Odorous house ant (OHA) colonies were collected using two methods during two seasons, spring and summer, over a three year period to find an efficient collection method and to determine colony composition of field-collected colonies. Odorous house ant colonies were collected by shoveling/scooping a 0.3m x 0.5m section of mulch/pine straw or by allowing ants to move between two 0.3m x 0.5m sheets of tin. The number of workers, queens, eggs, larvae <2mm, larvae>2mm, and pupae; worker mass and brood area (cm2) were calculated for eighty colonies. Twenty-nine colonies were collected with the mulch/pine straw collection method in the spring and summer. Also, fifty-one colonies were collected with the tin collection method in the spring and summer. No significant differences were found in either spring or summer between collection methods for six of seven colony variables. The tin collection method was much easier to use than the mulch/pine straw method due to the increased time needed to separate ants and brood from the mulch/pine straw. The composition of a field-collected OHA colony appears to be roughly 150 workers to each queen and 200 workers to every square centimeter of brood.