Our first A6 nest. Every farm we make today started on a workbench like this.
OUR STORY
One queen started it all.
In 1997, Pat caught his first queen ant, a Formica rufibarbis, and built her a home. Every shop-bought farm he tried after that killed queens within weeks: too wet, too dry, no darkness, no air. So he stopped buying and started building.
He cut acrylic with an angle grinder, drilled every hole by hand and glued lids with PVA. He poured molten metal into abandoned wild nests and dug out the casts to see how ants really live. More than 300 prototypes later, every nest we make is designed around one goal: a queen who thrives for decades. That work is also why our ant farms cost more, and we say so openly.
Since then we have kept 101 species, from black garden ants to bullet ants, and raised more than a million ants from single queens. Pat tells the whole story in My Living Ant World.
It took Pat seven years to truly understand the beginner species. Every kit we send carries that knowledge, so your first colony doesn’t have to learn the hard way.
1997 TO TODAY
From one queen to 101 species.
1997
First queen
Pat catches a Formica rufibarbis queen and builds and sells his first ant farms.
2003
Online sales
A one-man workshop starts selling handmade ant farms online.
2007
First ant shop
Pat opens his first online ant shop.
2017
Carbon-neutral
CO2-neutral shipping and fully recyclable packaging.
2018
Best Ants UK
Rebuilt in the UK as Best Ants UK, a family business.
TODAY
Award-winning
Most Eco-Friendly Pet Products, 2024 and 2025.
1997
Keeping ants since
101
Ant species kept
1 million+
Ants raised by us from single queens
50,000+
Customers since 1997
300+
Nest prototypes built and tested
5 stars
On Trustpilot and Google
WHY KEEPERS CHOOSE US
Not a display case. A home.
Built for queens
A dedicated queen chamber, darkness for egg-laying, and airflow and humidity tuned chamber by chamber. Our oldest queen, a Messor barbarus collected in 2007, is still with us today.
Raised by us, guaranteed alive
Every colony is raised from a single queen, checked and fed before dispatch, and sent Royal Mail Tracked 24 on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Live arrival guaranteed.
Real ant keepers, for life
Lifetime human support from people who keep ants every day, plus more than 100 free guides on our blog and ant keeping videos filmed with our own colonies.
RECOGNISED
Award-winning. Trusted by the press.
Most Eco-Friendly Pet Products | Pet and Animal Products Awards, 2024 and 2025
Best Ant Keeping Supplier and Insect Education Excellence | SME News Southern Enterprise Awards 2025
Best Ants UK in the news
Quoted as ant-keeping experts by BBC News, The Guardian, The Times and Dialogue Earth. See all our press coverage.
WHO ARE WE
A business run like a colony.
Best Ants UK is a family business today, but it hasn’t always been. Pat started it and is still the main creator behind our ant farms, but every new nest is a team effort. Each one starts as a pencil sketch on a sheet of paper, then goes through a long chain of drawings, 3D models, test prints and laser cuts before it is ready for a queen. Built into every one of them is Pat’s 30 years of ant-keeping knowledge, and that is what makes our ant farms special. The colonies thrive in them, our customers enjoy them, and if you follow our instructions carefully, very little can go wrong. Over the years, many people have worked with us, building farms, raising queens and packing orders, and every one of them is part of our story. Around us is a wider team too: the makers of our materials and packaging, our marketing and accounts specialists, and Royal Mail, who carry every colony and every ant farm to your door. Like a colony, everyone has a job, and the queen comes first.
Families, schools, universities and STEM programmes across the UK keep ants with us. For many, it is their first close look at a living colony.
Flame Bespoke & Best Ants Ltd is registered in England and Wales, company number 13294458. Best Ants UK® is its registered UK trademark (UK00003999957).
Best Ants UK at a glance
Founder: Pat, keeping ants since 1997
Selling ant farms since: 1997 (online since 2003)
Best Ants UK: Since 2018
Company: Flame Bespoke & Best Ants Ltd, registered in England and Wales, company number 13294458
Based in: Staines-upon-Thames, England
Delivery: Mainland UK, Royal Mail Tracked 24
Species kept: 101 since 1997
Ants raised: More than 1 million
Customers: More than 50,000 since 1997
Contact: info@bestantsuk.com
START RIGHT
Read this before you buy any ant farm.
The bare truth about cheap ant boxes
Gel farms and thin plastic boxes have no humidity control and no proper chambers for a queen. Gel can grow mould within days, so a colony in one rarely survives the month. Our first ant colony guide shows what a queen really needs, from her test tube to her first proper nest.
Free care sheets for every species we sell
Temperature, humidity, how many workers a colony needs before it moves into a nest, feeding and winter care, all on one page and free to download. New keepers start with black garden ants or harvester ants.