I Want to Know MoreColony Structure and BehaviorAnts are among the most social creatures on Earth. Individuals within a colony are divided into groups with specific duties that benefit the colony as a whole.Ant colony populations can range into the millions for some species. Their nests can be located almost anywhere – in hidden and protected areas indoors, in soil near foundations, under concrete slabs, in crawl spaces, in structural wood, in the yard or garden, in trees, or in almost any protected location on a property. Three types of individuals, or castes, live within the colony: 
Queens typically are the largest ants in the colony. After selecting a nest site, a queen will begin laying eggs and caring for her brood. The first workers that develop assume brood care, leaving the queen to simply lay eggs. Ant colonies can have single or multiple queens. The number of queens in multiple queen colonies varies by species, ranging from a few queens to nearly half the population in a colony. Depending on the species, queens may live from months to years.
Males serve one purpose: to mate with the queen. Males typically die soon after mating, and are normally alive solely during the colony's reproductive stage.Workers are sterile, wingless females that form the backbone of the colony. They perform the tasks necessary for the survival and growth of the colony, such as foraging for food, caring for brood, excavating or enlarging the nest. Depending on the species, workers in a colony can be of all the same size (monomorphic), two sizes (dimorphic) or more than two sizes (polymorphic). Workers divide labor, so some leave the nest to forage while most remain in the nest to tend to other tasks. Homeowners usually see the foraging workers.
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