New Carpenter Ant Queen Question

I have an ant question!

Hi I’ve been trying to start an ant colony and haven’t had much luck but
the other day i found a queen in the yard while mowing. She still has
her wings i put her i my farm but don’t know if she has already mated or
not. If i can find a winged male of the same species will they mate in
the farm? I know they mate in flight but thought maybe they would mate
in the farm to?


She is about 3/4 of an inch long. I live in eastern Tennessee. I was
also curious what species this is?
Any help would be appreciated thanks.ant-queen-photo

Well, you are in luck with identification. Based on your estimate of her size, I think I can safely say your queen is a carpenter ant, genus Camponotus. I can’t be sure about the species.

Has she taken her wings off yet? I once had a queen that delayed taking her wings off until she had laid her first batch of eggs (which became workers, so she was mated), but usually they come right off. It’s a bit early to be seeing mated queens, but possible.

As for putting a male in the ant farm, it’s not likely to work, plus it is hard to find males of the correct species. Why don’t you hold her for a few weeks and she what she does?

You might want to look at the links in this post too.

Now you know there are ants in the area, chances are good you will find another. Good luck and let me know what happens.

(Note: As I mentioned previously, I have been the “Consult-Ant” on the Leaping from the Box website. I answer questions about ants and ant farms. From now on I will post the answers here, and when Karen has time she will also post the answers on her site.)

One Reply to “New Carpenter Ant Queen Question”

  1. i need help lol, found a queen carenter ant with 2 workers, put a large iece of Log in a container, the queen and workers are stahying together. what do i feed them? will she start producing again? ive kept ants/bees all my life, first tim with carpenter ants mail me Bluesage2642@yahoo.com

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