History Main / AntWar

-> ''"The foreign policy aim of ants can be summed up as follows: [[AntAssault restless aggression]], [[ZergRush territorial conquest]], and [[GuiltFreeExterminationWar genocidal annihilation of neighboring colonies whenever possible]]. If ants had nuclear weapons, [[MutuallyAssuredDestruction they would probably end the world in a week]]."''

* In the ''Manga/HelenESP'' chapter "Helen and the Dream", [[spoiler: two warring ant colonies turn out to be who Helen has been advising. This results in a bit more... complex war than normal.]]

* One episode of the ''WesternAnimation/{{Jumanji}}'' animated series features a war between giant red ants and black ants started over an artifact called the "Bahoot", which turned out to be [[SillyReasonForWar a big ball of black and red slime that had no apparent purpose]].

-->--'''Bert Holldobler'''

* In Creator/AdrianTchaikovsky's ''Literature/ChildrenOfTime'' the uplifted spiders are threatened by a super-colony of ants infected with a different strain of the uplift virus that assimilates other ant colonies in its path, including those the spiders domesticated. The spiders eventually defeat the ants by developing a pheromonal weapon that disrupts their hive mind and allows them to domesticate the survivors.

* ''Literature/BewareOfChicken'': Vajra the queen bee, upon seeing mosquitoes sucking blood from the humans and spirit beasts on the farm, is enraged, and declares war upon the "black lances," taking their heads as trophies and making portraits to commemorate victories over them.

This trope is TruthInTelevision, making ants one of a handful of species, among such examples as chimpanzees and humans, to engage in organised warfare.

* Done in ''Literature/{{Animorphs}}'' when the Team first morph ants and have to pass through a different colony. This, and the general HiveMind of ants, was so horrifying that they swore to never morph ants again. Their next attempt (termites), was only allowed because they promised the termite they would morph would be from the same colony that was in the mission area. They did social insects only one more time after that (bees), which were from the same hive as the one in the mission area.

-->--'''Bert Holldobler.'''

-> ''"The foreign policy aim of ants can be summed up as follows: [[AntAssault restless aggression, territorial conquest]], and [[GuiltFreeExterminationWar genocidal annihilation of neighboring colonies whenever possible]]. If ants had nuclear weapons, [[MutuallyAssuredDestruction they would probably end the world in a week]]."''

* In ''WesternAnimation/{{Antz}}'', the BigBad, an ant general, sends a troop of soldiers loyal to the current queen into a battle against a colony of much larger and stronger termites that [[SuicideMission they cannot win]].