Ants secrete substances called pheromones, which are chemical messages detected by other ants through sense organs

or the antennae. This process, called chemoreception, is the primary communication vehicle that facilitates mate attraction, kin, and non-kin recognition. It is also used to discriminate between egg, larva, and pupa, as warning signals, recruitment to defensive action or a new food source, the laying of odor trails from which workers or scouts find their way home or lead an entire colony to a new location, and delineation of territorial boundaries. Chemoreception is supported by tactile (touch and feel), acoustic (hearing and vibration detection), and visual communication. Ants send tactile signals by touching and stroking each others' bodies with their antennae and forelegs. Ants produce high-pitched chirps known as stridulations by rubbing together specialized body parts on the abdomen called files and scrapers. Stridulations are sometimes heard, but most often felt, the vibrations being detected by sensitive receptors on the legs. The young queen stridulates frantically during mating season to announce a full sperm sac, deterring other would-be mates and allowing her to escape to begin nesting. Drumming and body-rapping are used primarily by tree-dwelling ants and carpenter ants, and involve banging the head or antenna on a hard surface, sending vibrational warning signals to nest mates. Some largeeyed species, such as Gigantiops, can see form and movement but vision in most ants is virtually nonexistent and the least important of all their communication senses.

Read more: Ants - Communication - Called, Signals, Tactile, and Kin - JRank Articles http://science.jrank.org/pages/450/AntsCommunication.html#ixzz1lEfJG8eW

Social Insects
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Some insects, such as ants, bees, and termites, live in organized communities and are considered social insects. Ants are one of the most highly developed of the social insects. They live in colonies where their members are divided into a clearly defined caste system, which includes queens, workers and males. Each ant has its own purpose and duties within the colony. There are over 10,000 kinds of ants, with unique characteristics, such as the slave makers who raid the nests of other ants for their young, or dairying ants which capture certain insects and keep them to be milked of liquids. Ants will go to war and raid other ant colonies, even within their own type. Being a social insect, they must communicate with others within their colony, to send warnings of danger or signal the location of a food supply.

Sound
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Ants that make their nests in leaves or plants will tap their gasters (the tail segment of the ant) against the outside wall of the nest to signal for danger or let their colony mates know they've discovered a food supply. This tapping will send vibrations through the nest. Some ants will make a squeaking or buzzing sound by rubbing segments of their bodies together. This sends signals to warn of danger or requests assistance in transporting food.

Scent
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Ants also communicate by scent. They have glands located on the different segments of their body. From those glands they can release a chemical called a pheromone. The type of message they wish to convey--danger versus food--will determine which gland they will use to release the pheromone. They can also use pheromones to leave a trail, which will lead others in the colony to a newly discovered food supply.

Greeting
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An ant colony may have just a few dozen members, or it can number in the millions. Since ants will raid even their own kind, it is important that members of a nest can identify others in their immediate community. When two ant come face to face, odor can be a factor in communicating their identity. Using their antennae, the ants will smell each other. After it is determined they are nest mates, they sometimes engage in a strange greeting ritual which involves the ants standing mouth to mouth. One ant then regurgitates a drop of liquid into the other ant's mouth.