If an ant gets lost, loses its colony, or if its nestmates all die, can it change colony?
Ants usually can’t change colonies, but it has been seen before within certain species. Ants from these species can join other ant colonies. This will happen if workers are lost, orphaned, or for some other reason alone
Ants in an ant colony will have something referred to as “Passport Pheromone”. This is a specific scent that ants within a colony have, which helps them identify which ants are family and which are invaders.
Since outsiders won’t have the same scent, these outsiders will usually be killed – though sometimes they can get lucky.
Ants would only change colonies under very extreme circumstances. This could be:
-Losing the pheromone trails while foraging, hence getting lost
-The rest of the ant colony dies, leaving a single ant alone
-The queen dies, whereafter the colony starts to die off
But, as said, ants can’t just bounce between colonies. They will have to be accepted into the colony, which is a difficult task.
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