# What do social insects do when their 'Queen' is gone?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-social-insects-do-when-their-queen-is-gone/223721
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [January 9, 2004, 9:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-social-insects-do-when-their-queen-is-gone/223721 "2004-01-09T21:29:17Z")
**Posts on this page:** 11
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Poetgrrl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Poetgrrl)
#### Post date: [January 9, 2004, 9:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-social-insects-do-when-their-queen-is-gone/223721/1 "2004-01-09T21:29:17Z")
Do they resort to anarchy? Blindly continue their labors in her absense? Whither away and die?
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### Author:  [@Carnac\_the\_Magnificent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Carnac_the_Magnificent)
#### Post date: [January 9, 2004, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-social-insects-do-when-their-queen-is-gone/223721/2 "2004-01-09T21:59:00Z")
They mourn for a few days, then resign themselves to a male successor with jug ears, a sad-sack face, and a penchant for mannish older women. 😃
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### Author:  [@wevets](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wevets)
#### Post date: [January 9, 2004, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-social-insects-do-when-their-queen-is-gone/223721/3 "2004-01-09T22:14:36Z")
Some ants, for example, can be absorbed by neighboring colonies and continue their dronish ways there. I’m fairly sure others aimlessly try to continue their lives and survive, probably without a huge amount of success. I’m not sure about all the possibilities since I can’t look it up right now… you might want to try an animal behavior textbook.
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### Author:  [@TartPops](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TartPops)
#### Post date: [January 9, 2004, 10:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-social-insects-do-when-their-queen-is-gone/223721/4 "2004-01-09T22:15:26Z")
In the instance of bees, the situation rarely arises, as there are several bees in incubation that are feed the queens food to ensure that they will become Queen bees. this usually happens when a hive reaches a certain size and it may split into two, with some bees staying put and others following the new Queen to build a nest somewhere else.
The problem is that when the new queens emerge they begin fighting to the death, so your sitiuation could conceivably come up. I think that the hive as a whole would survive for a while as the vast majority of bees have no contact with the queen, but there would be no more baby bees being produced, which bodes ill for the future of the hive.
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### Author:  [@Q.E.D](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.E.D)
#### Post date: [January 9, 2004, 10:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-social-insects-do-when-their-queen-is-gone/223721/5 "2004-01-09T22:15:33Z")
A few species are able to raise a new queen to replace her. For most other species, the colony is doomed.
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### Author:  [@Vezer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Vezer)
#### Post date: [January 9, 2004, 11:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-social-insects-do-when-their-queen-is-gone/223721/6 "2004-01-09T23:29:42Z")
In high school we had a bee colony in our biology class. When the European queen died they had to rush in a new queen and hope the colony took too her. I think the bees killed the first queen they brought in. If a new queen hadn’t of been found they would of left, and I don’t doubt the neighboring Africanized hive would of taken over.
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### Author:  [@kniz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kniz)
#### Post date: [January 9, 2004, 11:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-social-insects-do-when-their-queen-is-gone/223721/7 "2004-01-09T23:51:18Z")
I have read that in cases where the queen dies that worker bees have the ability to develop into Queens. The only backup to this that I could find with a google search is [**this**](http://www.free-essays.us/dbase/d2/skx224.shtml)
> [@](#):
>
> \*\* The queen secretes a substance called queen factor which keeps all of the other female bees from becoming sexually mature.\*\*
So if the queen is dead, she will no longer secrete the queen factor and a worker could then develop sexually and become queen.
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### Author:  [@kniz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kniz)
#### Post date: [January 10, 2004, 12:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-social-insects-do-when-their-queen-is-gone/223721/8 "2004-01-10T00:06:00Z")
It has been found that a species of [**Fire Ants**](http://www.utexas.edu/research/bfl/research/gilbert/prospects.html) has evolved that shares multiple queens.
> [@](#):
>
> **As the study proceeded at BFL, we noted that all S. invicta colonies in the IFA amoeba were of the multiple-queen or polygyne variety. This form of the fire ant first appeared in the 1970s and is now the predominant form in much of Texas. The more typical single-queen or monogyne form does not reach the extreme colony densities seen in Texas polygyne populations because monogyne colonies defend intraspecific territories, attacking and killing workers from other colonies. Conversely, the lack of territorial defense in polygynes allows them to build to vast numbers with densities of over 1000 colonies per acre not uncommon in parts of Texas.**
:eek:
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### Author:  [@Josh\_dePlume](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Josh_dePlume)
#### Post date: [January 10, 2004, 1:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-social-insects-do-when-their-queen-is-gone/223721/9 "2004-01-10T01:03:44Z")
There is tremendous variety with respect to colony life history among social insects. In some, colonies typically have multiple queens. In some, if the sole queen dies the workers can induce existing brood to develop into queens. In some the colony will just die out. In some the workers are capable of laying unfertilized eggs, which develop into males (in all hymenoptera, the group that includes ants, bees, and wasps, males develop from unfertilized eggs and are haploid). A colony with no queen would specialize in male production until it died. In some species the colony will, strangely enough, accept a new queen from the outside.
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### Author:  [@SCSimmons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SCSimmons)
#### Post date: [January 10, 2004, 1:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-social-insects-do-when-their-queen-is-gone/223721/10 "2004-01-10T01:17:58Z")
Hell, Kniz, I think there are 1000 colonies in my damn _yard_.
(Murfle-murfle Texas grumble-grumble fire ants …)
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### Author:  [@tlsmall](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tlsmall)
#### Post date: [January 10, 2004, 1:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-social-insects-do-when-their-queen-is-gone/223721/11 "2004-01-10T01:39:29Z")
Don’t they just party? That’s what my brothers and i did when mom left the collective for a day or two.