When ants find food, they lay down a path with a chemical substance from the food to the nest. This path of chemicals has a smell that allows other ants to travel from the nest and find the food too. Ants use their antennae to follow this path or trail. This is one way ants communicate with each other.

This way, ants can get a whole team together to help carry something heavy.

Ants go out to find food, and if they do, they lay down an invisible chemical called "trail pheromone" on their way back to the nest. This trail leads straight from the nest to the food source. Other worker ants can then follow the trail right to the food. Each worker adds to the trail on the way back, by putting down more chemical. When all the food is gone, the workers no longer lay the trail pheromone and eventually the trail fades away.