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Queen ant care sheet

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Black garden ant | Yellow meadow ant | Red stinging ant

The queen
The queen is the most important member of an ant colony.
This care sheet teaches the basics of how to look after a Q
queen ant in captivity. She is a low maintenance pet but does
30 years
require patience to see her family grow into a large colony.
She has been known to live for up to 30 years! Although 10 today !
- 15 is more realistic. Queens can either be purchased or
caught in the wild.

Test tube
If the queen is caught in the wild, she will have to be housed in
a test tube. Purchased queens normally arrive in pre-prepared
test tubes. Test tubes provide long lasting water, ample
humidity, and a visible environment to nurture a queen.
To prepare a test tube for a queen, you will need:

• A test tube
• A few cotton wool balls moist cotton test tube
• Water (preferably distilled).

First wash your hands, then fill approximately 1/3rd of the

test tube with water, then place a pre-moistened, tightly
packed cotton ball on top of the water. Test that no water
leaks by holding the test tube upside down. The queen can
then be placed in the tube. A dry, loosely fit cotton ball can be
water queen dry cotton
placed in the opening to ensure the queen does not escape,
and allow for oxygen to flow. It should look like the diagram
to the right.
The test tube needs to be fixed to a surface with blue-tac
to prevent it from rolling around. Keeping her out of direct
sunlight and darkening the test tube with kitchen foil helps
make her feel safe and comfortable.

Workers
After about one day, the queen will have settled into her
new home, and she will start to lay very small eggs. These
will eventually follow the ant life cycle, and worker ants will
appear. The new workers ‘nantics’ will be smaller and shyer
than typical workers, this is because they are the first batch of
ants and have not been fed properly. They will be more active
at night when they think its safer to move around. meet a worker ant
Diet
In the wild the queen will not eat until her first workers have
hatched and gather her some food. However it will benefit her
to feed her some protein. su ga r
Proteins are required for growth of larvae and the queens egg
production. These can be found in raw meats, egg, cheese,
gelatin, and crushed insects (which also contain essential p rot e i n
vitamins and minerals).
Sugars provide your ants with ‘fuel’. They can be found in
honeys, jams, fruits, dried fruits, carrots, and sugar water.
Sugars are also eaten through the farming of aphids.
Feed ants sparingly using a kitchen foil piece to aid cleaning.
Remove old food before it goes moldy.

TM
Temperature
Keeping ants at the correct temperature, ensures that they TEMPERATURE ACTION
are healthy and active. Ideal temperatures for these species 15-26°C (60-80F) Awake and active
are 15-26°C (60-80F) conveniently the same as average room
temperatures. Temperatures below 10°C (50F) will induce
hibernation.
<10°C (50F) Enter hibernation chillin

Housing
Once about 10-20 workers have hatched (this can take
approximately 3-10 months), it is best to place your ants into
an ant habitat, where their fascinating lives can be observed
and enjoyed. A number of different housing options can be
viewed on our website.
The ants should be allowed to move naturally into the ant
habitat. If the test tube can’t be directly placed in the habitat,
it can be attached to the habitats connection holes. Plumbers
PTFE tape (available at most DIY stores) can be used to
help seal up hole size differences. Darkening the ant habitat
with a sheet and leaving the test tube in the light encourages
movement into their new home.
Connecting the test tube to an ant habitat is not always an
option as some don’t have connection holes. In such a case,
the ants must be carefully tipped in. As ants are fast moving
insects, it is advisable that they are refrigerated for 10 minutes
to slow them down thus preventing escapes as they are gently
tipped into their new home.
If you purchased an ant habitat, it is important that you read its
ant mine - a plaster habitat
instructions to learn how to keep the correct moisture levels.

Important NEVERs
Never place queen ants into gel based ant habitats. The
gel will eventually kill them.
Never allow the water supply to run dry. Ants can survive
for months without food, two days without water can kill them.
Never leave the ant habitat in direct sunlight as this acts
like a green house with temperatures rapidly rising.
Never shake the ant habitat, remember any slight movement
is like an earth quake to them.
Never mix ants from another colony, they will fight.
Never give the ants large live food, it could damage them.
Never release queen ants into the wild, they can mess with
the local environment.

Long live the Queen !

TM

www.antARK.net.