Adult ants staying in the nest, including the Queen, get their liquid food from returning Ants through a process known as Trophallaxis, which means they regurgitate a portion of their own stored liquid food and share it.
Worker Ants place a greater value on their Queens (reproductive) than they place on themselves, therefore food is only passed to the Queen after passing through several workers.
If any Worker ant gets sick they will take themselves out of the food chain thus ensuring the Queen is not harmed.
Because of this Ant Control Methods that reduce the number of Ants (kills them) will never be effective at eradicating an Ant colony. A good Ant product will act slow and not make worker Ants sick, this gives the bait a chance to get to reproductive Queens.
In my opinion it takes year's of searching and trying different Baits, Gels and sprays to get a good combination of products that work really well .
- This is one of the many interesting articles that can be found in My Three Monthly Emailed Newsletters well worth a read if you get time .