Just a darn good read ... https://www.aeonmagazine.com/nature-and-cosmos/what-can-ants-teach-us-about-agriculture/
Here is a new ant invading the USA: https://www.utexas.edu/news/2013/05...ts-are-displacing-fire-ants-researchers-find/
very interesting... i used to keep ant farms as a kid, and have always enjoyed learning more about them. such a diverse and dominant species on our planet and most people's reaction to them is to kill them on sight. amazing to find an ant species that is more capable of displacement than fire ants. wow. am i glad to not live in the south or warmer climates. one thing to prevent ant infestation of trees is to ring their bark with a sticky substance and to make sure there are no surrounding plants to contact the cocoa trees. a lot of work, but fairly harmless in terms of toxins or damage. at the place here, we exclude them (seal the house well to keep them out, seal the surrounding perimeter ground out several feet from the house to keep ants from starting new colonies) and also try to make sure that if any scouts do find their way in the house that they don't find much to report back to headquarters... (similar to roach control measures, keep it clean, keep it dry and remove favorable habitat if possible -- but with ants there are so many species that can be very difficult). learning as much about the behavior can go a long ways towards minimizing infiltration.