Meat ant within a colony is typically favoured as it improves access to forage, as workers deliver most of their food to the nest that is closest to any site they forage in. At any size, a meat ant nest always has a possibility of dying out in any year, but the site may be reoccupied by another colony. Hence, nests can be very old as suggested in one study. Some nests may never be reoccupied for unknown reasons. The regrowth of vegetation which shades the nest, soil damage or even a disease may wipe out a colony and leave the nest
Red harvester ant the nest as a result of an increase in successful returning foragers. Relative abundance of food available is gauged by the average time spent foraging per seed, rather than the distance traveled to find each seed. Foragers take less time when food is more abundant. Faster foraging signals faster rates of outgoing foragers, maximizing the harvest of food relative to the abundance in the area. Seeds are used as a source of water for ants, and are often kept in the nest for a few months to several years. Interspecies competition exists between harvester ant populations, presenting challenges to successful