Today was an amazing day for queen ant hunting! This video is a tutorial vlog on finding queen ants to start an ant colony. Be sure to also stay tuned for the exciting announcement!

Check out our new AC Test Tubes!

Catching So Many Queen Ants

Here is the transcription with corrected spelling and sentence alignment:

In times of despair,

Hope often comes knocking on your door in the most unexpected ways.

It’s been a little tough for us these past few days here in the AC Antiverse,

With an ant colony that had died—our Jawbreakers,

A young Trap-jaw ant colony, which was massacred by some wild black crazy ant savages.

And as we saw in last week’s video,

Our cherished Titans seemed to not be doing so well in their new terrarium.

They, too, seem to be dying due to a mysterious force or condition.

But it isn’t all bad news here on this channel for today.

I, your Ant Man, come bearing good news, AC family.

Trust me—keep on watching until the end.

Welcome to the AntsCanada Ant Channel!

Please subscribe to my channel and hit the bell icon.

Welcome to the AC family. Enjoy!

What’s up, AC family? Welcome to the AntsCanada Ant Channel!

Now, I wanted to take a break from our ordinary ant videos to create a video

That’s more in line with the tutorial videos that I used to upload on this channel.

I wanted to create a video on catching a new queen ant to start your ant colony.

Now, I’ve always said on this channel that the most fulfilling part about ant-keeping is starting your colony from just a single caught queen ant.

So, I’m here actually in Toronto, Canada, where this channel started.

It’s actually the reason why it’s called AntsCanada.

A lot of you have been asking why the channel’s called AntsCanada when I’m living in the Philippines.

Well, I moved to the Philippines in 2011,

But the AntsCanada Channel started here in Toronto, Canada, when I was living here.

Now, I’m here in my favorite place to look for queen ants.

If I can’t find queen ants in my neighborhood, I’ll usually find one here in this nature trail.

A lot of people have been asking me,

“You know, where should I go to find queen ants?” and I always tell them to look for a place that has a lot of greenery,

Perhaps a body of water nearby.

Here, there is actually a river just not too far from here.

Please excuse the airplanes, guys.

This is more of a vlog-style AntsCanada video.

Now, what I’m looking for are queen ants that have just engaged in their nuptial flight.

So, for those of you who are new to the world of ants, every year ants have a nuptial flight where the

Reproductive young virgin queens and males, who have been waiting around the nest all year,

Take to the air, and that’s when they mate. The males die, but the females, now impregnated with

The males’ sperm, drop to the ground and break their wings off,

And they go and seek other places to start their nest.

And so, we as the ant keepers go out during the seasons of nuptial flights,

And we look for these queen ants that are kind of walking around, having just mated, and

Looking for areas to start their new nests.

So, what you have to do is keep your eyes peeled and keep them to the ground to look for queens.

We have tutorials on how to

Distinguish queens from other workers and major workers because it can be tricky if you’re not used to seeing what queens look like.

So, check out those tutorials on this channel.

Another tip is ants are more likely to fly after a rainstorm.

So, yesterday here in Toronto, there was a big thunderstorm.

So today, we should be able to find some queens late,

Walking around.

Now, it’s the beginning of August, so species that I’m looking for right now are

Those that belong to Formica glacialis and Camponotus. They should be around, so those are what I’m looking for at the moment.

For those of you who are in North America, in Europe, as well as Northern Asia,

We are well into our nuptial flight season, so this video is for you guys.

I’m going to scour the ground here,

Looking for any kind of movement.

When looking for ants, you have to really be patient.

You can’t be frustrated if you don’t find queens right away,

Because sometimes they’re quite elusive.

Mmm, not finding any yet here.

A lot of people write to us saying, “Oh, we can’t find queens anywhere where I live.”

Well, to that, I say unless you’re living in Iceland or the Antarctic, where

There are no ants,

Then, sure, you won’t find any queens. But if you live in any other part of the world,

There should be ants around you. You just have to know where to look and when to look, and believe me,

It’s a rewarding experience when you finally catch one and

Place her in a test tube setup and

Realize she’s laying eggs for you, and the eggs eventually develop into her first scientific workers.

And then watching your young colony feed for the first time, and you know, transfer that food mouth-to-mouth to the queen, who had

Fasted for over a month raising her nanitics, it’s really such an awesome and moving

Experience that ant keepers really love.

