What is it?

Why are we conducting this study?
The Bay Area Ant Survey is a citizen science program designed to give the public a chance to participate in Academy research by helping us obtain baseline data for ants living in local counties.

Major goals include:

• Documenting the ant diversity of the Bay Area
• Mapping the spread of invasive ants, including the problematic Argentine ant
• Creating a permanent collection of Bay Area ant species for scientific research and teaching
• Allowing the community to experience scientific research and discovery firsthand

How does it work?
Citizens can participate by requesting an ant collecting kit from the Naturalist Center inside the California Academy of Sciences. All you have to do is collect ants, and send your ant-filled vial and corresponding data sheet back to the Naturalist Center.

All specimens will be identified and databased by an Academy entomologist. All results are then uploaded to AntWeb where the location and identification of the ants are made public. Your contribution becomes a part of the scientific record!

If you would like to try to identify your collected ants, make an appointment with the Naturalist Center. Staff will help you work through the Identification Key as you observe your ant’s characteristics through a microscope. Call (415) 379-5494, or email naturalist@calacademy.org.

How to participate

Where to get a kit
Pick up a free collecting kit form the Naturalist Center inside the California Academy of Sciences. You can also download a spare data sheet here.

How to collect ants for our collection

1. Look for ants anywhere you can think of – in your backyard, on a hiking trail, in your school yard.

2. If you can’t find any ants, try setting out bait. Ants love cookies, or honey, or even small pieces of meat.

3. After an hour or so, check and see if any ants found it. Pick up the ants using forceps (or any way you can think of, but be gentle!) and get at least five into a vial full of ethanol. This alcohol preserves the bodies so we can add the specimens to our growing collection.

4. Make sure you fill out the data sheet so we know the location of the ant collected, and your name. This information makes your ants worthy as research specimens.

5. Drop off your data sheet and ant-filled vial at the Naturalist Center, or go ahead and mail these items using a padded envelope to:

ATTN: Bay Area Ant Survey
Naturalist Center
California Academy of Sciences
55 Music Concourse Dr
San Francisco, CA, 94118

6. If you would like to try to identify your collected ants, make an appointment with the Naturalist Center. Staff will help you work through the Identification Key as you observe your ant’s characteristics through a microscope. Call (415) 379-5494, or email naturalist@calacademy.org.

How to find your contribution
Each month, we’ll identify, database, and provide housing for the new ant specimens. We’ll then upload the data to AntWeb for public viewing. If you remember to provide your email address on your data sheet, we’ll send you a note with a link to the record you contributed!

Can’t find your record on AntWeb? Perform an Advanced Search limiting the Collection Method to "BAAS" and scroll down the list. Please note that the collector’s name is an important element of any record, and as such, will be displayed online in abbreviated form.

Just for teachers

Borrow an Ant Kit for your Classroom
A more advanced version of the collecting kit is available especially for educators. Kits include all the resources you need to participate in the Bay Area Ant Survey as a class: a dissecting microscope, forceps, petri dishes, ethanol-filled vials, pooters, a hand lens, a dichotomous key to the ants of the Bay Area, and data sheets.

To borrow the Ant Collecting Kit, a teacher must attend, or have attended in the past, the "Ants in Your School Yard" Workshop. Check our professional development calendar to learn when this workshop is offered next!

Arachnologists at the California Academy of Sciences are interested in documenting the current distribution and spread of Zoropsis spinimana spiders in California. The spider, native to the Mediterranean coastal countries and northern Africa, somehow migrated to Northern California, probably by hiding inside someone’s suitcase or inside shipments. Although harmless to humans, this spider is considered invasive, as it competes with local species. With the help of citizen scientists, we can study how the Zoropsis spider population is spreading in the Bay Area.

Zoropsis Datasheet » [PDF, 280KB]