What Is a Group of Ants Called? Army vs. Colony vs. Swarm

These social insects are highly collaborative. Bigzumi / Shutterstock

You wake up to find a bunch of ants moving like a tiny, six-legged army across your kitchen counter? You pick up the phone to call an exterminator, and while on hold you ask yourself, what is a group of ants called?

The most common term is an "ant colony," but depending on the context, you might also hear "swarm" or even "army." Each of these collective nouns refers to different behaviors or life stages.

For instance, a swarm of flying ants often shows up during mating season, while an ant colony includes all ants living in the same nest and working together to support their queen and brood.

What Makes Up an Ant Colony?

An ant colony is a bustling, self-sustaining society. Colonies can range from a few hundred to many millions of ants, all living in a central nest or a series of connected tunnels in the soil, under rocks, or even inside your house walls.

Inside this complex social structure, worker ants are responsible for foraging, defending the nest, caring for eggs, and expanding the ant hill. These workers are all females, and they operate like a well-oiled machine guided by pheromones.

You'll also find soldiers (larger ants specialized for colony defense) and, of course, the queen, whose main job is reproduction.

Ant colonies also comprise various life stages:

Eggs: Laid by the queen
Larvae: Worm-like babies fed by workers
Pupae: Developing ants in cocoons
Adults: Including workers, soldiers, queens, and males

This brood forms the foundation of the colony's future, and many worker ants are tasked solely with their care.

In virtually all cases, especially with common house and garden ants, the colony remains the core unit. In Australia and other warm regions, some ant colonies stretch across massive distances, all considered one supercolony with multiple nests but a single cooperative network.

What About Flying Ants?

During certain times of the year, usually in warm, humid weather, colonies release flying ants in a dramatic display. These are the reproductive males and younger queens leaving the nest to mate and establish new colonies.

This behavior is called a nuptial flight. Once mated, the males die, and the fertilized queens search for a place to dig into the dirt or wood and start their own nests.

If conditions are just right, this leads to more ants, more nests, and potentially more pest problems in your home or garden.

What Drives a Colony?

The entire colony operates using chemical signals called pheromones.

These invisible cues help workers find food, recognize other members of the same colony, and alert the group to danger. Even aggression toward enemies or other ants from rival colonies is triggered by these signals.

Incredibly, all these tasks happen without a central leader barking orders.

Though ants are often compared to bees and termites because of their cooperation, they stand out in their diversity. With over 12,000 known species, ants have adapted to trees, soil, rocks, and (of course) inside our houses.

We created this article in conjunction with AI technology, then made sure it was fact-checked and edited by a HowStuffWorks editor.