Why ants follow each other?

It turns out that when ants find food, they secrete an invisible chemical called "trail pheromone" as they return to the next. This trail leads directly from the nest to the food source. 

Other worker ants then follow the trail right to the food. Each worker then reinforces the trail on the way back.

Ants, and many other animals, use trail pheromones to mark their trail as a guide for others in their gang. Other ants, catching the signal of trail pheromone, follow the way it goes and reach their gang leader. Trail pheromones are volatile compounds, so it is not very likely that you would see ants following the exactly same path tomorrow or a week later. All ants release trail pheromones, so as long as ants are going through that path, the trail signal will keep getting stronger and will also tell lost ants "Hey, bro! We are going this way. Don't you want to join us?" See, for example, here³:

In the beginning, different ants follow different paths, but as soon as an ant finds the shortest path, all ants join it on that path, due to which pheromones on other paths evaporates and finally, they all walk in straight line.

Of course, trail pheromones are very useful for organisms who have lost their way home, but you know, other organisms, like their predators, are not just sitting and watching them. Some predators can also catch pheromones and find out where the whole team is going, to attack them all at once. Such chemicals are known as kairomones.

A kairomone is a semiochemical, emitted by an organism, which mediates interspecific interactions in a way that benefits an individual of another species which receives it, and harms the emitter.

Please like  and share the Blog www.curiousknowledges.blogspot.com