The answer is not clear

The answer is unclear. Everything changed when the slave Nation, Polyergus, attacked what used to be a thriving colony. Now a captured country, slaves do the work serving their new Masters until they die, only to be replaced by new victims harvested in brutal raids. But let’s go back to the beginning: the World War of the Ants is claiming millions of lives every day, but in the brutal world of ants, straight up war is not the only way. Around 50 ant species practice slavery, the most extreme division of labor. We don’t know how this began, but some ant species have perfected this cruel trade.

Polyergus are the most intense of the slaver and tribes. They are generally four to ten millimeters long with round to blackish bodies and sickle-shaped mandibles. They have specialized in slavery so much that they have lost their ability to care for themselves. They don’t clean, build nests, care for their brood, or feed themselves; they only exist for raiding. Slaves make up 80 to 90 percent of the ants in their colonies, so a few hundred Polyergus and a single queen control thousands of slave ants.

Now let’s witness the cruel banality of nature: The Raid. It all begins on a mild Summer Morning on a sunny field, with a colony of over ten thousand Formica ants. They are a widespread genus, some species are good Fighters, some great Builders, and some cattle Farmers, often welcomed by humans because they hunt Vermin that hurt forests. Nobody noticed the lone Polyager Scout that briefly showed up this morning before she bolted away again.

The Attack begins in the early afternoon; the Scout returned from her mission to find the Formica nests. She dances erratically and spreads pheromones that excite and mass recruit more and more ants until a large raiding party of a thousand Warriors has formed a close-packed, well-organized column up to 10 meters long. As the Polyacus raiding party arrives at the Formica Colony, the attack begins almost immediately. Dozens of attackers begin digging and clearing up debris from The Nest entrance to make it easier to storm. As soon as they’re done, hundreds of the attackers rush inside.

The Defenders vastly outnumber their attackers and are formidable Warriors able to shoot acid, but instead of fighting back effectively, they seem confused and scatter. Polyergus also seems to be somewhat resistant to the acid sprays of the Defenders and so, even if a defense is forming, the attackers use their mandibles to pierce and kill.

There are a few different ideas as to why Polyergus attacks are so efficient and one of the most fascinating ones is chemical warfare. Instead of relying on Brute Force, they release a propaganda pheromone that makes the Defenders Panic. Unable to mount an organized defense, the attackers have nothing to gain from intense ant-to-end combat other than immense casualties. What’s more, they actually want their victims to survive so that they can be rated again in a few weeks.

As the raid unfolds, the attackers breach deep into the colony looking for their most valuable possession: the Coronis babies. They grab the pupae and larvae that will make up the next generation of Formica and carry them out of the nest. Hundreds are abducted and brought back to the Polyergus colony in this rate alone, while most of them, a few unlucky ones are eaten as a sort of snack. The surviving victims will be turned into slaves.

After about an hour, The Raid is over and the Formica can begin to recover. It seems their only strategy is to make even more ants; a decent sized Colony can forfeit thousands of pupae in a single raiding season and still survive. Although in this case, while the raid was going on, something even more Sinister happened.

Hold that thought though, because how are Polyergus turning ants into slaves? How to brainwash?