Ants - Defense And Offense

Ants employ diverse strategies to protect their colony, territory, or food. Ants are aggressive, often raiding other ant colonies, fighting to the death and snapping off limbs, heads, and body parts of enemies with their strong, sharp mandibles. Minor workers grab the enemy by the legs, pinning them down so majors can attack the body. In some species, soldier ants do the fighting, while the minor workers scurry to and from the battleground, dragging corpses of both enemy and kin back to the nest to feed the family. When moving colony sites, workers transport the queen, males, aged or ill workers, pupae, larvae, and eggs.