I hope you guys get to also experience that kind of joy and fulfillment of watching your ant colony start.

And for those of you who don’t want to keep ants

And you’re just subscribed here to simply watch ant videos, that’s fine too. Thank you for watching this and bearing with us.

We will definitely keep you updated on the colonies back home in Manila.

Okay, so I’m going to turn around and

Go back on my tracks to see if I missed a queen ant scurrying by.

Oh, what is this? We just found a queen ant, guys. See that?

Patience pays off.

This here is a Camponotus queen. She still has her wings,

But if you’ve been following the channel for a while, it doesn’t mean she hasn’t mated.

Sometimes queens keep their wings,

And sometimes non-mated queens break off their wings, so wing retention is not the best and most reliable indicator

Of fertilization.

Alright, so I’m going to put this queen into my container. This is great;

We caught one!

Another thing you have to be aware of is people will often pass by, so you kind of have to have no shame sometimes.

Catching a queen, for me, is worth it.

If you’ve seen my videos, you know that I don’t have shame!

Oh, the queen dropped, and she’s now trying to break off her wings. This species here, I believe, is Camponotus pennsylvanicus.

It’s completely jet black, but sometimes they can have red markings.

Alright, so now we’re off to look for more queens.

Now, Camponotus ants, like that queen that we just caught, is a great starter species.

They’re great because they’re large, so you can really see them in a formicarium. You can see their young.

They’re also very active and avid feeders. They love their sweets; they love their insects.

They don’t sting, which is great, but the only thing about Camponotus

Is that they do take a long time to grow. You usually see them get to an impressive size by

Year two or three.

Aaaand sometimes that can be quite a long wait for ant keepers.

Be sure to check out our Camponotus tutorial on this channel if you are planning on keeping Camponotus or if you caught a Camponotus queen this year.

But otherwise, Camponotus is a great genus to get started on.

One of the tips that I give people is,

You really need to be able to see properly.

Like if you… oh, wait, I found another queen! You see this here?

This here is a Formica.

Alright, this here is a Formica queen. Okay, so this is, I believe, Formica fusca, a very common

Formica species. Now, I’m going to catch her. We found this—great!

Also, love them, they’re so fast and active!

Alright, AC family. We caught her! Sorry,

I don’t have any snap-cap vials with me, so I’m just kind of improvising with stuff

I have right now.

But I will be transferring them to test tubes later on. So, anyways, as I was saying—

It’s good to wear proper eyewear.

If you need glasses, wear your contacts because that can make all the difference in the world.

Before I ever got Lasik surgery, I used to sometimes go

Looking for queen ants, and I would forget to wear my glasses. And lo and behold, those were the days I couldn’t find any queens.

Another thing you should keep in mind

Is that a lot of places require a permit to collect insects, so it’s best to really check the laws in your area.

And of course, if you’re on public property, you must get permission first.

Alright, and so now,

While I’m going to continue looking for queens here, we have a special announcement,

AC family, that I think you guys will be very pleased to hear.

And here it is. Alright, while I continue looking for queen ants in Toronto,

We’ve got some great news for those of you who have been lucky enough to catch queen ants this year. Real quick,

We totally improved our AC test tubes! Check out some of the awesome changes

We’ve made to them to help you better care for your queen ants while they are raising their nanitics, their first set of workers.

First, our

AC test tubes are now longer so you can fill them up with more water than most ordinary test tubes,

Which helps make your water reservoir in your queen’s test tube last longer. Our AC test tubes now also come with a little notch to

Help guide you with filling the water and pushing your cotton in. But what’s also cool is

The AC test tube even comes with a small blue sponge that can be pushed all the way to that notch.

One of the coolest new features are these little teeth. Ever hate how test tubes roll around in a drawer?

These teeth hold your test tube still so your queen doesn’t get jostled around all the time, which is important during this key period when

The queen should be as at ease and stress-free as possible.

Finally, the coolest part about our improved AC test tubes is this: you can now get them with these three

Transparent adapter pieces, which fit onto the test tube openings.

Check out this piece here. We found that leaving the test tube open in a setup

Sometimes causes queen ants and young colonies to feel too exposed.

Usually, the ants end up dragging their garbage or debris to clog up the end of their test tube in

Attempts to constrict the opening to minimize micro drafts, which can endanger and dry out an ant colony and the brood.

