Looking for Citizen Rescuers! 

MonitAnt invites everyone - from hikers to forest enthusiasts - to help monitor the distribution of red wood ants (Formica species) across Europe. By observing and sharing nest localities, citizen scientists help to improve our knowledge of where these ants live and support efforts to conserve them. Observations from Belgium are especially valuable for understanding and protecting our local forests! 

Why monitor red wood ants? 

Red wood ants (mound-building Formica species) are keystone species in temperate and boreal European forests. Their nests persist for many years and serve as habitats for numerous other organisms (myrmecophiles). Their activities contribute to soil fertility,  they assist in the dispersal of seeds and act as natural pest controllers by preying on insects. 

Because they respond to environmental changes, wood ants also function as bioindicators of forest health and biodiversity.  Despite their importance, red wood ant populations are under threat: habitat loss, forest fragmentation, climate change, shifts in land use can cause local extinctions.  To protect them and the benefits they bring to forests, we need to get a clearer picture of where they thrive and how their colonies are changing over time. 

MonitAnt brings citizens and scientists together to collaboratively explore and understand these remarkable insects and their habitats. By integrating straightforward field observations and photographs with modern tools such as mobile devices, the project helps uncover how ants construct their nests, respond to environmental changes, and what conditions keep their colonies healthy.  The project also studies the numerous small organisms that inhabit their nests and explores how these species interact and depend on each other. 

MonitAnt is a Europe-wide collaboration, and observations from Belgium are especially valuable to understand wood ants and the health of Belgian forests. Every local report makes a difference! 

How can you participate? 

When going out for a walk in forests, forest edges, clearings, and along trails, take your phone and keep an eye out for red wood ant nests.

Also feel free to bring a tape measure with you so that you can record measurements. Once you think that you have found a nest: observe ants and their activity and take multiple photos. 

There are three ways to share your observations : 

1. MonitAnt app survey 
   Open the survey on your smartphone:  MonitAnt app survey
   Fill out the questionnaire about the nest measurements and location, its environment, habitat type, and condition. 
    
2. iNaturalist
   Join the MonitAnt CitizenScience Project and upload your observations there:  iNaturalist
   The community can help in identifying the species from your photos! 
    
3. Observations.org
   Here you can report nests of mound-building Formica ants within the MonitAnt project and pinpoint the location of the nest as accurately as possible. By uploading your photos, date, time and location will be extracted easily:  Observations.org

You can visualise the aggregated observations of red wood ant nests in Europe from other contributors into a map: https://www.monitant.de/map/. 

For more information we invite you to explore the MonitAnt website. 

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