Why does an ant colony die off when you kill the queen?

Ant colonies may have thousands of swarming little insects, but one of them matters the most. She is the queen. When the colony loses its queen, whether through old age, rebellion, human interaction or tragic natural circumstances, the colony is pretty much doomed. read more

In most monogynous ants (ants which only have one queen per colony), the entire colony will slowly die out. But it will take a while. In some species, it will trigger a laying worker phenomenon, where worker ants will start producing eggs. read more

When the queen ant dies, no more ants will be born, so the colony will die off. Role of the Queen The queen ant has but one function in the colony: to reproduce. read more