system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5: What do lost ants do when moved away from their colony?

Everyday, a lot of ants are moved away from their colony because of human interaction (for example, ants which are on human objects). What do those lost ants do?
gpt
Well ants have a special thing called pheromones, which are basically a unique substance that they can put out to convey messages to others of their colony such as “food” or “danger”. This is why you often see ants moving in long single file lines, because they are following the pheromone trail. As more workers use the trail they reinforce it and it becomes more predominant, but to answer your question, a lot of times if they are displaced they’ll be able to pick up on a pheromone trail after wandering around (workers move pretty far to get food), but if they can’t find a pheromone trail and rejoin the colony they’ll probably die.