What happens to social insects who get separated from their colony or whose colony is destroyed?

If an ant climbs onto my shoe and falls off several yards away, what will happen to that ant? I assume it's been moved too far away to find its colony again. Can it survive alone? Could it join another colony?





We had paper wasps nesting in the ground near our house. Yesterday, I found that a raccoon or other animal had dug up the nest and eaten the pupae. But there were a couple adult wasps around. What might happen to them? Will they survive without the colony? (I know they'd probably die with the onset of winter, but can they make it until that point?)

What happens to social insects who get separated from their colony or whose colony is destroyed?
An ant that is removed only a few yards from where


it was found will probably be able to find its way


back to its colony. It will mill around until it finds


an odor trail it recognizes and follow this back to


the ant hill. If a colony is destroyed the result will


vary depending on whether the queen survived


and whether there are enough workers to rebuild.


If the queen is killed the colony will die unless it


can rear a new queen, which is sometimes possible.





The wingless ants you see running around and the


winged wasps are not drones. Drone is a term


used mostly for male bees, which are not sterile.


The workers of ants and bees are non-reproducing


females. At least some of them are capable of


laying eggs but, since these eggs are not fertilized,


they will develop (if they do) into males.
Reply:Ants that you see cannot reproduce and almost certainly cannot join another nest. The thing about ants and wasps is that many/most of the members you see are drones. They are sterile and cannot reproduce. That means they can't move off and start a colony of their own, so they are condemned not only to die, but to leave no offspring.





They will likely die in isolation.



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