if our customers had accidental escapes or even intentional releases, or were we going to be #TeamNativeAnts and simply sell formicariums and equipment, potentially make less money, but encourage the idea of keeping ants from our yards?

I looked to our tagline, which was the basis for starting this whole AntsCanada channel and our website in the first place: “Ant Love Forever”, and the choice became so simple. I chose green, and not money green, but eco-green. I asked myself, “Did I really love ants, as in all ants, and do I love them enough to want to protect them and their entire ecological homes in the wild in which they live?” or did I just love “keeping ants” and was I just passionate about keeping and collecting the world’s most unique and exotic species in my home”?

Of course, I chose the former. I am so glad I did because what shocked me was how many people, ant lovers and enthusiasts, hobbyists, and respected members of the scientific community shared the same ideology and code of ethics. Today, so many of you continue to insist on keeping native ant colonies, ants caught in your backyard, and it is just so amazing to see.

You may not know that in catching your own queen ants in your yard, it has really changed the game in this ant-keeping hobby. Sure, it means less business for those ant shops selling alien ants and the ant black market, but it also means we save the ants and the planet a bit more. It’s responsible ant-keeping, so thank you to all those out there keeping your locally caught ants.

There are more ethical arguments for not keeping exotic ant species. Let’s go over them. Many ant lovers feel it is cruel to ship ant colonies through the mail to new areas due to the stress of transport, the challenges of a new environment with a different climate, food, and even water chemistry!

On average, we over at the AntsCanada team answer nearly 200-500 emails daily from you guys who write to us, from our cherished AC customers, and other ant keepers from around the world, and when they say they have ordered non-native ants from the mail and have questions wondering why the colony isn’t doing well right from the get-go, we always deduce it to their transport and to their inability to adapt to new conditions or diet. All these factors, and all of these complications just to keep an exotic species, when local species like Lasius niger or Camponotus species are equally as desirable and interesting, not to mention perfectly adapted to the climate, food, etc., of the ant keeper.

OK, so keeping alien ants due to ecological, legal, and ethical repercussions is not the best. What if it is too hard to find queen ants in your area, or you don’t have time to go out into the field looking for queens, or perhaps it’s not the season when queens are flying? Where can one buy queen ants then?

The GAN Project

Well, we have just the answer. Remember how in some of our videos we mention the QUEEN ANTS FOR SALE tab on our website? This is the GAN Project, and GAN stands for the Global Ant Nursery. The GAN Project was started in 2010 to offer a solution for us ant keepers to obtain an ant colony with a queen ant in a way that was ecologically, legally, and ethically sound.

So here is how it works. Basically, the GAN Project is like the UBER for ant colonies. We recruit enthusiastic ant keepers around the world to sell ants to buyers in their city. These GAN Farmers, as we call them, catch queens in their area, raise them until they have nanitic workers, and we find customers from their area to buy these young starting colonies. Or if you’re looking for an ant colony to buy, we help connect you with any of our GAN Farmers in your area.

The GAN Project is a great way to sell and buy ants because it involves ants staying within the ecosystems they already are a part of, there is no illegal export of ants, and the ants are picked up in person, which means there’s no stressful, prolonged transport in the mail. The ants also won’t have to adapt to a new climate, and at any time, if you no longer can keep the ants, you can choose to release them back into the wild safely or offer them for sale again through the GAN Project and pass them along. You can even offer your ants for free.

Plus, it helps ant enthusiasts meet other ant enthusiasts in the area, fostering local ant communities of ant hobbyists. Oh, and it’s also a great way for ant keepers to make some extra cash doing what they love. Not to mention, if you’re a GAN Farmer, you get to benefit from some GAN Farmer perks and discounts on products from our shop.

So if you guys need to buy ants, visit our QUEEN ANTS FOR SALE tab at Antscanada.com or if you’re already keeping ants and have some you would like to offer for sale or for free, hope you guys can join our growing community of GAN Farmers to sell ants in your city.

Just a note though, guys—some conditions apply, like you have to be 18 years or older to buy or sell ants or partner with your parent or guardian, and all those buying/selling must agree to our terms of agreement. I’ll leave all relevant links in the description box of this video so you can get started and join this great hobby!

Owning your own ant colony can be a fantastic and fulfilling experience of discovery from which you and everyone around you can enjoy and learn. If you’ve been part of our AC Family for a while, you know that ants bring some pretty incredible insights into nature, the whole world around us, and ourselves.

So if you’re looking to start your ant colony, visit our GAN Project. Otherwise, catching a queen ant yourself during nuptial flight season is SUPER fun and easier than you think. Click this icard here for a helpful tutorial on when to catch queen ants in your area and some easy-to-keep species I suggest per region.

And about the keeping of alien ants—indeed, it is still a touchy and highly debated topic because there are still ant keepers out there who swear up and down that it is ethically okay to order exotic ants from online and keep them. I don’t want to upset anyone following us who may be #TeamExoticAnts, but for me, if you wanna keep exotic ants that badly, why not move to where they live? I did it.

Thanks so much for watching this week’s video, guys, and until next week, AC Fam, it’s ant love forever.

Alright, what did you guys think? Would you give ant-keeping a shot? I welcome all of you to join this amazing hobby and discover with me on this channel the wonderful world of ants.

I would also like to give a special thanks to my great friends Adam Lazarus and Topher Putnam for the cool animations in this video. Their contact info is in the description box, so be sure to check them out, and special thanks as well goes out to nature photographer and biologist Alex Wild whose stunning photos appear in our videos on this channel. Check his work out and order some prints at www.alexanderwild.com—link in the description box. He also happens to be a past GAN Farmer.

And of course, we can’t end this video without the AC Question of the Week. Last week we asked: “What’s the technical term for insect blood?” Congratulations to Atlantique Sean who correctly answered “Hemolymph”. Felicitations, Atlantique—you just won a free eBook from our shop.

And for this week’s Question of the Week, we ask: “Name one reason why catching queen ants from your area is a better idea for the environment.” Leave your answer in the comments section, and you could win a free ant t-shirt from our shop.

Oh yeah, and for those of you looking for this week’s hidden video, be sure to click here to watch some very familiar ants native to North America, and in particular, Canada. And speaking of Canada and ant t-shirts, I’ve got a special message for you guys from Toronto.

What’s up, AC Fam. Your ant nerd, AntsCanada here, and I just wanted to thank you guys so much for watching this week’s video and for watching all of our videos. It’s crazy! The support has been amazing, and I look forward to another great year of discovering ants with you guys. Thank you for giving ant love a chance.

Now I just wanted to let you guys know we received some new t-shirts at the shop, so pick them up! We’ve got five different cool designs, including this one which says “Waiting for Nuptial Flight”, and I know a lot of you guys are waiting for nuptial flight, and it’s just a few more weeks, so for all of you in the Northern Hemisphere experiencing the nuptial flight season soon—good luck to you!

And if you aren’t able to catch queens, be sure to check out our GAN Project. As I said before, and as you saw in this video, we sell queens year-round, and there are queens and starter colonies available right now, and they usually come in test tubes like this, so they’re perfect for starter colonies and to get you guys started in the hobby.

And if you’re just beginning, be sure to check out our helpful tutorials. I’ll place that in the end cards now.

See you next week, AC Family! It’s ant love forever. Buh-bye!

Guys, we’ve got a lot of great videos ahead, so be sure to subscribe to our channel. I upload a brand new ant video every Saturday at 8 AM EST, so hit that subscribe button and join the AC Family. There are so many videos ahead about the Fire Nation, the Golden Empire, the Dark Knights, and possibly some new colonies.

Happy 2017, AC Fam!