But now, with this piece here, you can constrict the opening of the test tube so the inside of the test tube isn’t so exposed

To the air. If you’ve raised young ant colonies before, you know that this feature is super helpful.

The hole is approximately four millimeters in size, which allows for most species’ nanitic workers to fit through.

With this adapter piece, you can then attach the entire test tube to any of our hybrid nests or AC test tube portals.

As for the other adapter pieces—

This one allows you to connect the test tube to our hybrid nest or AC test tube portal with a

Larger opening, and this adapter piece connects to our large AC vinyl tubing.

For links to all these items described, plus more info, I’ve placed them in the description box.

So, ant keepers, do check them out!

And so, the very first ant in the entire world to enjoy this setup is…

The big surprise I’ve been itching to tell you about! A couple of weeks ago, shortly after the Titans moved into the terrarium,

Something caught my eye in my condo building. AC family, I am happy to introduce to you our newest

Queen ant!

Behold our new Trap-jaw queen ant, an Odontomachus species.

She is a beauty! Although

I won’t be able to bring the queens that I catch in Toronto back with me to Manila,

This new queen ant, which is currently in the dark in my drawer in my ant room, is

Ours to care for and nurture. Let’s hope she’s fertilized and gives us a colony.

I also hope you don’t mind me making this executive

Decision to call her future colony, should they arise,

The Jawbreakers. And now, back to Toronto, Canada!

Alright, AC family, surprise!

I am super excited to raise that queen! So, guys, be sure to leave in the comment section

What you think we should call this queen.

I hope you guys are okay with us calling them the Jawbreakers once they turn into a colony—and hopefully, they do!

Oh, and I found another queen right here! Awesome! They are just popping out everywhere!

Got it! And what’s cool is, while I was telling you the news, I was able to catch

More queen ants. Look at how many—look at that!

Normally, it’s best… oh no! Oh no!

They’re fighting! See, this is why it’s best not to mix them, but I have no choice.

I don’t have… oh no, let it go. Okay, I don’t have another container,

So they’ll just have to be together for now.

This is dangerous because they can formic acid spray each other. Even though they don’t sting, they could just formic acid each other and

Really hurt each other. But I’m going to separate them as soon as I get home. Oh no, leave her alone!

And I absolutely will not keep different genera of ants together in one container.

So, I have the Formica queen here and the Camponotus queens here.

Alright, I would consider today an ant-collecting success!

Now, what I’m going to do is put each of these in their own test tube setup,

And then, hopefully, one of them will successfully gain a colony. And that does it, AC family!

Thank you so much for watching another episode of the AntsCanada Ant Channel. By next weekend,

I should be back in Manila, Philippines,

And we’ll be updating you on the status of our ant colonies. Remember, guys, it’s ant love forever!

Thank you for watching, AC family.

Did you manage to catch a queen ant yet for this nuptial flight season? Tell me about it in the comments section, guys!

If you haven’t yet,

Don’t worry—

There is still plenty of time to catch queen ants if you are in the Northern Hemisphere.

Be sure to watch our various tutorials on this channel

If you need help catching a queen ant.

By the way, as mentioned, I will not be bringing the beautiful queen ants home with me back to the Philippines,

But I will be keeping them here in Toronto and putting them up for sale through the GAN Project for prospective ant keepers in Toronto

Once they have their first set of workers.

So just a reminder to check out the GAN Project if you are looking to buy queen ants from your area,

Wherever in the world you may be. Link in the description box.

AC family, our colony—I’ve left a hidden cookie for you here!

If you would just like to see a step-by-step tutorial video of these queen ants being placed in test tubes.

And now it’s time for the AC Question of the Week! In last week’s AC Question of the Week, we asked:

“What is the name of Mark Moffett’s best-selling book?”

Congratulations to Jesse Morgan, who correctly answered “Adventures Among Ants.”

Congratulations, Jesse! You just won a free AC test tube portal from our shop!

In this week’s AC Question of the Week, we ask:

What is one reason why carpenter ants would make a great species for beginner ant keepers?

Leave your answer in the comment section, and you could win our Deluxe AC Test Tube Pack, as seen in this video!

From all of us at AC, hope you can subscribe to the channel as we upload a new ant video every Saturday at 8 a.m. Eastern Standard Time.

Please remember to like, comment, share, and subscribe if you enjoyed this video, so we can keep bringing you epic ant videos like this.

It’s ant love forever!