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How do ants use pheromones to mark trails to food?

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Animals communicate by sending and receiving signals. For example, a mother dingo (Canis lupus dingo) can communicate certain types of information to her pups by using tactile signals conveyed through grooming. — Animal communication Animals communicate by sending and receiving signals. For example, a mother dingo (*Canis lupus dingo*) can communicate certain types of information to her pups by using tactile signals conveyed through grooming.

Ants use pheromones—chemical signals secreted by the insect—to coordinate complex colony activities, including foraging. When a worker ant discovers a food source, it deposits these scent chemicals along a trail while returning to the nest.12

These marking pheromones are designed for relatively long-term use, allowing other members of the colony to detect the trail and locate the food. The persistence of the trail depends on two factors: the continued availability of the food source and the reinforcement of the pheromone scent by other workers traveling along the path. Unlike alarm pheromones, which must be highly volatile to warn others quickly and then dissipate, trail pheromones are more stable, ensuring the signal remains effective for as long as it is needed.21

It is important to note that not all ants rely on this method; for example, the Sahara desert ant cannot use pheromone trails because the extreme heat causes the chemicals to evaporate too rapidly, forcing them to rely on other navigational strategies like counting steps and using polarized light.3