Finding queen ants

[Natedawg1164]

I am new to ant keeping and have been trying to find a queen, however I have been having a tough time. I am not sure what to look for or when to do it. My location is Pittsburgh, pa, of that helps. Thanks for any help.

[Natedawg1164]

And sorry if I put this on the wrong spot, this is the first time for me using this forum.

[TEXASantlover]

I don’t know about your specific area but this time of year often has ants flying. In Texas we have fire ant nuptial flights now and other unknown ants that I haven’t identified yet.

[Natedawg1164]

I have found out when and where I can look, but I don’t really know what to look for. I haven’t seen a queen ant out in the wild yet or seen a nuptial flight occur

[AntsDakota]

I am new to ant keeping and have been trying to find a queen, however I have been having a tough time. I am not sure what to look for or when to do it. My location is Pittsburgh, pa, of that helps. Thanks for any help.

The best way to find queen ants is to walk around on flat surfaces (such as a sidewalk or street, which will make them more conspicuous) a day or two after a rain storm. This is usually when queens are looking to start new colonies, as it is easier to dig in moist soil.

[QueenArachnia]

Hi I’m fairly new as well! I live about 45mins from Pittsburgh. I’ve notice our areas are heavily sprayed down with pesticides! It was hard for me and my husband to find queens. The first queens we found were actually pretty lucky to find, two Tetramorium Immigrans queens together in the same colony right next to each other. We weren’t even looking for them! We were looking for crickets to feed to our other pets. We found these two girls right in the back yard with a small colony of about 25-30 workers and two queens and 10-15 eggs. We grabbed all of them as we were very excited lol

My best suggestion is to go take walks in parks or areas outside of the city and suburbs. I have luck going to the dam near me walking the path! Everywhere I go I take a container of some sorts with me. Hope this helps!