Many species of ants are known to raid neighboring colonies and steal eggs or larvae in a practice known as "dulosis". The forcibly acquired young are then either eaten or put to work.

Species that practice dulosis are called, quite simply, "slave-making ants," and they rely on this practice to support their colonies. In fact, some species of ants are thought to beincapable of feeding themselves in the absence of slave labor — to pillage and enslave is all they know.