I found a wild queen by accident...

[RaptorAnts]

So, I accidentally caught a queen ant. So, I have an ant colony in my room. How do I tell my mom? We 100% already know we are getting an ant next month. She is a wild queen that already started a colony before I caught her. I have no idea how old she is. I think there are more than one queens that I caught. Do I put the dirt and everything back, keeping it a secret from mom, or do I tell her I found a queen(s). If we do keep her. How do I move then in AC homes? Do I cut a hole in the container and connect a tube, or do I gently dump the dirt in a big formicarium, and connect a nesting area to it also? (Edit) This is my very first ant. It lives with termites by the pine tree.

[RaptorAnts]

I decided to tell my mom and.... we have no idea what to do... please help. We are thinking of keeping it but I not 100 percent sure. I won't have the same bond as if with a brand new queen.... please tell me what you think. Should I keep her, or release her and get the gan ant?

[SkeleAnt]

Do you currently have an ant colony in your room and that’s why finding another queen is a problem, or has the queen made a nest in your room somewhere? I’m a little confused about the situation.

How did you accidentally catch her? If you found her in her nest and you don’t want to keep her, just put her back. If you plan on keeping her and raising her, she will need some of her workers from her colony if she was from a colony that was already established. She will not have the energy reserves new queens have to survive while they’re founding, so without workers to feed her, she will die.

If you only want the GAN ant, then just release the queen you found back into her nest without disturbing the nest anymore. Especially if you aren’t sure if the ants are polygenous (multi-queen) or not, you keeping her could cause the wild colony to die out since they will have no source of eggs to continue their population.

[RaptorAnts]

Thank you for the info! And they are in my make shift greenhouse. I will see want my mom wants to do. Thank you so much!!

[RaptorAnts]

We r going to realise her and get the gan ant. I will post a new topic we I get the gan queen, and post back on this one on how the relocation went.

[RaptorAnts]

So she is is back to her nest, the ants accepted her back gladly.

[SkeleAnt]

I’m glad the ants were happy to see her! Good luck with the GAN ant!