Many types of workers are needed to do the chores of the colony. Some ants travel into the forest, where they cut leaves and carry them back to the colony. Others tend large gardens inside the underground chambers. Others help raise the young or take out the trash.

Each worker has just the right size and tools to do its job. The biggest and baddest are the soldier ants. They have huge mandibles and weigh up to 300 times more than gardener ants. The tiny gardener ants care for the fungus that grows on the cut and chewed-up leaves. The colony then eats this fungus for food.