It is known that when the queen is old or sick (low pheromonal
signal) or it dies (no pheromonal signal), workers are driven to rear new queens from young
brood within 12–24 hours; the removal of the queen in absence of young brood soon leads
to the decline of the colony: the workers stop performing their activities and start to lay
unfertilized eggs that develop into male adults (drones); the colony becomes disorganized,
unfit, dirty, susceptible to diseases and prey of predators; it rapidly depopulates and goes
toward a certain death.