How an ant colony can be tricked into betraying its queen

By Nell Greenfieldboyce

Published November 22, 2025 at 7:44 AM EST

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

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Nell Greenfieldboyce

Nell Greenfieldboyce is a NPR science correspondent.