Finding a queen ant in Singapore

A very popular question this time of the year is, "How do I find a queen ant?"

As with many things, finding a queen ant requires a lot of patience, work and sometimes a stroke of good fortune.

Luckily for us Singaporeans, finding a queen ant is actually a lot easier than you might think and in today's post i'm going to share some of the ways which i have been catching mine. 

I usually wait for a heavy rainstorm before setting out to search for queen ants during the night. I seek out lighted areas under HDB blocks and the queen ants will usually be on the wall or on the floor.

Nylanderia Queen

Camponotus Queen

Pheidole queen

Its very important to know how to identify a queen from a male. The queen usually has a large head with a bulky thorax whilst the male has a smaller head and longer antennae and looks like a mosquito/wasp . Another way to identify a queen ant is to check for her wing scars. 

This is a male ant

After finding a queen ant, place the container over the queen and wait for her to climb up and then cover it. In some rare cases where the queen refuses to climb up the container , just simply sweep the queen into the container and cover it . 

After catching the queen, place her in a test tube setup. 

You'll need test tube and cotton

Fill the test tube with 50% water and insert the cotton in . make sure the cotton has a damp tip.

Camponotus Auriventris queen in test tube setup 

Don't be disappointed if can't find any queen ants on your first few tries, sometimes its all about luck. I hope that by sharing my experience with you, it will make your search for queens easier.

Happy hunting 

Cheers!