How an ant colony can be tricked into betraying its queen

By Nell Greenfieldboyce

Published November 22, 2025 at 6:44 AM CST

For some would-be ant queens, the easiest way to take over a colony is to dupe its worker ants into committing regicide.

Nell Greenfieldboyce

Nell Greenfieldboyce is a NPR science correspondent.