Collecting ants

[Pete]

I'm raising toadlets and have been feeding them fruitflies, ants and aphids. My preference is becoming wild caught ants. The toads seem to enjoy them the most and they seem to grow faster to me, too. I was wondering if and what sort of methods people use to collect wild caught ants.

I started with a paint brush, an envelope, and an ant trail up the side of our cottage.

Then I switched to a method similar to this video. YouTube - ‪Baby Toadlets eating ants‬‏
Except that I use a small clay pot base in a larger clay pot base to make a water moat to keep the ants on the island. This was working, but the ant nest that I had been raiding has since moved out, and I haven't found another.

Now I've started baiting some jars with fruit pieces to collect ants, and throwing the ant covered fruit on my clay pot island. So far it's working, but not nearly as well as I thought it would.

So has anyone come up with any other creative methods for collecting ants, although I'm sure how well a method works may depend on ant species.

[Whistly]

I used to feed my frogs ants but now they're too big. The trick I used was to lift up a big slab of concrete and there was an ants nest so I watched it until I saw where they were coming out. Once this is located I would get a piece of hay and a jar. Start poking the entrance with the hay a few times then leave it in the hole sticking out. This would aggrivate the ants so they would come pouring out climbing on the hay. Lift up the hay put it over the jar and brush them into the jar. When you continue you have to constantly slam the jar on the floor so they don't climb up the sides or you can put the lid on the jar.
Hope this helps.